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Tag : survey results

Scientists Hate AI Spam as Much as Old School Bulk Spam

Carlton Hoyt 6:08 pm , March 31, 2025

I’ve been getting AI generated spam for well over a year. It was immediately clear to me when it started. My spam emails became slightly more personalized than regular spam. They were all short: usually 2-4 sentences. The topics seemed to come in waves, all vaguely relevant to the owner of a small business or someone in marketing: there was the virtual assistant spam, the “do you want to sell your business” spam, and – my favorite – the AI generated spam selling AI generated spam tools. Most importantly: they were no less annoying to me than regular spam; unwanted and unsolicited interruptions in my day requiring me to manually mark them all as such.

Then, last week, something new happened. I got a very poorly targeted email from a life science company:

The notion that someone in life science marketing would want to buy genomes and metabolic pathways is ridiculous, but the real revelation was that the AI generated spam has penetrated into the life science market! This made me wonder if it’s changed people’s opinions about spam: after all, the whole point of AI generated spam is to replicate the more effective elements of one-to-one cold emailing. Perhaps improved personalization and relevance actually do make people more receptive to it.

Survey time!

The only way to answer the question is to ask. We posted a simple poll to the LabRats subreddit asking if they get AI-generated spam from scientific suppliers. I don’t think the result should be considered surprising:

A little over half the respondents report getting AI generated spam from scientific suppliers, and of those people almost all of them dislike it as much as regular spam.

What should we learn from this?

AI isn’t a magic bullet. It just makes bulk unsolicited emails a lot easier. Rented lists and low-cost bulk email service providers did too, and a lot of companies used them until deliverability plummeted and marketers realized that the costs to their brand’s reputation weren’t worth it.

Cold emails can be highly effective when executed correctly, with genuine, meaningful personalization and hyper-targeted sales pitches. It’s probable that AI sales tools will get to the point where they can do that, but the current iterations of generic AI sales tools just aren’t there. Like the bulk spam before it, we expect that AI spam will be increasingly, and preemptively, relegated to spam folders as mail servers slowly but surely learn that no one wants it.

"More effective outreach to life scientists starts with BioBM. Our efficient and forward-looking demand generation strategies give life science companies the edge to get ahead and stay ahead. Whether you want productive outbound campaigns or efficient inbound funnels, BioBM can get you generating more leads and growing your revenues and profitability. Get started today."
Blog / Digital Marketing / Marketing Communications 6:08 pm , March 31, 2025

State of LS Tools Survey Results

Carlton Hoyt 11:33 pm , June 5, 2012

In mid-April, we discussed how despite the presence large amounts of negativity in the life science tools market, things actually appeared to be getting better. To follow that up, we conducted a brief 6-question survey last month to determine if people within the sector felt similarly and try to gauge if companies were preparing for better times or worse times ahead.

The survey was open from May 1st through May 31st. 22 respondents completed the survey. One respondent’s set of responses was removed from the survey due to not responding in the affirmative to the qualifying question which asked respondents if they worked within the life science tools and services market. Based on IP, 14 respondents were from North America, 6 were from Europe, and one was from Asia.

The questions (aside from the qualifying question) and responses are below:

1) Complete the following statement: “Thus far in 2012, my company’s sales have _____.”

2) Complete the following statement: “Compared to the last quarter of 2011, I feel _______ about the life science tools market”

3) Compared to the first half of 2012, how much does your company intend to spend on the following functions in the second half of 2012?

More Same Less
R&D 33.3% 57.1% 9.5%
Marketing 38.1% 47.6% 14.3%
Sales 57.1% 33.3% 9.5%

 

4) Which of the following is presently true about your company?

Additionally, two respondents left comments at the end of the survey. One noted “The market seems stable at the moment. We are mildly optimistic about the future.” The other stated “There are significant cuts in the research budgets.” The latter statement allows for some confusion as to whether “research budgets” referred to mean the academic research budgets or the budgets for internal R&D, although use of the plural leads us to believe the respondent most likely meant academic research budgets.

We find these results very interesting. While year-to-date performance in the respondents’ companies tends towards under-performance, perceptions compared to the previous year are roughly flat but companies are hiring and will be spending more. This could be due to any of multiple factors. For example, companies could be re-hiring and increasing budgets as a rebound from previous, overly conservative budget cuts. In other words, companies may have planned for a situation that was worse than the present, and therefore even though the present situation may not be good, hiring and increased spending have become necessary. Another common macroeconomic cause for increased hiring is decreasing workforce productivity. Additionally, some companies may increase spending in response to increases in spending at competitors in order to “keep up with the competition.” This discrepancy could also simply be a flaw in the survey, or perhaps a real difference in perception between the overall attitudes of life science tools companies and individual employees. There are many possible explanations, and we simply do not have enough data to evaluate all of the possible causes. All are free to draw their own conclusions.

Regardless, while the responses about company performance and the perception of the overall life science tools market are tepid, we are encouraged by the trend towards hiring and increased spending, and hope that companies rightfully see a reason to continue to invest in future growth.

Blog / Marketing Strategy 11:33 pm , June 5, 2012