Can a 9-Year-Old Stat Give a Critical AI Insight in 2025?

In 2016, Netflix made a bold claim: its AI powered recommendation system was saving the company over $1 billion per year.

It’s impressive, but we live in a fast-paced business world where technology and companies can evolve so quickly. So surely this is old news because in 9 years the majority of companies must have followed Netflix’s lead and figured it out too. Right?

Unfortunately, no. In fact, a 2024 study by Forrester found:

• 86% of B2B purchases stall before completion.

This shows the majority of prospects are dissatisfied. But why?

Let’s jump back to 2016. Most people think Netflix’s recommendation system is about helping users find something to watch. On the surface, that’s true. But when you dig deeper, you see that they solved a critical root issue and that is decision friction. Decision making is hard whether it’s “what’s for dinner?” or “what new CRM should I purchase?” Buyers are tired and don’t want more cognitive drain.

What Netflix realized was the moment a user stops scrolling and thinks, I don’t know what to watch, they’re at risk of leaving the platform. Every second of hesitation is an opportunity to close the app, switch to another service, or do something else entirely.

In B2B marketing, you want extended and repeat prospect engagement, so ask yourself: are you reducing or increasing buyer friction and fatigue?

I love AI. I use it every day in my personal and work life. And while it’s a powerful tool, it is actually making decision friction so much worse. Your ability to mindlessly create content at scale seems impressive, but without the right perspective and quality control the chance to engage a prospect decreases rapidly.

For example: Did you make a big purchase in the last year? If so, how much time did you spend researching only to find yourself drowning in AI-generated blogs, comparison charts, and competitors all making the same claims? More content doesn’t mean better decisions. It just means more noise, more tabs open, and more reasons for buyers to walk away frustrated.

Now there’s a lot of confidence in revenue leaders, which you absolutely want, but confidence tends to lead to blind spots. So, for the good of your revenue, take 5 minutes and seriously ponder these three critical questions:

1. Where in your sales process are buyers hesitating, and how much revenue is slipping away because of that delay?

2. Are your sales interactions guiding prospects forward—like Netflix’s AI—or forcing them to navigate a maze of decision points on their own?

3. If a prospect walked away today, would they say it was because of price, competition, or something deeper—like friction they didn’t have the time or patience to overcome?

The billion-dollar lesson from 2016 still applies in 2025. The only question is: will you use it?