This is not another blog about another AI tool that will help you [[fill in the blank]]. We’ve seen enough of those, and I’m sure you’re getting plenty of messages about the next best platform out there. Instead, we’re going to take a deep dive into how AI in B2B sales is changing your buyer’s experience.
Just as AI in B2B organizations has shifted and continues to shift how you go to market, it has also drastically altered your buyer’s process. The techniques that got you in front of prospects even just a few years ago don’t work so well anymore. Over the next several weeks, we’re going to find out why and get some strategies for how to meet B2B buyers where they are today.
AI IN B2B PURCHASING PRODUCES A HIGHLY CURATED SHORTLIST
The traditional (and by traditional I mean circa 2024) B2B buyer’s journey followed a linear path from awareness to consideration to decision. Content marketing and effective search engine optimization (SEO) were the name of the game. That’s what got you in front of prospects who would use search terms like “product management platform” or “Trello vs. Asana.” Your goal was to make the first page of Google, drive prospects to your website, and educate them with case studies and white papers.
Not anymore. AI in B2B has completely turned the awareness portion of the buyer’s journey on its head, and you are no longer in charge. Buyers now know more and hold more of the power. Forget about general searches like “project management platform.” Using AI engines, buyers can search for exactly what they need. “What is the best project management platform for a cybersecurity startup with fewer than 10 employees?”
Buyers also aren’t relying on your website anymore to find out if you offer the specifications they need. They are going to ChatGPT or Gemini, entering those specifications, and are given a shortlist of their best solution options. Did you get that? The shortlist is complete before they ever click on a single website. Are you on the shortlist? (Don’t worry, we’ll talk about how to make the shortlist next week.)
The next step of the buyer’s journey, consideration, used to be a painstaking, manual task involving weeks of compiling information and sifting through white papers. AI has impacted this step the most. Your prospects don’t have to wade through all that material. They can specify their exact criteria, request comparison charts, and find out what others are saying about you in a matter of minutes. Not only that, but each member of the buying team (including hidden buyers) can do this work on their own, each researching the aspects of the purchase most important to them.
B2B buyers have been doing more research before contacting sales for some time, but they were likely on your website while doing some of that research. Now, AI tools allow them to find everything they need without coming to your site.
EVERYONE IS USING AI IN B2B SALES—BUYERS AND SELLERS, YOUNG AND OLD
But we’re just talking about some people who do this, right? Maybe Gen Z buyers? Other people are still going to your website, right? Well, Millennials and Gen Z now make up 64% of B2B decision-makers, but it’s not just younger generations turning to AI engines for their B2B research.
- 90% of B2B buyers use tools like ChatGPT or Claude to research vendors.
- Organic search is expected to drop by more than 50% by 2028.
- 84% of B2B buyers now use peer-review platforms as a primary research method.
- Twice as many buyers named generative AI or conversational search as more meaningful than any other source in 2025 as they did in 2024.
- 50% of software buyers start their research in AI rather than Google.
Most B2B buyers will eventually end up on your website if you’re on their shortlist, but it happens later in the funnel than it used to, often after the field has been narrowed. AI in B2B searches is also putting previously unknown vendors in front of buyers. In a UK study conducted by Magenta Associates, 85% of respondents reported discovering a new product or vendor through AI. After making said discovery, 79% of respondents visited the vendor’s site, 67% looked for reviews, and 59% made an inquiry or purchase.
AI in B2B sales may help prospects find you even if your brand is not as well-known as your competitors. Much of that will depend on what exactly your prospects are searching for. It should be noted, however, that just five brands appear in 80% of top responses delivered by AI agents across any given B2B category. Competition is fierce.
AI IN B2B SALES FUNCTIONS AS A CHOICE LIMITER
Even though the goal of SEO is to appear on the first search engine results page (SERP), search engines are built for inclusion, uncovering any entry (even though it might be pages deep) that matches your query. AI-powered engines are the opposite. They are built for exclusion.
Mary Abbazia, Tom Spitale, and Sean Welham, co-authors of The Accidental Marketer, explain it perfectly in their recent blog. “When buyers ask an AI system for guidance, its job isn’t to surface everything that might be relevant. It’s to reduce uncertainty.” The purpose of answer engines is to narrow your choice. It’s why they are so helpful.
Our brains don’t handle too many choices well. (You didn’t think you were going to get through this post without me talking about human evolution and cavemen, did you?) For most of our history, we didn’t have hundreds of cracker brands and flavors to choose from. We suffer from choice paralysis when presented with too many options. Plus, we’re more likely to regret our eventual choice the more options we have.
Maybe our caveman brains like AI engines so much because they are better at narrowing our choices. As a buyer, AI engines are a useful tool for finding exactly what you’re looking for. As a solution provider? You’d better hope you make the shortlist. More on that next week.
Don’t miss a single Mastery blog! Please subscribe at the bottom of the page.