Everyone's Talking About AI. Here's How To Stand Out

Forbes

05-05-2025

Ellie Victor, Cofounder and CEO of ZOOM Marketing, one of Silicon Valley's premier positioning agencies with hundreds of successful clients.
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Walk into any boardroom, earnings call or tech conference in 2025, and you'll hear it: AI is the headline, the strategy, the product, the pitch. It's become the default modifier for everything from sales forecasting to security protocols. But when everyone's talking about AI, the question becomes: How do you say something that actually gets heard?
Over the past few years, more than 80% of our agency's work has focused on this very challenge: helping B2B tech brands position themselves in an AI-saturated landscape. We've had over 200 conversations with tech leaders, interviewed nearly a thousand enterprise buyers and tested over a thousand AI-related messages firsthand with the market.
What we've learned is this: Most AI messaging sounds the same. But it doesn't have to.
Let's start with the context. According to Stanford's latest AI Index 2025, business adoption of AI surged from 55% in 2023 to 78% in 2024. In the U.S. alone, private investment in AI reached $109 billion—a staggering 12 times more than China, the next closest nation, and 24 times more than the U.K. The race is on.
And yet, the field is crowded. 'AI-powered,' 'AI-first' and 'AI-native' now wash over buyers—indistinguishable in a sea of sameness unless backed by something concrete, compelling and credible. Here are four hard-earned lessons—drawn from real client work—for brands that want to break through the noise.
Buyers aren't wowed by AI for AI's sake anymore. In fact, many are tired of hearing about it. Nowadays, AI is assumed. The best-performing messages start with the value AI unlocks—not with the AI itself.
A customer service software client found that the phrase 'resolve 30% of support cases before they hit Tier 2' outperformed the more generic 'AI-powered support intelligence' by miles. It worked because it clearly framed a tangible business impact: fewer escalations, faster resolutions and a result teams could immediately grasp.
Another platform initially led with 'AI for cloud cost optimization'—and it landed flat. But when they shifted to 'reduce AWS bills by up to 60%, no engineer input required,' engagement jumped. Why? Because the message zeroed in on a concrete outcome and eliminated perceived effort. The AI wasn't the headline. It was the engine behind the value.
The pattern is clear: AI works best as a means to an end.
Best Practice: Frame AI as the fastest path to a known priority. If the message doesn't hold up without the word 'AI' in it, it's probably not about the right thing.
Buyers don't buy hype. They buy promises they can evaluate—and ideally, test for themselves.
In message testing, lines like 'AI-powered automation' consistently underperformed compared to specific, measurable claims. But '95% auto-resolution of integration errors' stuck because it gave IT leaders a number to challenge and a result to remember.
A front-line workforce training platform found similar traction with: 'Create content 90% faster' and 'onboard new workers 77% faster.' It worked because the value was both operational and time-bound, something leaders could easily quantify against today's hiring and retention pressures.
Best Practice: Give your audience a claim they can 'kick the tires' on. Specificity makes your message memorable—and credible.
AI may promise speed and scale, but it also triggers concerns—about data privacy, security and control. The most effective messaging doesn't just talk performance; it makes safety and oversight feel like a given.
That's why messages like 'run AI agents behind your firewall' resonated with security teams. Or 'automated but always auditable' clicked with risk-averse enterprise buyers. Another powerful phrase? 'Zero data movement—AI comes to the governed data.'
These aren't afterthoughts. They're core to why a buyer says yes.
Best Practice: Show exactly how your AI stays safe, contained and human-approved. Words like 'control,' 'compliance' and 'transparency' should be part of your default vocabulary.
The smartest AI positioning isn't about the intelligence of the system. It's about the intelligence the user gains. Buyers don't want to hear how advanced your tech is. They want to know how much smarter, faster or more successful they'll be with it.
One platform saw results with the phrase 'answers from your best agents—even when they're offline.' Another won attention with 'AI that flags and fixes the anomalies your rules miss.' A third simplified everything with 'acts on your behalf—but only when you say go.'
The common thread? These lines make the user the star of the story.
Best Practice: Cast the customer as the hero. AI is the boost. Focus on the transformation, not the algorithm.
The AI landscape is moving fast, and the stakes are high. 'AI' is no longer a single idea: It could mean generative AI, agentic AI, cognitive AI or the early building blocks of fully autonomous enterprise workflows.
The companies breaking through are being deliberate. They're testing messages with real audiences. They're watching what sticks and adjusting fast.
And in some cases, they're already preparing for what's beyond AI—anticipating the next wave before the current one crests.
The AI gold rush is real. But the winners? They're not shouting louder. They're being sharper. And most importantly, they're not guessing. They're testing.
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