In our current AI era, most B2B buyers now start in AI chats about as often as in Google, yet most B2B SEO strategies are pre-ChatGPT!

The majority of buyers end up picking from their initial shortlist almost every time, so making sure you’re visible online before the first sales call is the whole ball game. Below, we’ve compiled the most up-to-date data to help your strategy, no matter how long you’ve been doing SEO. Let’s dive in.

Key Takeaways

  • 51% of B2B software buyers now start their research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google, up from 29% 11 months earlier. (G2)
  • 69% of B2B software buyers chose a different vendor than they first planned because of an AI chatbot’s guidance. (G2)
  • ChatGPT-referred visits to B2B websites rose 303% in a year, from about 645,000 a month in June 2025 to 2.6 million in June 2026. (Demandbase)
  • B2B buyers pick the winning vendor from their day-one shortlist 95% of the time, up from 85% the year before. (6sense)
  • 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience. (Gartner)
  • 68% of U.S. Google searches ended without a click in early 2026, up from 60.45% in 2024. (SparkToro)
  • Google organic search drives 33.85% of website traffic for Industrials companies. (Conductor)

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Statistics on AI Search and B2B Buyers

B2B buyers now open an AI chatbot as often as they open Google. These figures show how fast that happened and what it means for who makes the shortlist.

  • 51% of B2B software buyers now start their research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google, up from 29% 11 months earlier. (G2)
  • 71% of B2B software buyers rely on AI chatbots for software research, up from 60% seven months earlier. (G2)
  • 69% of B2B software buyers chose a different vendor than they first planned because of an AI chatbot’s guidance. (G2)
  • 85% of B2B software buyers think more highly of a vendor when an AI chatbot mentions it in a recommendation. (G2)
  • 61% of B2B software buyers use AI search and Google together. (G2)
  • 1 in 3 B2B software buyers bought from a vendor they had never heard of before, after AI chatbot research. (G2)
  • 82% of B2B software buyers got software recommendations from an AI chatbot in the last 24 months. (G2)
  • Review sites (38%) passed AI chatbots (37%) as the top source shaping which vendors make a B2B buyer’s shortlist. (G2)
  • 94% of B2B buyers use large language models (LLMs) during their buying process. (6sense)
  • Twice as many business buyers named generative AI or conversational search as a more meaningful source than any other source, ahead of vendor websites and sales. (Forrester)
  • 61% of business buyers use private AI tools provided by their own organization. (Forrester)
  • 45% of B2B buyers used AI during a recent purchase, mainly to gather information on vendors and products. (Gartner)
  • 69% of B2B buyers turn to sales reps to validate AI-generated insights. (Gartner)
  • 51% of B2B buyers say they are more likely to get misleading information from generative AI, while 49% say the same of sales reps. (Gartner)
  • 72% of tech buyers saw Google’s AI Overviews during their research, and 90% of them clicked through to a cited source. (TrustRadius)
  • 63% of tech buyers used AI during their purchase journey, and 94% of those fact-check its answers at least some of the time. (TrustRadius)
  • 80% of tech buyers use generative AI at least as much as search for vendor research. (Responsive)
  • 48% of U.S. B2B buyers use generative AI for vendor discovery, compared with 14% in other regions. (Responsive)
  • 84% of B2B SaaS CMOs now use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity for vendor discovery, up from 24% in 2025. (Wynter)
  • 68% of B2B SaaS CMOs start their searches with AI tools before traditional search engines. (Wynter)
  • ChatGPT-referred visits to B2B websites rose 303% in a year, from about 645,000 a month in June 2025 to 2.6 million in June 2026. (Demandbase)
  • AI referrals make up 2.80% of website traffic in the IT industry, the highest of 10 industries studied. (Conductor)
  • AI referrals make up 1.25% of website traffic in the Industrials sector. (Conductor)
  • According to G2’s platform data, leads from AI search convert 40% better than leads from traditional search. (G2)
  • At Ahrefs, a B2B SaaS company, AI search drove 0.5% of website traffic but 12.1% of signups. (Ahrefs)