Mark Schaefer: AI Decides Before Buyers Do

There’s a quiet revolution happening in how your customers make buying decisions. And if you're a B2B industrial marketer, you might be missing it.

In his compelling new book, How AI Changes Your Customers, my favorite marketing strategist Mark Schaefer drops a truth bomb that should shake every industrial marketer to their core …

Your customers are outsourcing their decisions to AI.

It’s not a trend. It’s not a tool. It’s a new mindset.

Your ideal buyers …  engineers, plant managers, procurement teams …  are already using AI search tools, recommendation engines, and chat interfaces to narrow down vendors before they even land on your homepage  or see a sales person.

If your content isn’t feeding these machines … you're already invisible.

AI as the New Gatekeeper in Industrial Markets

Schaefer’s argument hits hard: AI is now the first touchpoint between you and your potential customer. The algorithms running engineering databases, chatbot interfaces, and generative search platforms are increasingly filtering who gets through and who gets ignored.

If you’re not optimized for machine readability and human empathy, you're losing before the conversation starts.

Let’s be real. Industrial buyers don’t always want a sales call. They want answers. Fast. Accurate. Personalized. And AI can often deliver that better than your website ... many times better than a human … unless you’ve built your digital house the right way.

Feed the Bots, Feed the Humans

Schaefer lays out a dual approach that The Repp Group has been evangelizing for years:

• Feed the bots: Create structured, scannable, detailed content that AI systems can digest. Think spec sheets, schema markup, keyword and topic-rich product pages, and FAQs tailored for search intent.
• Feed the humans: Deliver stories, emotional relevance, and expert insights that establish trust. AI can fake empathy ... humans live it.

This dual strategy isn’t a balancing act … it’s a marketing requirement. Optimizing for one without the other creates a brittle strategy that fails when the customer moves from algorithm to actual engagement.

Empathy, Curiosity, and Real Connection Are Your Superpowers

AI can synthesize facts. It can write copy. 

But it can't care. 

That’s the strategic gap Schaefer points out  … and it’s where the best B2B industrial marketers will win.

Empathy means showing you understand your buyer’s pain points … the ones behind the specs.

Creativity means offering better questions, not just better answers.

Curiosity means staying two steps ahead of commoditized thinking.

In a sales cycle that could last 6–18 months, these traits aren’t fluff. They’re the tiebreaker when the buyer is choosing between two technically identical solutions.

Your Buyers Still Buy With Their Gut

Even in engineering-driven buying processes, human emotion still plays a role. What makes a buyer override the AI recommendation? Personal trust. Word of mouth. A great brand story that sticks.

Want to win the deal? Tell a better story about your industrial brand.

• A behind-the-scenes look at how you helped a customer hit a production target
• A video of your lead engineer breaking down a complex solution in plain English
• A post from your founder showing how your values align with your buyer’s mission

These are the moments where real B2B loyalty is born.

The Content REPPliKator: Bringing Humanized AI Marketing to Life

This is exactly why we built The Repp Group’s Content REPPliKator  … a proprietary process designed to take Schaefer’s insights from theory to industrial marketing execution.

We help you:

• Structure content that speaks fluently to both AI systems and technical buyers
• Extract real stories and expertise from your engineers, sales team, and customers
• Build messaging that’s empathetic, curious, and unmistakably human

The REPPliKator is not another content tool ... it’s a competitive advantage for industrial brands who want to be found by machines and trusted by humans.

Schaefer Was Right … Now What?

Mark Schaefer’s book isn’t a warning … it’s a playbook. And if you’re in the industrial space, now is the time to act.

Machines may drive the first impression ... but it’s the human connection that earns the contract.

Want to be in that conversation?

We’ll get you there.

Want to know more, go to What We Do or Contact Me in the menu above. Or give me a call at 269-375-0349