1. What’s your Thought Leadership worth? IBM research shows $107 Million Potential

IBM’s Institute for Business Value has long been one of the loudest drum bangers when it comes to proving the ROI of thought leadership. Here, the CMI talks to two of IBM’s Institute for Business Value leaders.

 

2. Blogging Statistics 2026: What 1,042 content marketers told us about what works [New research]

Do blogs deliver results for you? If you think it’s a harder game these days, you’re not alone. The CMO over at Orbit Media Studios breaks down the key factors affecting marketing content performance.

 

3. Leif Kendall Q&A

Deep dive by Collective Content (that’s us!), in this case sitting down with the head of one of the largest freelancer networks, to get some unique takes on AI and more.

 

4. How AI should enrich Thought Leadership

Another big interview of our own, this time EY Global Content Strategist and Editorial Lead Liz Bolshaw, who in this clip dives into the GTLI’s Promise and Peril study.

 

5. The robot buyer isn’t here yet. So why is B2B sprinting to It?

Robert Rose, writing for the CMI, with one of his trademark take downs of sellers not giving buyers what they need. And yes, it’s also AI-related.

 

6. AI recognizes 96% of brands but mentions almost none, new study finds

Great study by Search Engine Journal that looks at the major AI platforms and why they only cite some of the many brands that they recognise.

 

7. 95% of B2B marketers use AI in 2026, but fewer than 4 in 10 say it’s actually working

This MarketScale piece picks up on the CMI annual research and makes the point that AI uptake isn’t the same as AI effectiveness.

 

8. The Content SEO Manager: How a brand-new role took over content marketing [Study]

Semrush has picked up on something we’ve also noticed, namely a new role in our industry that is all about making sure your output is consumed.

 

9. Seems like AI slop button

LinkedIn’s chief product officer says more about the whole ‘reporting AI slop’ era of the platform, following a spell of ‘Rewrite with AI?’ cheeriness.

 

10. YouTube changes how it counts views, handing marketers two numbers instead of one

Our head of all things video and audio flagged this change. Everyone publishing to YouTube should be aware of these changes. Bonus: you can listen to a version of this story.

 

11. Substack’s new tool tells you who’s been writing their newsletters with AI

Lastly, who’s been pumping out newsletters using AI? Are they any good? Do you care? (This writer does.) This TechCrunch piece is about a Substack partnership with Pangram.

 

Why 11 links? Because 11AM/11PM are traditional pub opening/closing times.