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B2B Online Chicago 2026: Four Sessions That Should Move Your Q3 Roadmap SUBSTACK
JOURNAL

B2B Online Chicago 2026: Four Sessions That Should Move Your Q3 Roadmap

Average time for a Schneider Electric employee to get a satisfactory output from their AI tools: 117 minutes. Average prompts to get there: 43. That number didn’t come from a pessimist. It came from t…

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I ran a live GEO audit. Here’s what B2B distributors should actually look at. SUBSTACK
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I ran a live GEO audit. Here’s what B2B distributors should actually look at.

Every existing tool I tested was either a $400/month enterprise SEO platform with GEO features bolted on, or a free generic checker that scored your schema and called it a day. Useful work in both cas…

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GEO Is Not SEO With a New Name. SUBSTACK
JOURNAL

GEO Is Not SEO With a New Name.

Most B2B distributors I talk to are making three expensive mistakes with Generative Engine Optimization right now. And the agencies pitching them “GEO audits” are making it worse. When I started advis…

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Your B2B Catalog Is Invisible to AI. Here’s the Fix. SUBSTACK
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Your B2B Catalog Is Invisible to AI. Here’s the Fix.

Not because your products are worse. Because your platform can’t talk to AI agents. This week two things happened on the same day that every B2B distributor needs to understand. And almost nobody is c…

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Death of the Order Taker SUBSTACK
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Death of the Order Taker

I just got back from Chicago. Two days at Master B2B MindShare, hosting two roundtables on aligning sales teams with eCommerce. The room was split almost perfectly in half. Companies that had cracked …

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Silicon Valley Finally Noticed Industrial Distribution. Now What? SUBSTACK
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Silicon Valley Finally Noticed Industrial Distribution. Now What?

A16z just put $1.1B behind an AI startup built for industrial distributors. That sentence alone would have been unthinkable two years ago. Industrial distribution was the last sector anyone in Silicon…

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I Gave an AI Agent My SSH Keys and Let It Code on a Live Site. SUBSTACK
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I Gave an AI Agent My SSH Keys and Let It Code on a Live Site.

I didn’t expect the future of eCommerce operations to come from open-source. But here we are. Meet OpenClaw OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent that runs 24/7 on your computer. You message it on Whats…

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The B2B Market Has a $2 Trillion Secret SUBSTACK
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The B2B Market Has a $2 Trillion Secret

$15 trillion in US B2B sales. Sounds massive. But here’s what the headlines don’t tell you. The Real Breakdown 75% of digital B2B is EDI. Computer-to-computer. Automated POs between systems set up yea…

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No, Your eCommerce Isn't Cannibalizing Phone Sales SUBSTACK
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No, Your eCommerce Isn't Cannibalizing Phone Sales

The most common objection I hear from CFOs about B2B eCommerce investment: “You’re just moving orders from the phone to the website. That’s not growth. That’s a channel shift.” I used to struggle to a…

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B2B Buyers Will Switch Suppliers for a Better Digital Experience. SUBSTACK
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B2B Buyers Will Switch Suppliers for a Better Digital Experience.

80% of B2B sales interactions now happen digitally. Not “expected to”—happening right now. And 73% of buyers straight-up prefer buying online over traditional methods. But here’s the stat that should …

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Your AI Strategy Is Failing. Here’s the Fix No One Talks About. SUBSTACK
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Your AI Strategy Is Failing. Here’s the Fix No One Talks About.

Here’s what I keep seeing when I walk into B2B distributors: the AI conversation starts with excitement and ends with the same problem. “Wait, why do we have three different descriptions for the same …

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AI Doesn't Verify. It Retrieves. SUBSTACK
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AI Doesn't Verify. It Retrieves.

Ahrefs invented a fake luxury paperweight company called Xarumei last month. They built the website in an hour. AI-generated product photos. Absurd prices—$8,251 for a paperweight. A brand name that r…

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1P vs 3P on Amazon: What B2B Teams Miss SUBSTACK
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1P vs 3P on Amazon: What B2B Teams Miss

With Amazon Business pushing toward tens of billions in B2B GMV, manufacturers and distributors now face a harder question: not if they should be on Amazon, but how . At B2B Online in Atlanta, we took…

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2026's Biggest AI Challenge Isn't What You Think SUBSTACK
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2026's Biggest AI Challenge Isn't What You Think

MIT dropped a stat last year that got everyone talking: 95% of generative AI pilots are failing. While everyone debated the number, a new survey of 200+ data and AI leaders uncovered something more us…

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