AI continues to reshape the B2B tech landscape, creating a buzz and capturing your prospective customers’ attention. However, marketing AI effectively is challenging.
How should B2B tech product and services firms market their AI solutions to these customers?
For IT services and SaaS firms, the key to success lies in understanding how buyers perceive AI, what solutions and use cases they prioritize, and where they are investing. TSL Tech Research 2025 SMB IT Security Insights Survey and other ongoing research offers a data-driven roadmap for B2B tech companies looking to create impactful marketing strategies for their AI solutions.
To successfully market AI solutions, B2B tech companies need to understand the needs of their target audience. Solution providers must know where prospects are on their AI journey and what plans they have for using AI in the future.
First, understand that SMBs are piloting and thinking about piloting AI solutions. However, the market is still at an early stage. For example, when we asked more than 450 IT leaders at companies with 50 to 5,000 employees where their organization was in the adoption of AI agents, the results were as follows:
Marketing Tip:
Marketing AI solutions to this audience should focus on how you can help them build plans, implement pilots, and measure business results.
When we surveyed 1,285 leaders at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), our research found that data security, integration, and management concerns are all key obstacles to AI adoption for SMBs. When we asked respondents to identify their challenges in developing and implementing AI applications, 44% identified concerns around data security and privacy.
TSL’s research shows that 60% of SMBs plan to invest in cybersecurity over the next year, presenting an opportunity to market AI solutions for cybersecurity. Their top security concerns were:
Marketing Tip:
Frame your AI solution as a proactive security mechanism. Highlight how it detects threats, automates responses, and reduces human errors, especially in high-risk environments. Use webinars and case studies to show a path forward for these areas of AI.
With 56% of SMBs operating in hybrid environments, security investments are shifting toward:
Marketing Tip:
Emphasize how your AI tools support secure remote work through intelligent access controls, adaptive authentication, and real-time monitoring.
SMBs rank the following services as essential:
B2B tech companies that offer security solutions should note that our ongoing research found that almost 40% of SMBs were either using or considering AI-powered cybersecurity solutions.
Marketing Tip:
Position your AI offerings as part of a broader security strategy. Use AI to automate audits, simulate training scenarios, power rapid incident response, and set policies to meet compliance. IT solution providers should promote network operation center (NOC) and security operation center (SOC) solutions that are enhanced using AI capabilities for automating and evaluating alerts.
AI adoption is accelerating in highly regulated industries:
Finance:
Healthcare
Marketing Tip:
Marketing AI solutions that fulfill industry-specific or line of business use cases help SMBs see opportunities for adopting AI. For example, an AI agent that is designed to automate HR functions at banks would attract customers in the financial services sector. Create vertical-specific campaigns that speak to compliance, data protection, and operational efficiency. Highlight how your AI meets industry standards and accelerates transformation.
While 46% of SMBs are exploring AI, only 28% have implemented it and many lack a clear roadmap.
Marketing Tip:
Offer consultative services to help clients build their AI strategy. Use case studies, ROI calculators, and pilot programs to demonstrate value and reduce hesitation.
SMBs trust providers that are aligned with top platforms. The companies we surveyed rely on the following IT solution providers:
Marketing Tip:
Promote your certifications and partnerships with leading OEMs. Position your AI solutions as seamlessly integrated with trusted infrastructure and cybersecurity ecosystems.
Understanding which AI solutions companies are already using or planning to use is key to targeting your marketing efforts. When we asked IT leaders at SMBs what AI-powered solutions they were using or considering, the results were as follows:
While AI for data analytics and business intelligence, chatbots, and generative AI came out on top, more than 25% of SMBs are using or considering AI-enhanced software development tools. This result shouldn’t be surprising considering software development is the bread-and-butter of many companies.
Marketing Tip:
The results give AI solution providers a picture of the market that they can use to create targeted campaigns. IT solution providers should promote AI solutions for gathering and analyzing business data, as well as agentic AI solutions, and GenAI platforms.
B2B tech companies should also take advantage of the market for AI-enhanced software development by promoting tools that use AI to automate DevOps processes throughout the software development lifecycle to accelerate time to market and boost application quality.
Marketing AI isn’t just about showcasing cutting-edge technology. It’s about solving real problems, building trust, and guiding buyers through their journey. For example, break your AI solutions or customer problems into bite-sized pieces during the sales cycle.
By leveraging TSL’s research and aligning your messaging with buyer priorities, IT services and SaaS firms can position their AI solutions for long-term success.
The key to getting customers to say “yes” is building trust. At TSL Marketing, we care about trust signals. With AI solutions, case studies serve as valuable trust signals because they illustrate successful use cases.
TSL Tech Research is a division of TSL Marketing that conducts ongoing research into technology trends such as the adoption of AI solutions to help IT solution providers respond to changes in the market. As the research arm of TSL Marketing, we give B2B tech companies insights into how to target their messaging to anticipate customer demand.
By partnering with a growth agency like TSL, IT firms can develop the right marketing mix to reach and engage companies that want to adopt AI.
Want to gain more insights into how to market your tech solutions? Reach out to TSL Tech Research to run one of our surveys or ask us to design a custom survey for your B2B tech firm.