Maisie Lloyd
Maisie is the Digital Content Manager at Intelligency, handling all things creative for the agency. Her experience centres around the production of digital content, pertaining to graphic design, writing copy, and video and audio content.
AI has permeated every stage of the marketing process, undeniably. Whether that’s teams ideating, polishing email correspondence, or utilising it to quickly mock up visuals. Raising questions about the actual impact it could have on B2B marketing strategies. And most importantly, the business minds making the decisions based on a process that is now deeply entrenched with AI-influenced processes.
Does AI change the acquisition process for B2B buyers?
AI can absolutely change the acquisition process for stakeholders, individuals within a business, along with the vendors and sellers. In fact, AI now comes in as a fourth party to the three key figures within a business’s buying arc.
AI now automates processes like researching, collating a prospect list and even has the ability to compare proposals. Its purpose is to then become a tool for businesses to vet and ultimately decide what business deals are practical and well-fitting.
Forrester’s 2026 Buyer Insight report discovered that roughly 94% of buyers rely on AI at some stage of the buying process to assist with decision-making. That’s an astounding figure that absolutely reinforces the notion that AI is remapping B2B marketing processes.
Search Journeys shift, impacting discovery and interaction
The zero-click trend, with AI engines, research tools, and generative engine optimisation, all highlight the shifts around search journeys. AI deeply influences the basic processes of inquiring, exploring and analysing.
Where previously buyers would type in keywords, click through to a number of sources and inform decisions based on directly collected information, now AI changes how much of that exploration can happen, with individuals simply clicking enter.
Brand, trust and reputation
So if buyers aren’t directly engaging with content on prospects’ websites, it begs the question of how they build trust, interpret reputations and truly understand branding.
This is where traditional trust signals still stand strong. These can include:
- Reviews
- Testimonials
- Recommendations
- Credentials and accolades (qualifications and awards)
- Verifiable individual profiles
- Clarity of offering: from a buyer or prospect perspective, this is about the transparency around offerings, costs, as well as identifying what and why those decisions are made
- Consistent authoritative content: which, in terms of AI, may mean that the same business names come up across varied searches
What shouldn’t change for B2B marketing
AI is most definitely changing the ways buyers are researching and making decisions, but it doesn’t necessarily change the fundamental reasons behind making a decision. Businesses still need to understand their audiences, communicate their values, and build reputations that instil confidence in buyers choosing them.
This means B2B marketers still need to account for both sides of the equation, recognising the role AI plays in influencing the buyer’s journey, while continuing to prioritise the things that make a business worth choosing. This is often credibility, expertise, clarity and an understanding of their target markets.
AI may increasingly influence which businesses enter a buyer’s consideration, but it is still the strength of the business, its reputation and the value it can demonstrate that ultimately helps turn consideration into a decision.
