The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is filling the gap of the increasing need of B2B content without a corresponding increase in budget, according to a recent report from 10Fold.
The AI-First, Buyer-Ready: the New Era of B2B Content Marketing report, found that 91% of marketers say they’re increasing content output this year, and nearly half (46%) report producing three to five times more than in 2024. Yet 75% received only modest budget increases of one to ten percent as the average annual spend on content sits at $1.2 million.
To meet this increase demand, marketing leaders are turning to a combination of AI-powered tools and trusted agency partners to maintain content quality, consistency, and speed at scale. In 2025, 67% of marketers use AI for creation and design while 59% use it for optimization and targeting.
The Rise of AI
Content has become the backbone of modern marketing, said Susan Thomas, CEO of 10Fold Communications who commissioned Sapio Research to gather opinions from 400 senior marketing executives across North America and Europe.
“The scale of demand is outpacing the resources teams have at their disposal,” said Thomas in a statement. “Marketers are quickly moving beyond the use of AI for content creation; they have begun to use AI for content planning, optimization for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and for measurement of content efficacy.”
AI Adoption Powers Efficiency
As it has across all industries, AI is a at the center of content operations—67% of global marketers now use AI tools frequently or all the time for content creation. In the U.S., adoption is at 75% of marketers using AI regularly, led by California companies at 78%. Only Germany outpaced California companies in the use of AI, with the highest percentage of companies (25%) reporting to use AI “all the time.”
The fear of AI taking my job was not reflected by respondents, as 83% of marketers did not reduce staff and 37% of this group actually increased headcount. AI and Fintech companies are the leasers when it comes to hiring for content (63%) to keep pace with demands.
But growth is not uniform: 39% of content teams in the App Dev and Dev Ops industry are not likely to expand in 2025. Seventeen percent reported a decrease in staff, which 10Fold officials said underscores AI is more a tool to be used.
Agencies Still In Demand
Even as AI adoption grows, agency support remains a cornerstone of content strategy as 88% percent of marketers said they rely on outside partners for some portion of their content programs, and 86% prefer a hybrid resourcing model that blends internal staff with external expertise.
Among the advantages cited is they provide is their specialization across content creation, distribution, and performance measurement, particularly as marketers straddle the two worlds of SEO and GEO.
Among marketers who work with agencies, nearly half rely on them for content creation, data development and GEO-enabled content (49%), content distribution (48%), and performance tracking and analytics (43%). This blend of in-house ownership and agency execution allows marketers to meet growing demands without sacrificing speed or quality.
AI’s Not Just Writing
Besides the use in content, AI tools are being used for planning (59%) and performance analytics (58%). The authors of the report explained this expanded role reflects a shift in how B2B marketing teams think about AI, as a full-spectrum engine for content intelligence, not just a writing assistant.
To view the full findings of AI-First, Buyer-Ready: the New Era of B2B Content Marketing, click here.