How B2B Buyers Use AI to Research Vendors: 2026 Statistics

In 2026, AI is where most B2B vendor research starts: 94% of business buyers report using AI during their buying process, 51% of software buyers now begin research in an AI chatbot more often than in Google, and the shortlist those tools help build is the one that usually wins, because buyers rank a preferred vendor before they speak to any seller.

Statistics reviewed October 2026. Every figure below links to the survey it came from, with its publisher and, where published, its sample and period. Where surveys measure different things, they are shown side by side rather than averaged.

Key facts

• 94% of business buyers report using AI during their buying process, up from 89% a year earlier, and twice as many named generative AI or conversational search as more meaningful than any other information source (Forrester, January 2026).
• 51% of B2B software buyers now start their research in an AI chatbot more often than in Google, up from 29% in April 2025, across 1,076 buyers surveyed in March 2026 (G2, April 2026).
• 69% of buyers chose a different software vendor than they had planned because of guidance from an AI chatbot, and one in three bought from a vendor they had never heard of (G2 via PR Newswire, April 2026).
• 94% of buying groups had ranked their preferred vendors before first contact with a seller (6sense, November 2025).
• 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience, and 73% actively avoid suppliers who send irrelevant outreach (Gartner, June 2025).

How many B2B buyers use AI to research vendors?

Almost all of them use it somewhere. Fewer use it as their main starting point, and the difference between those two numbers is where most of the confusion in this topic comes from.

Read the first row and the last row together. "Used AI at some point" is close to universal. "Starts with AI instead of Google" is about half, and rising fast. Both are true at once, which is why a vendor cannot pick one channel and ignore the other: the same Semrush survey found that 75% of respondents still use Google or another search engine as part of their vendor research (Semrush, 2026).

Where in the buying journey does AI matter most?

Early, and then again at the shortlist.

The last row is the one sales teams tend to underestimate. AI is not only a discovery tool that hands over to a salesperson. A meaningful share of buyers keep consulting it right up to the decision.

Does AI change which vendors make the shortlist?

Yes, and the shortlist is where deals are won.

Two things follow from this table. First, AI is not just reflecting existing brand strength: if seven in ten buyers changed their plan and a third bought from a vendor they had never heard of, AI is actively moving share. Second, the shortlist AI helps build is sticky. Buyers who used AI to source options were more likely to buy from their first shortlist, not less.

That matches what 6sense found about timing. Buyers made first contact with sellers about 61% of the way through their buying process, earlier than the 69% of previous years (6sense via CustomerThink, 2025), but by then almost every buying group already had a ranked favourite.

Do B2B buyers trust what AI tells them?

Mostly, but not blindly: they trust it enough to act on it, and they check it.

Most trust it, some have been burned. 75% of Semrush's respondents fully or mostly trust AI vendor recommendations (Semrush, 2026), and in G2's survey, where four in five buyers say AI chatbots sped up their purchase, 83% report feeling more confident in their final choice (G2 via PR Newswire, 2026). But 19% of buyers using generative AI said inaccurate or unreliable AI information made them less confident in a purchase decision (Forrester, October 2025), while 36% said AI made them more confident they had made a better-informed decision (Forrester via Digital Commerce 360, 2026). Procurement is the most sceptical group: 28% of procurement respondents reported lower confidence because of inaccurate AI output (same source).

Buyers verify elsewhere. Three quarters still use search engines alongside AI, and only 39% say most stakeholders in their company actively use AI in vendor research (Semrush, 2026). In G2's data, citations of review sites are the signal that most increases buyers' trust in an AI recommendation (G2 via PR Newswire, 2026).

AI has not reduced the human work. Buyers who used AI still averaged 16 interactions per person with the vendor they eventually chose, unchanged from the year before (6sense, 2025).

What do B2B buyers want from sellers now?

Fewer interruptions and more judgement. In Gartner's survey of 632 B2B buyers, 61% preferred an overall rep-free buying experience and 73% actively avoided suppliers who sent irrelevant outreach, yet buyers still preferred seller input for tasks that need context, such as working out whether a product fits their company (Gartner, 2025).

Put that next to the AI data and the picture is consistent. Buyers do the generic research themselves, increasingly through AI. They want a seller when the question becomes specific to them. Outreach that repeats what an assistant could have told them is the outreach 73% of them avoid.

How should you read these numbers?

With the source in view. The surveys differ in who they asked and what they counted.

Several of these publishers sell products that benefit from the conclusion that AI visibility matters. That does not make the data wrong, and the direction is consistent across independent and vendor sources alike. It is a reason to prefer ranges over any single headline number.

What does this mean for B2B sellers?

Three things, in order of how early they act on the deal.

Be on the shortlist before the first conversation. If buying groups rank vendors before contacting anyone, and AI increasingly builds that ranking, then being named in the answer is the new first meeting. That is a content and reputation job: clear, sourced pages that answer buyer questions, and mentions on the sites AI engines trust. Our guide to getting cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode covers the method.

Make outbound earn its place. With 73% of buyers avoiding irrelevant outreach, volume is a liability. Outreach works when it arrives with something the buyer could not get from an assistant: a reason that is specific to their company, timed to a real signal. That is why we run outbound human-in-the-loop, with a person approving every send, and why our 2026 outbound benchmarks treat the list as the variable that matters most. For Elan Languages, testing 25,700 contacts produced a validated ICP and 80+ interested enterprise buyers (Saverflow AI): the test decided who was worth talking to before the volume went out.

Give the AI accurate material to work with. Assistants repeat what is written about you. If your site, your sales deck and your third-party listings disagree, the answer a buyer gets will be vague at best. Check what the main assistants say about your company today, then fix the sources they draw on.

If you want that check run against your own market and competitors, it is a short exercise and a good use of a first call.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of B2B buyers use AI to research vendors?

94% of business buyers report using AI during their buying process, according to Forrester's Buyers' Journey Survey (Forrester, 2026). Narrower measures are lower: 66% of US business professionals who use AI at work regularly use it specifically to research vendors (Semrush, 2026).

Do B2B buyers start their research in ChatGPT or Google?

About half now start in AI. In G2's March 2026 survey of 1,076 B2B software buyers, 51% started their research in an AI chatbot more often than in Google, up from 29% in April 2025 (G2, 2026). Most still use search engines as well.

How much does AI influence which vendors make the shortlist?

Substantially. 92% of US business professionals who use AI at work say it shaped their vendor shortlist (Semrush, 2026), and 69% of software buyers chose a different vendor than planned because of an AI chatbot's guidance (G2, 2026).

Do B2B buyers trust AI recommendations?

Partly. 19% of buyers using generative AI reported lower confidence in a decision because of inaccurate AI information (Forrester, 2025), and 75% still check search engines alongside AI (Semrush, 2026). Citations of review sites are the signal that most increases trust in an AI recommendation, according to G2.

How do B2B vendors get recommended by AI tools?

By being the clearest, best-sourced answer to the questions buyers ask, and by being described consistently on the third-party sites AI engines draw on, such as review platforms, directories and comparison pages. Mentions across the web matter more than claims on your own site.

Cite this article

"How B2B Buyers Use AI to Research Vendors: 2026 Statistics", Saverflow AI, 2026. https://www.saverflow.ai/articles/b2b-buyers-ai-vendor-research-2026/