Thanks Brian!
One of the great things about hosting a podcast about B2B marketing is that I get to connect with friends from the business and marketing world that I’ve know for many years – people I respect and that have had a significant impact on moving the industry forward.
A great example of someone who has done just that is this week’s guest on Beyond B2B Marketing, Brian Solis, Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow.
I met Brian nearly 20 years ago when he had his own digital PR/marketing agency and was one of the most prominent champions of social media before anyone else.
Fast forward to today and we find Brian as a 9-time best selling author, international keynote speaker, digital futurist and deep thinker on all things AI and transformation. He travels the world educating and inspiring business and technology leaders on business and digital innovation and transformation strategies. The credentials list on Brian could be a blog post on it’s own.
For those of us working in a marketing leadership function, we know transformation is front and center for B2B brands and that’s why I was happy to connect with Brian for a conversation about the Mindshift of B2B Marketing and the role of trust, AI and human connection.
In this episode of Beyond B2B, Brian and I talk about how AI is reshaping leadership, creativity, and trust in B2B marketing. We talk about the core ideas from his book Mindshift on why transformation starts with how we think, not what we do and the growing need for leaders to balance automation with imagination. Brian also shares how to make thought leadership more human and credible, why empathy is the foundation of trust, and how the most successful companies will be those that design for a human-led, AI-powered future.
Key Questions Answered in This Episode:
- What does the Innovation Office at ServiceNow do, and what’s its mission?
- Why does Brian say transformation starts with mindset, not technology?
- How can B2B leaders use AI as a “forcing function” for innovation instead of just automation?
- What’s the difference between iteration and innovation, and why does it matter?
- How will AI and intelligent agents reshape the future of work?
- How can marketers retain human creativity in an AI-powered world?
- What makes great thought leadership content trustworthy?
- Why is empathy more powerful than expertise in building credibility?
- How should companies think about AI discoverability for thought leadership content?
- What does a “human-led, AI-powered” future really look like for B2B brands?
Watch the full conversation between Brian and I here:
Listen to the full conversation with Brian here:
If you’d prefer a text summary of our discussion, here you go:
Brian Solis has always been ahead of the curve, and this conversation proves it once again. From his early days pioneering digital and social marketing to his current role as Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, Brian’s work has been driven by curiosity, empathy, and a desire to make technology more human. In this episode of the Beyond B2B Marketing podcast, he shares how the ServiceNow Innovation Office helps organizations move from reacting to disruption to designing their future by exploring AI, automation, and emerging tech through the lens of business value. He explains that the mission is about using technology to unlock imagination and new models of value creation.
“Mindshift is about transforming how you think before you transform what you do.”
That idea at the center of our conversation is around Brian’s latest book, Mindshift, which challenges business and marketing leaders to focus on internal transformation before chasing external innovation. Brian explains that most organizations rush to implement technology but skip the mindset work, which means questioning assumptions, unlearning habits, and creating space for imagination. For B2B marketers, he says, this shift means moving from optimization to reinvention and from reporting on performance to reimagining what’s possible. The distinction is important because the most disruptive change often starts with asking better questions before buying better tools.
“AI isn’t taking jobs-it’s taking tasks. What disappears are the parts of our work that are mechanical.”
From there, the discussion moves to the future of work and the evolving relationship between humans and AI agents. Brian frames AI as a partner in progress rather than a replacement, urging leaders to see it as an amplifier of creativity and empathy. The most successful companies, he says, will design for human-led, AI-powered experiences where automation handles the mundane, freeing people to focus on imagination, storytelling, and trust-building. Innovation, in his view, is not about scaling efficiency but scaling humanity – something many B2B organizations overlook as they chase productivity metrics.
“Thought leadership isn’t just data or expertise; it’s emotion with integrity attached to vision and direction. It’s showing people there’s a human on the other side who actually gives a damn.”
One of the most valuable parts of the conversation with Brian was his distinction between subject matter expertise and true thought leadership. He reinforces that in the current business environment, credibility comes from empathy and usefulness. It comes from understanding what audiences are struggling with and helping them navigate uncertainty. He says that thought leadership succeeds when content is intentionally crafted to provide clarity, perspective, and possibility vs. than self-promotion. With our feeds, streams and inboxes increasingly filled with AI-generated sameness, it is human insight, voice, and care that become the real differentiators.
I appreciate Brian’s thoughts on the power of differentiation that thought leadership brings for B2B brands and I also appreciate his contribution to our new research report, Answer Engine: The State of B2B Thought Leadership in 2026.
Brian Solis is a must-follow on LinkedIn and his website, BrianSolis.com. You can also find more information on his best-selling book,
Mindshift: Transform Leadership, Drive Innovation, and Reshape the Future.
If you’d like to access our latest research on B2B Thought Leadership which features insights from Brian, there’s an ungated version of the report here.
You can find Beyond B2B Marketing wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts (links below). Of course you won’t want to miss the next conversation with a B2B marketing pro, so be sure to subscribe. And remember, there’s no better time than now to break free of boring B2B!
