ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
That the two exist in concert at the top of commercial professionals’ mental lists shows a curious interplay between the traditional and the cutting-edge.
Age-old operational challenges persist
When asked about their biggest challenge, respondents told a familiar story – albeit with a modern spin. Marketing teams have long struggled to adopt new technology, confidently demonstrate their value to the enterprise, and maintain tight alignment with the sales organisation.
This matches closely with Altitude’ s findings. Twenty-five percent of respondents cited AI implementation as their most pressing issue, following by proving ROI and keeping sales and marketing on the same page.
Perhaps surprisingly, given the current economic headwinds facing the speciality chemicals sector, neither staffing / bandwidth nor budget are much of an issue. Only 7 % of respondents cited each as their biggest current challenge. This is perhaps explained by 2027 predictions on budget and staffing, detailed below. Lead quality also ranked low on the‘ challenges’ list. An explanation here could be increased use of AI engines in vendor searches; a wellprompted ChatGPT or Perplexity can often perform admirably in finding good-fit options.
Slight increases in budgets, team size predicted
Respondents’ predictions about resourcing in 2027 were generally rosy. Ninety percent expect some level of marketing budget increase, with 25 % of the total expecting it to“ increase greatly.” None of the 152 expects to see any decrease. Similarly, 87 % of respondents said their marketing department sizes will increase significantly or slightly next year. Just like budget, none pointed to an impending decrease of any volume.
As previously noted, there is a degree of surprise to these responses. They counter the typical narrative that AI is making marketing jobs irrelevant, or at least speeding processes to the point where team sizes can be slashed.
Altitude’ s respondents pointed to the opposite. While AI is important, it either is not replacing headcounts( or is bringing with it challenges that require staffing to overcome). Likewise, a predicted increase in marketing budgets can be partially explained by the increasing cost of AI tokens and compute.
Buyers demanding proof, detail
The reported behaviour of buyers shows increasing complexity, both in marketing and sales functions. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said that buyers in 2026 have demanded more proof and documented ROI cases than in the past.
Between 38 % and 44 % of surveyed chemical industry commercial professionals also indicated that they are experiencing longer sales cycles, increased interest in sustainability and compliance, increased price sensitivity, larger buying committees and buyers relying on digital research rather than early outreach to sales.
Respondents’ predictions for 2027 buyer behaviour tracked closely with their experiences in 2027, with two key outliers. First, a greater number expect to see even greater reliance on digital research. Second, less than one-third expects price sensitivity to be an increased factor.
The latter point is surprising, given the aforementioned economic conditions and global uncertainty. However, it is possible that pricing is already‘ baked into the cake,’ as tariffs and other potentially negative economic factors occurred in 2025.
Agencies are strategic resources
Similar to internal staffing, respondents expect to use slightly more outsourced marketing resources in 2027: 68 % plan to increase the tactic‘ somewhat’. The expectation is that agencies will serve as strategic partners, with specific domain expertise and a superior capability to reach niche audiences.
Relatively few respondents plan to outsource work to agencies to save costs, speed turnaround times or simply increase bandwidth. In particular, respondents plan to outsource work around AI search, traditional web search, account-based marketing and the development of videos, content and websites.
Conclusion: Stability amid rapid change
While AI is clearly the headline, commercial professionals in the speciality chemical industry seem to see the technology as something to be watched and adapted to, not an existential crisis. They are still selling using traditional methods, though with more focus on thorough content and clear, defensible ROI cases.
Perhaps most important, they see the future as relatively bright. With increased team sizes and increased budgets, they are readying themselves for whatever comes next. ●
References: 1: Boston Consulting Group( BCG), The AI-First Chemical Company Advantage, 2026. https:// www. bcg. com / publications / 2026 / the-aifirst-chemical-company-advantage 2: Ernst & Young( EY), Transforming Chemicals R & D with AI. https:// www. ey. com / en _ us / insights / oil-gas / transforming-chemicals-r-andd-with-ai 3: Altitude Marketing, Chemical Marketing Trends Report. https:// altitudemarketing. com / chemical-marketing-trends-report /
J j
Adam Smartschan
CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER
ALTITUDE MARKETING adams @ altitudemarketing. com www. altitudemarketing. com
NOV / DEC 2026 SPECCHEMONLINE. COM
63