According to GartnerⓇ, “digital twins are rapidly reshaping how product marketers test messaging before being activated in content and campaigns.”

Certainty is the ultimate currency in B2B product marketing. For too long, testing vital go-to-market messages has been slow, expensive, and often compromised by small, biased panels.

That era is ending. A major industry shift is underway. The Gartner report, Future of Product Marketing: Synthetic Customers Transform Message Testing, states, “Slow, resource-intensive message testing cycles and reliance on internal, biased reviews expose organizations to fast-moving competitors. To stay ahead, product marketing leaders must begin piloting AI-driven customer simulations now to enable rapid, unbiased message testing and agile GTM execution.”

3 reasons we believe synthetic customers are the new standard

According to Gartner research, “AI-driven customer simulations, powered by GenAI, synthetic data, and digital twins, are rapidly reshaping how product marketers test messaging before being activated in content and campaigns. Product marketing leaders who embrace these technologies will reduce dependency on slow, costly traditional methods that require recruiting ‘real’ B2B audiences and position their organizations for competitive advantage.”

1. Speed as a competitive edge

The constraints of traditional recruiting are over. According to the report, “Synthetic customer research leverages AI-driven simulations of target personas, enabling organizations to conduct rapid and on-demand research without the constraints of traditional methods.” We believe this innovation breaks the research bottleneck, turning testing from a protracted, point-in-time activity into a continuous, agile cycle that keeps pace with fast-moving competitors.

2. Mitigating human and sample bias

Traditional methods are prone to internal biases or limited sample pools. According to the report, “Vendors are increasingly using synthetic data to augment small or niche samples for more robust analysis and to mitigate internal and sample bias.” This focus on deeper, more objective insights ensures that your messaging is validated by data that truly reflects the target B2B market, not just the easiest-to-find participants.

3. The adoption timeline is urgent

This is not a long-term projection; it’s an immediate strategic imperative. According to the report, “By 2028, 60% of product marketing teams will leverage synthetic customer personas to test messaging before being activated in marketing content and campaigns, up from 5% in 2025.” “To stay ahead, product marketing leaders must begin piloting AI-driven customer simulations now to enable rapid, unbiased message testing and agile GTM execution.”

Validating the digital twin approach for B2B

The market for these advanced solutions is still emerging, particularly for the complex requirements of niche B2B audiences. 

In our view, this approach focuses on using continuous quantitative and qualitative data to create virtual, highly specific B2B buyer personas, ensuring the resulting insights maintain the highest standard of quality.

This development is key to achieving confidence in high-stakes GTM decisions. It demonstrates that the future of research will be casually excellent—sophisticated in technology, yet clear and practical in its application.

Beyond the simulation: The necessity of human oversight

While the potential of AI-driven simulation is immense, the Gartner report states, “Synthetic customers cannot fully replace real human insights and should be treated as a complementary methodology to traditional research methods.”

We believe the key challenge for B2B leaders is ensuring the simulation’s output is trustworthy. This requires rigorous human expertise in two areas:

1. Data sourcing and verification

The foundation of a reliable synthetic customer is clean, verified, and deep Voice of the Customer (VoC) data. Without this gold standard, the simulation will only amplify bad insights.

2. Strategic interpretation

AI excels at pattern recognition, but only human researchers possess the strategic thinking required to distinguish between correlation and causation, interpret emotional intelligence, and prioritize insights for genuine business impact. This expertise is what turns data into confident business action.

Applying the tech: Your message testing checklist

The adoption of synthetic customers enables product marketers to test a broader range of messaging components with greater speed than ever before. To take full advantage of this shift, leaders should focus their simulation efforts on areas that traditionally require slow, repeated testing:

• Value proposition clarity: Quickly validate if the core value proposition resonates with different segments of your target buyer personas.
• Competitive positioning: Test customer reaction to specific competitive claims or sales narratives before activating them in the GTM strategy.
• Objection pre-testing: Use synthetic customers to proactively identify and refine messaging to address potential objections, enabling sales and product teams to prepare stronger responses.
• Pricing sensitivity: Explore how different pricing models and messaging around cost are received without risking premature market signals.

The future of research requires embracing velocity while demanding certainty. Synthetic customers are now essential for maintaining a competitive edge. As your research partner, the key to success is ensuring this advanced methodology is grounded in gold-standard B2B data quality.

If you are comfortable leading the way and ready to align your GTM strategy with these new insights, we’re all in on helping you start that strategic conversation.

Attribution and Disclaimer

Gartner, Future of Product Marketing: Synthetic Customers Transform Message Testing, Rahim Kaba, Alan Antin, 22 September 2025. Gartner subscribers can access the full report here: https://www.gartner.com/document-reader/document/6980766.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product, or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.