Sprint scenario

A B2B manufacturer is preparing to pilot account-based marketing with a first group of potential key accounts. Several ideas for a new content concept are already on the table, but there is little agreement on what could work across a buying group spanning technical specialists, operational leaders, procurement and senior decision-makers.

Involving the right mix of customers this early has always been difficult. This raises a new possibility: could AI help represent those different market perspectives before taking a concept to actual customers?

With the new fiscal year approaching, the initiative now needs a budget. Before committing resources, the business wants to turn its fragmented ideas into tangible alternatives, test their potential and identify a direction worth piloting.

Meet Pixie

Pixie is one of the fictional archetypes in the AI Business Council, representing a UX and digital strategy leader shaping complex customer journeys. Her challenge provides the starting point for this AIBC Lab sprint.

The challenge

How can we build relevance across a complex B2B buying group?

Find the opportunity

What could make the content worth engaging with?

We start with the selected accounts, existing customer knowledge and the ideas already circulating across sales and marketing. AI-powered market intelligence expands the picture around changing buyer expectations, industry priorities, competitor activity and the increasingly complex B2B decision journey.

Using a buying-center framework, we look beyond the idea of a single customer. A technical specialist may be looking for evidence and expertise. Procurement may focus on risk and commercial value. A senior decision-maker may need a broader business case.

Several opportunities begin to emerge. The concept could establish the company as a source of specialist knowledge, help buying teams navigate a shared business challenge, or create a more personalized experience around the priorities of individual accounts.

Rather than debating those possibilities internally, we narrow them into three distinct content concepts to take into simulation.

Those become the directions to bring to life.

Bring the opportunity to life

Which concept earns attention across the buying group?

The three directions are developed into comparable concept prototypes. Each gets the same basic treatment — a proposition, communication platform, example content and an initial view of how the experience could work across channels.



Synthetic decision-maker archetypes representing different roles within the buying group are used to explore the concepts. What catches the attention of a technical specialist? What gives procurement something worth engaging with? What makes the idea relevant to a senior business leader?.

Some concepts work well for one audience but lose relevance with another. Others create broad interest but lack the specificity needed to feel genuinely account-based.

One direction begins to hold together: specific enough to feel relevant to an individual account, but broad enough to give different members of the buying group a reason to engage.

The concept now looks and feels like something the business can pilot.

Prepare the next move

Is the concept strong enough to earn a place in the new budget?

We bring the strongest concept back together with the commercial opportunity. The question is no longer whether account-based marketing is worth exploring, but whether this particular content direction creates enough relevance and flexibility to justify a pilot.

The strongest signals from the simulations, remaining uncertainties and channel opportunities are brought into the decision. We look at which accounts could provide the strongest test, which decision-maker perspectives should be included, what content needs to be created and where the concept should first appear.

The business can move ahead with a focused pilot, validate selected elements with actual customers, or refine the direction before committing significant resources to production and activation.

The sprint ends with a pilot direction, ready to be tested with the actual market.

Potential sprint outcome

Content Concepts
Alternative directions with a proposition, communication platform and example expressions, made tangible enough to evaluate.

A Refined Pilot
Shaped through synthetic decision-maker simulations and showing how the idea could engage different members of the buying group across selected channels.

New Title

Decision Case
Defining the initial accounts, content and activation priorities, key assumptions to validate and what is required to move forward.

More sprint challenges