Budgeting 2.0
It’s that time of year again, budgeting season. When spreadsheets multiply, partners jostle for position, and marketing and BD teams attempt to stretch their budgets further than a family of five at Center Parcs.
We went back and re-read the budgeting edition we wrote in January 2025. And while a lot of it still rings true, one thing has changed beyond recognition: the speed, scale and seriousness of AI adoption. What felt “emerging” last year is now “ignore this at your peril”.
So, this is Budgeting Season 2.0, updated for a market where AI isn’t just a shiny add-on. It’s becoming an operational pillar for high-performing marketing and BD teams. Enjoy.
#1. Lead with tech. Don’t catch up, leapfrog.
Let’s be honest: for your 2026–27 budget, AI should no longer be in the “innovation” section of a slide deck. It should be a committed budget line.
The real questions now are:
- Which tasks should humans stop doing altogether?
- Which processes can be automated as standard?
- Which AI investments will help us leapfrog slower competitors?
AI is already reshaping content production, research, events, campaigns, credential harvesting, sales enablement and the entire mountain of BD admin nobody talks about.
Our prediction
You should be allocating 10–15% of your 26/27 marketing & BD budget to AI and automation.
Not for experiments. But to build new capabilities that scale your team and sharpen your Go To Market (GTM) engine.
The firms who embrace this will move faster, deliver more, and look terrifyingly well organised compared to the ones still updating spreadsheets manually at 11pm.
#2. The 70/30 rule
This one stands the test of time.
If you’ve allocated 100% of your budget before the new year begins, you’ve robbed yourself of agility. Markets move quickly. Clients change priorities. Regulations appear. Crises erupt. Partners return from conferences with dangerous levels of enthusiasm.
Aim to allocate 70% to planned initiatives and keep 30% deliberately unallocated.
And in 2026, that unallocated 30% becomes even more critical.
You genuinely do not know which AI advancements are coming around the corner.
New capabilities arrive almost monthly, and they will create opportunities you can’t yet predict.
So keep the flexibility. You’ll thank yourself later.
#3. Data, not ego. Break the inertia loop
If your budgeting discussions contain any of these classics:
- “We’ve always done it this way.”
- “X partner likes it.”
- “Let’s give that event one more year…”
…then congratulations: you’re firmly in the inertia trap.
It’s time to put data in the driving seat. Review last year’s activity:
- What actually generated ROI?
- Which events, campaigns and initiatives converted?
- Which didn’t?
- What can you defend in front of a CFO without breaking into a light sweat?
And with AI now automating more of the measurement work for you, there’s no excuse not to use evidence.
Make 2026 the year you cut the vanity projects and focus on the strategies that genuinely drive revenue. Your budget (and your cortisol levels) will thank you.
Leave the ego-stroking to the internal awards evening. You’re budgeting to win, not to placate.
#3. Budgeting checklist for 26/27
As you tackle your new spreadsheet, remember:
- Lead with tech: Commit 10–15% to AI, automation and capability uplift.
- Leave wiggle room: 70% planned, 30% agile.
- Trust the data: Not preferences, habits or nostalgia disguised as “tradition”.
Now off you go. Those spreadsheets won’t fill themselves.
We’re building a team of voice enabled AI assistants to support you with BD activities and allow you to spend more time being human. Interested? We’d love to chat.
