Jeff Pedowitz felt it from California. Dr. Debbie Qaqish sensed it from Pensacola. There was, as Debbie put it, "a disturbance in the marketing force" emanating from INBOUND 25 in San Francisco last week.
What they discovered in their post-conference debrief isn't just about HubSpot's 200+ feature releases. It's about a fundamental crisis facing every marketing organization: marketers are using only 10% of their martech capabilities while vendors race ahead with innovations that widen the gap every day.
Jeff dropped a truth bomb that should terrify every marketer who's spent the last two decades perfecting their web presence:
"Hate to break it to everybody. You just spent 20 years building these great, beautiful websites. People don't give a shit anymore. They're not coming to your website."
The shift is already here. People aren't navigating through Google search results anymore. They're going straight to ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity for answers. When they do use traditional search, AI-generated summaries at the top mean they never click through to your carefully crafted landing pages.
This isn't coming. It's happening now.
HubSpot recognized this seismic shift and came out swinging with tools and strategies for AEO (AI Engine Optimization). They've even launched an AEO grader that shows how often your company appears in responses from major LLMs.
Think about the implications: The marketing industry spends billions annually on both paid and organic search. Now, that entire playbook needs rewriting for a world of "clickless search" where AI provides answers directly without sending users to websites.
The good news? As Jeff noted, "The things that we have to do as marketers we already know how to do." The tactics aren't radically different—it's the mindset and application that need updating.
HubSpot unveiled their vision of true one-to-one personalization at scale. Marketing Hub is becoming Marketing Studio. Data Hub is transforming into Data Studio. The platform can now orchestrate millions of completely personalized touchpoints across channels.
But here's the elephant in the room that Jeff and Debbie courageously addressed: the gap between platform capability and actual usage is becoming a chasm.
"HubSpot almost did too good of a job," Jeff observed. "They're rolling out all this stuff faster than a marketer can say, 'Okay, wait, how do I use it? What problem am I trying to solve here?'"
Even within companies that have invested in multiple HubSpot hubs, most are still doing basic batch-and-blast email. They're not touching orchestrated sequences, multi-touch marketing, or AI-powered optimization.
Why? It's not about the technology being too complex. HubSpot remains remarkably user-friendly despite its expanding capabilities. The issue is more fundamental:
For agencies and consultancies, this gap represents both massive opportunity and existential threat. As Jeff warned: "You're only as good as what you're doing today, because the stuff that you come out today gets commoditized tomorrow."
AI democratizes knowledge, making previously specialized skills accessible to everyone. The agencies that will thrive are those that can:
The solution isn't to ignore innovation or resist change. It's to be intentional about adoption. As Debbie wisely noted: "You just have to kind of slow down, identify the most important problems to solve, and then be very smart about the technology that you use to help you do that."
Jeff's advice for eating this elephant? "One bite at a time. The way that you break it down is you break it down... just kind of like a crawl, walk, run."
Before chasing new features, understand what percentage of your current stack you're actually using. If it's around 10% like most organizations, focus there first.
The shift from SEO to AEO isn't optional. Start understanding how your brand appears in AI-generated responses and adjust your content strategy accordingly.
The days of "figure it out as you go" are over. Dedicate specific time for your team to explore and implement new capabilities. The investment will pay dividends.
INBOUND 25 wasn't just another conference with shiny new features. It was a watershed moment revealing both the incredible possibilities ahead and the harsh reality of where most organizations stand today.
The companies that will win aren't those with the most features or the biggest tech stack. They'll be the ones who close the gap between what's possible and what they're actually doing.
As Jeff and Debbie are fond of saying: "You can't make it about the tech."
Make it about the problems you're solving. The rest will follow.
Want more unfiltered insights about the state of modern marketing? Join Jeff Pedowitz and Dr. Debbie Qaqish every week for Revenue Marketing Raw, where they discuss what's really happening in the trenches of B2B marketing.