We're all a bit overwhelmed.
Too many channels. Too many claims about what AI will or won't do to your market. Not enough people or hours to cover it all. If that's how this year has felt, you're not imagining it and you're certainly not alone.
At Fifth Ring's Business as UNusual panel on 16 October, I opened with a question: "If you looked yourself up today for the work that you do, would you make the shortlist? And if you didn't, would you even know?"
Our panel brought together Ts. Syed Saggaf bin Syed Ahmad, Regional Director for Asia Pacific at EIC; Surachet Tanwongsval, EVP for Asia Pacific at Bureau Veritas; Johnbosco "JB" Ng, Head of Growth & Mid Market Asia, Marketing Solutions at LinkedIn;, and Jennifer Maclennan, Managing Director of Fifth Ring. Together, they discussed what is still within our control. Marketing hasn't just gotten noisier. It's picked up a new gatekeeper: one that can filter you out before a human gets to weigh in. Failing that filter is how you go unseen by the people who actually sign off.
First, the backdrop. EIC tracks around 17,000 energy projects worldwide, worth some US$17 trillion. En Syed shared that oil and gas still converts most often from announcement to final investment decision, followed by nuclear. Among EIC members, based on the yearly Survive and Thrive Report, the share naming energy transition as a growth strategy fell from 30% in 2021 to 13% last year. The priority is now energy security, with the transition needing a narrative that sits alongside it rather than replacing it.
Second, the field you're competing in is wider than it used to be. With Beijing's renewable subsidy pulled back, Chinese EPCs and equipment suppliers are bidding into the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and North America. And, they're competing on speed and price, sometimes through subsidiaries buyers have never heard of. Despite their relative anonymity, buyers are trying them anyway, on seven-, eight-, and nine-figure work.
Third, demonstrating how you address a customer's priorities is increasingly important. Surachet emphasised that sustained relevance comes from delivering meaningful customer value. The principle is as old as business itself. What's changed is that cheaper, unfamiliar competitors are now bidding for the same work, and failing to prove real value is the fastest way to get booted off a shortlist.
And the good news is that you don't have to be. You were never meant to personally reach all 22 people who typically sit in a B2B buying group: 13 inside the buyer's organisation, 9 outside it, across several functions. Most of them you'll never meet. That's normal and it isn't a sign that your marketing is failing.
The ones most often missed are the ones who can veto: finance, legal and compliance, and the operations team that will live with your solution for 20 years. Outside the buyer, EPCs, consultants and government bodies are asked for advice more than you'd think.
Indecision within the buying group is the real challenge: more deals stall on disagreement among the 22 than on doubt about you.
So the job comes down to picking where you compete and being unmistakably 'buyable' there.
Trying to win on everything is how a budget ends up spread too thin to move anyone. But that doesn't mean we zoom in on one persona and ignore the rest. On the panel, JB admitted that ideally, we would have custom content for every function and persona. But no one actually has the resources for that.
What's realistic is choosing a defensible point of differentiation and translating it for each function. Understand each function's actual pain point. Procurement cares about something different than the engineer does. Map your differentiators against what competitors are claiming, pick the one that's real, and show each function how that same strength solves their particular problem. And most importantly, talk benefits and not features. No one cares what features you have. People need the 'so what' i.e., what problem are you solving?
Finally, consistency beats constancy. Small, monthly batches of the right material do more for AI visibility than one big push a year.
AI is increasingly supporting early-stage reviews of supplier credentials and tender submissions before closer human assessment. Surachet noted that its role in procurement evaluation is becoming more explicit.
Discovery is shifting too. JB cited research from SparkToro and SimilarWeb that 70% of Google searches now end without a single click to an external website, meaning the decision is largely shaped before anyone reaches your website. Jennifer also shared that PR demand dropped once LinkedIn scaled as a channel, then rose sharply again in the last 9 to 12 months. Put together, they point the same way. Buyers, and the AI doing research on their behalf, are forming their views earlier and from sources you don't control - which is exactly why third-party validation (e.g., in the form of PR) matters again.
The practical move is to keep adapting what you publish, and where, to wherever the machine and the human reading what it surfaces actually go looking, rather than chasing one algorithm on any single platform. Today, credibility only counts if it's findable, not just parked in one channel you're particularly proud of. Our ebook on AI discovery goes into the how.
AI may decide who gets through the door, but it doesn't make the final call. On accountability, Surachet emphasised that AI supports, rather than replaces, human judgement. Responsibility for the final decision remains with people, making their trust and confidence essential.
There's also a pricing trap. As AI adoption grows, customers may ask how efficiency gains are reflected in pricing. Surachet emphasised keeping the discussion focused on the value delivered and the customer problem being addressed. In complex infrastructure projects, for example, helping address workforce constraints is part of that value, rather than solely a basis for lower fees. And as Syed warned, if buyers keep awarding on lowest price, it makes no difference whether a human or a machine does the evaluating.
The panel concluded with a shortlist attendees can action. These apply regardless of what you sell:
Sharpen your value. Get specific about the customer problem you solve, and articulate it clearly. You're not coming up with a new tagline. You're explaining, as simply as possible, what customer problem you solve.
Build a drumbeat for the people who actually decide, not just the 1-3 contacts you talk to. You must speak to the wider buying group and track whether your efforts are moving anything.
Look yourself up. Search yourself the way a buyer or their AI agent might. Find the gaps - do you show up? If yes, are you differentiated enough to survive that search, or does it just confirm you look like everyone else?
I opened with a question: would you make the shortlist, and would you even know? Our ebook, Winning in the Age of AI Discovery, is a practical guide to the technical, on-site and off-site work that makes your expertise findable, plus a way to measure whether it’s landing. Stop guessing. Go and find out.