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John
Rockhold
VP, Market Engagement
Spotlight
As VP of Market Engagement at Spotlight, John draws on a background that includes journalism, analyst relations, and years of close collaboration with industry analysts. His work focuses on how influence, visibility, and trust are earned in the modern B2B buyer journey. He helps B2B brands understand how experts, customers, vendors, partners, and employees all shape visibility and credibility. Spotlight refers to this coordinated approach to earning and sustaining trust across analysts, customers, and AI systems as Influence Orchestration.
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20 August 2026 09:45 - 10:15
Left off the shortlist: How AI is rewriting the buyer journey, and how analysts can help you fix it
AI search engines have become the first stop for B2B buyers, and over a third of analysts say vendors are excluded from consideration because they're invisible to AI. This session unpacks new Spotlight proprietary data sourced from industry analysts on how generative AI is reshaping buyer shortlists, why analyst and customer voices are becoming the raw material AI cites back to buyers, and where the gap between vendor claims and customer reality is costing companies visibility. We'll walk through what's driving these shifts and the concrete moves AR and PMM teams can make to stay in the conversation with analysts and with the algorithms feeding buyers' shortlists. In this session, we'll discuss: - The gap between what vendors claim and what customers actually say. We'll show you where those gaps are most prevalent. - Why analysts aren't worried about being replaced by AI. - Steps to orchestrate your analysts, customers, and LLMs so that they compound to tell the same story.