The Impact of AI on Buyer Engagement

A lot of marketers are telling me there is a new lead/client referral source showing up in lead forms, client conversations, and "how did you hear about us?" surveys. ChatGPT is now being cited more and more as a source of discovery. Even if your leads aren't actually discovering you via ChatGPT, it's likely reshaping the entire buyer's journey for many of them. It affects everything from recognizing there's a need, to evaluating you against competitors, to final purchasing decisions. For many, AI is now integral to both personal consumer and business decision-making. Reflecting on my own experiences, I've noticed that ChatGPT, along with its friends Perplexity and Bing Chat, now significantly influences my purchasing choices. (Just this week, I made two purchases based on ChatGPT and Perplexity recommendations!). This behavioral shift is a crucial juncture in marketing, demanding immediate attention. Understanding how ChatGPT and generative AI influence client decisions and buying behaviors is becoming increasingly important. ChatGPT's role in product and solution discovery is rapidly transforming previously effective marketing practices, with the risk of making some avenues that previously worked obsolete (traditional SEO, I'm looking directly at you). Marketers must be reevaluating and adapting marketing strategies before they're frantically trying to catch up. Aligning our marketing efforts with these AI-driven trends is essential to stay relevant and effective. We should all be reexamining our customer sales processes and mapped buying journeys, and adapting our strategies to incorporate these new behaviors. I'm eager to hear from my marketing community. Have you noticed ChatGPT or other AI tools influencing your clients' customer journeys yet? How are you adjusting your strategies for this new reality we live in?

Is AI Quietly Rewriting the Buying Journey? It certainly seems that way. Something interesting is happening behind the scenes at OpenAI. They’re testing a checkout experience within ChatGPT that allows users to complete purchases directly in the chat, without needing to bounce to a website or app. It’s a consumer-first feature (for now). But if you’re in B2B, this is worth watching closely. Because we’re not just talking about better UX. This signals a shift toward AI becoming the primary interface between buyers and brands. And it will impact how discovery, evaluation, and purchase decisions happen across every category, including SaaS, eventually. What that means in practical terms: Your buyer might ask ChatGPT: “What’s the best solution for scaling revenue ops in a mid-market SaaS company?” Instead of sending a link, the assistant walks them through the shortlist, sets up a demo, and may even facilitate a purchase on the spot. Very interesting, right? The top-of-funnel isn’t a search bar anymore. It’s more of a conversation. So, if your content and brand aren't optimized for how LLMs retrieve and synthesize insight, you’re going to be harder to find. Also, attribution gets messier, too. When a buyer learns about you through an AI conversation, possibly sparked by a trusted voice or earned mention, how do you track that? This is an example where influence and infrastructure intersect. The B2B brands that win won't be the ones shouting loudest. They’ll be the ones who show up with clarity, relevance, and trust even when the buyer never visits their site. We’ve spent the last decade building strategies around what people search for. Will the next decade be shaped by how people ask? Link to the story in comments 👇

Friction kills deals. According to SBI, The Growth Advisory's Next Era of Commercial Differentiation report, high friction reduces purchase likelihood by 43%. Misaligned teams, conflicting advice, and cumbersome workflows often push buyers into the "Zone of No Decision," where deals stall and progress halts. Here’s how AI can address each friction point and keep deals moving: 1. Aligning Buying Teams Stakeholder misalignment creates confusion and slows progress. 🔧 Momentum.io analyzes customer conversations to highlight misaligned priorities, helping teams identify gaps, automatically signal and communicate to teams who care, and bring stakeholders back into alignment. Impact: Everyone is on the same page, reducing delays caused by confusion or conflicting priorities. 2. Resolving Conflicting SME Input Buyers lose confidence when they receive conflicting advice from subject matter experts. 🔧 Anthropic Claude or OpenAI ChatGPT synthesizes diverse SME inputs into clear, actionable summaries that buyers can rely on, simplifying the decision-making process. Impact: Buyers receive clear and consistent guidance, boosting trust and speeding up decisions. 3. Handling Demos and Advanced Buyer Questions Gaps in knowledge or missed details during demos can kill momentum. 🔧 1mind deploys an AI "Superhuman" to deliver seamless demos, handle advanced buyer questions, and fill knowledge gaps typically covered by SMEs. Impact: Buyers experience engaging, informative demos that build confidence and trust in your solution. 4. Avoiding the "Zone of No Decision" Indecision often stems from unclear ROI or a lack of compelling justification to act. 🔧 ProofAnalytics.ai quantifies ROI with causal analytics, showing buyers exactly how your solution impacts their business outcomes. Impact: Buyers feel confident to move forward, reducing hesitation and stalling. 5. Maintaining Buyer Engagement Low engagement causes deals to slip into limbo. 🔧 TheySaid | World's 1st AI Survey tracks buyer sentiment and engagement levels, flagging risks early so sellers can re-engage effectively. Impact: Consistent engagement keeps deals active and ensures no opportunities are lost due to inaction. AI removes friction from the buying process by addressing key challenges head-on and ensures smoother workflows, confident decisions, and faster deal cycles. Additional Startups Addressing Buying Friction: Zipteams Agentic CRM utilizes AI to streamline sales processes, reducing the number of stages and accelerating deal closures. TwinMind Develops AI assistants that continuously learn from user interactions, enhancing personalized engagement.

AI will transform software sales. Most of the discourse so far has focused on how AI upends the sellers’ worldview. But the buyers’ process will also evolve. When researching software, operational buyers & procurement teams alike will use AI to research different offerings. Typing “Compare Salesforce & Hubspot for a 10 person sales team. which is better?” into Gemini produces this result & most importantly, a recommendation : [image below] For a Hubspot or a Salesforce seller, a few ramifications resound from the new reality that most buyers will consult AI before speaking to a rep. First, marketers must ensure the information surfaced in these queries is accurate. SEO is no longer sufficient. AIO, (AI-optimization), will become necessary to ensure the results are accurate. The workflow to achieve this outcome isn’t yet built but will undoubtedly influence inbound-marketing efforts. Second, procurement teams may automate some or all of the RFP/RFQ. My second query was to compare pricing between the two products & ask which would be less expensive. HubSpot generally offers a lower price point at equivalent feature tiers, especially for small to medium-sized sales teams. How about SOC2 & ISO-27001 or FedRamp compliance? It’s just a query away. AI becomes a low-budget Gartner in box. Third, agents acting on behalf of buyers may execute transactional sales differently “swiping” a virtual credit card to buy project management seats in the same way a Nike-neaker-bot snipes a pair of Jordans. A buyer types “buy 5 seats of the best Gantt charting software for software teams.” into their chatbox & off the robot goes. All of these vignettes into the future of software buyer behavior are guesses. What’s certain is that prospects will use AI to research & potentially automate software purchases.

Cold outreach is hard. Buyers already feel informed. But here’s what’s changed: They’re not just reading content. They’re talking to AI tools. Buyers type prompts like: “Best tools for [X]?” “Is [your brand] worth it?” “Compare [you] vs [someone else]” And the answers they get? Shape the conversation before you ever speak to them. The funnel hasn’t disappeared. It’s just shifted from landing pages → to language models. That’s why GEO: Generative Engine Optimization is critical. It turns your content into an AI-ready conversation system. Here’s how the GEO Funnel supports sales: ➡️ TOFU → Gets your brand surfaced in discovery prompts ➡️ MOFU → Guides comparisons with structured, factual answers ➡️ BOFU → Drives conversions with content that handles objections Sales isn’t just about reach anymore. It’s about readiness inside the AI conversation. If your content can’t be understood by machines, it won’t be served to the buyer. Learn how to build funnels AI can speak → https://shr.bi/hBZQq7DO Semrush #GEO #SemrushEnterprise

An AI avatar tried to sell me something last week. At first, it was awkward. It couldn’t get my name right, even after I repeated it a few times. (Okay, I do have an uncommon name.) But it got a lot right. It clearly explained product features, showed me the demo of the feature I was interested in, and nailed my pricing questions. I left wondering: If prospects can talk to AI avatars that answer any question, on-demand, what does that mean for the future of sales? One thing is certain: The sales process will change a lot. And salespeople will spend less time delivering one-size-fits-all pitches and answering basic product questions, and more time on things like: - In depth discovery of use cases that can deliver the highest value  - Building very specific ROI analysis to show prospects value - Following up with targeted communications to every member of buying committee to address goals and concerns They will spend less time: - Updating records and admin tasks - Spending hours trying to research company, contacts, goals - Spending hours building demos that still don't seem targeted As AI takes over the repetitive parts of the sales process, salespeople can build deeper relationships, tackle complex challenges, and create even greater value for their customers. Now, back to the avatar. Did I buy the product? Not this time. But I did buy into the idea that the future of sales is about deeper connection.

AI isn’t just changing how buyers find solutions. It’s influencing what they trust and what they skip. I contributed to this new TrustRadius report on B2B buying in the age of AI (link in the comments). The data is clear that trust starts long before your first touchpoint. Buyers are doing their own research. They rely on peers, communities, and now AI to form opinions. Vendor content is often scanned but not believed. The report includes insights from operators and experts across go-to-market, growth, and brand. It covers what’s working, what’s not, and where teams are shifting strategies. There’s also new data on AI Overviews, changing search behavior, and the sources buyers actually trust. The quote I shared is included, along with a snapshot I created that highlights key takeaways. If you work in go-to-market, this research brings helpful language and data to trends you may already be navigating. Curious if this reflects what you’re seeing too. 

AI discovery just hit 6% of our high-intent leads. That's a 58% increase from Q4 2024 and 566% growth since we started tracking a year ago. But this ain't about the "leads", it's about business impact, so let's dig in: → Commercial and mid-market segments dominate these AI-sourced leads → Enterprise buyers are notably absent from this channel (for now) → Conversion rates to opportunity already match our other high-intent channels, Q1 projections show a higher rate This creates a rare market opportunity: capitalize on AI discovery before the enterprise segment catches up. The data points to a clear adoption curve. SMBs and mid-market are pioneering this purchasing behavior, but enterprise will follow. When enterprise buyers shift to AI-powered discovery (and they will, maybe tomorrow or next week), the competition for contextual relevance will intensify dramatically. Companies that establish AI discovery dominance now will hold a significant advantage when the enterprise segment shifts. The window of capitalizing on this opportunity is temporary.

It now takes 27 touches before a prospect talks to sales. 😱 (According to Forrester, that's up from 17 just a few years ago!) Today's buyers aren't relying on cold emails or sales calls to evaluate solutions. They're using AI, dark social, and peer networks/communities to research before ever filling out a form. So if AI is reshaping the B2B sales cycle, how can you ensure your solutions are part of the conversation? As yourself: Would your brand show up if AI made your buyer's shortlist today? If you're not sure, here are some aspects things to consider: → SEO efforts are evolving into AIO (AI Optimization). It's no longer about just ranking on Google—you must ensure AI models recognize and recommend your brand as a trusted source. → Brand awareness is non-negotiable. Buyers won't just be waiting for you to outbound to them. They'll already know about you through AI-summarized content, social presence, and chatter from their peers and communities. → Sales cycles will get shorter—but only for known brands. AI is drastically accelerating research, meaning brand recall and trust will likely dictate which brands get invited to the table. So, the question is: Will AI recognize your brand when your ICP asks it for solutions? If this isn't on your roadmap this year, it should be. What's do you think? How do you see AI continuing to disrupt how marketers will connect with potential buyers? What else should be on our 2025 roadmaps?