Al-enhanced SaaS marketing: accelerating product-market fit and scaling in the B2B landscape

Abstract

This thesis investigates how adaptive and localised artificial intelligence (AI) marketing tools can enhance Kalmar’s outreach efficiency and customer engagement for its software-as-a-service (SaaS) product, MyKalmar Insight, in the context of fragmented media markets and budgetary constraints. Kalmar, a global leader in cargo handling solutions, has evolved from an equipment manufacturer to a digital services provider. It's MyKalmar Insight platform, which delivers machine performance data analytics through a subscription model, represents a strategic shift towards service-based value creation in industrial markets.

Despite growing its machine subscriptions from approximately 1,000 to 4,500 in four years, Kalmar’s marketing challenges. Include low platform engagement; only around 15% of users actively access Insight, and difficulties in reaching the correct decision makers across regions with different languages, cultures, along with digital maturity levels. Given the company’s annual marketing budget of around €100,000, there is a clear need for efficiency-oriented approaches that maximise return on marketing investment.

The thesis explores how AI-enabled adaptive and localised marketing strategies can overcome these challenges. By combining literature on SaaS marketing, AI-driven personalisation with organisational alignment, it argues that adaptive AI systems, such as predictive lead scoring, dynamic content localisation, and intelligent campaign optimisation, can significantly improve Kalmar’s ability to engage global B2B audiences. In addition, it looks at internal alignment between marketing and the product teams as a means of facilitating AI adoption by ensuring that there is consistency in communication with shared performance metrics.

The findings from the study indicate that AI can enable Kalmar to automate multilingual marketing, prioritise high-value customer segments, and personalise outreach without proportionally increasing costs. The study concludes that phased pilot implementations, starting with adaptive content translation and predictive audience targeting, along with cross-functional dashboards, can generate measurable performance improvements while strengthening internal collaboration. Ultimately, the integration of adaptive and localised AI marketing tools offers Kalmar a path to expand MyKalmar Insight’s reach, along with solidifying its digital market leadership under practical financial limits.