At its core, channel partner sales have always worked like this: A vendor earns the trust of a partner. The partner earns the trust of the customer. When the partner recommends the vendor, the customer’s trust transfers from the partner to the vendor.
I call it the “channel trust loop.” It’s a powerful model. And for years, it’s helped vendors large and small open doors, shorten sales cycles and keep revenue flowing.
But buyer use of AI is starting to weaken the channel trust loop. A recommendation can still get a vendor considered, but the buyer can now vet it through their AI assistant or agent without the partner or vendor knowing about it.
So, what happens when a buyer asks AI to double-check your partner’s recommendation?
A referral gets you shortlisted, not selected
We asked buyers surveyed for AIRI’s B2B AI Buying Behavior Study how they use AI after receiving a vendor recommendation from a colleague or trusted advisor.
63 percent of B2B buyers said they would add a referred vendor to their shortlist but still use AI to vet the recommendation like any other vendor.
Only 27 percent of B2B buyers said they would trust the referral over what AI tells them.
ICYMI: Less than a third of B2B buyers surveyed said they would trust your partner’s recommendation over AI.
If you’re shocked by that result, you’re not alone. It begs many questions, starting with this one: Why double-check recommendations from an expert advisor you already trust?
I suspect one reason falls into the CYA category. Your buyer may expect a boss or buying committee member to run their own AI review, so they don’t want to be blindsided by information they may have missed. That concern isn’t hypothetical: 54 percent of B2B buyers AIRI surveyed said a boss, executive or buying committee member has already used AI to evaluate or question a purchase recommendation. More think it may be happening, and only 7 percent think it will never happen.
In this case, checking the recommendation doesn’t necessarily mean your buyer has stopped trusting your partner; they just don’t want to get caught unaware or potentially looking like they didn’t do their job well. It’s a real problem for your channel partner’s internal champion.
For that extra check, AI has become a go-to “second-opinion machine.” It’s easy and always on. Buyers can ask whether the vendor fits the use case, how it compares with alternatives and what concerns they should investigate.
Questions like these put the evidence behind your partner’s recommendation to the test. To be clear: AI doesn’t have to claim outright, “This is a bad vendor,” to put your partner’s referral in jeopardy. It rarely happens that directly.
A straightforward AI response, such as, “I can’t verify the vendor’s claim,” can be enough to introduce doubt, the first of the 4 Ds that can undermine a partner recommendation:
Doubt: Raises questions about the vendor’s credibility
Dilution: Makes the vendor sound like everyone else
Disconnect: Surfaces gaps between the pitch and public evidence
Drift: Steers the buyer toward a competitor instead
AI findings can undermine partner credibility, too
AI scrutiny of a partner’s recommendation can have real consequences. AIRI’s survey found that 56 percent of B2B buyers said they had removed a vendor after AI analysis surfaced a discrepancy between claims and actual capabilities.
But what about the partner who recommended that vendor? What happens to them?
After all, partners put their credibility on the line for the vendors they recommend. If the customer has a negative experience, they may question the partner’s judgment. Now, with AI review, that credibility hit can happen before the customer buys anything, according to AIRI’s B2B buyer survey results.
We asked B2B buyers how they would treat future recommendations from a referrer if AI surfaced concerning information that caused them to choose another vendor.
82 percent of buyers surveyed said they would treat future referrals with greater skepticism or extreme caution, or avoid the referrer’s recommendations altogether.
36 percent of buyers surveyed would treat future referrals with extreme caution or avoid adding that party’s recommendations to their shortlist.
AIRI’s findings clearly show that the risk to you and your partner from AI scrutiny extends beyond losing any specific deal.
Consider this scenario: Suppose AI surfaces a two-year-old review about a problem you’ve since fixed. Your partner may know the product has changed, but without current, credible evidence they can point to, the buyer may question both your claims and the partner’s judgment. In that case, the issue may not be the efficacy of your product or solution, but the lack of current proof to support it.
Here’s the fallout: Your partner is staking their credibility on your company, but much of the evidence AI sees sits outside their control. If you repeatedly leave partners without proof to answer AI-raised concerns, you’re not just making today’s deal harder. You’re making it harder for the partner to put their reputation behind you tomorrow.
That’s how the virtuous channel trust loop can turn vicious: The buyer loses trust in the partner, and the partner loses trust in you.
You may not know AI cost you the deal
Another irksome challenge is that AI can raise doubts about your company, influence the buyer’s decision and undermine your partner’s recommendation without either of you ever knowing it happened.
That’s because AI can influence the decision without creating the signals revenue teams are used to seeing. A buyer can question your partner’s recommendation, test your claims and compare alternatives without visiting your website, filling out a form or telling the partner. AIRI calls this the “revenue insights gap.”
That gap may be even harder to close in the channel because you, as the vendor, may be one step removed from the partner’s conversations with the buyer. The partner may only see that the customer stopped responding. You may only see that the opportunity disappeared. Neither of you necessarily knows that AI introduced the doubt.
That’s why we call buyer use of AI a “silent deal killer.” You can lose the opportunity without knowing how, when or why. This also is why we say the dark funnel becomes darker.
So, how can channel leaders help partners sell through AI scrutiny?
You can’t see every AI conversation your buyers are having. But you can reduce the chances that your partners are caught defending claims AI can’t support. Here are a few steps you can take:
Audit what AI says about you. Test the questions buyers are likely to ask about your company, products and claims across major AI models. Look for outdated information, unsupported claims, weak differentiation and gaps between what your partners are saying and what AI can verify. Close those gaps on your website and third-party sites wherever possible.
Ensure your sales materials stand up to AI scrutiny. Don’t assume a partner presentation, solution brief or battlecard will stay between the partner and the buyer. Buyers can upload those materials to AI and ask it to fact-check claims, compare competitors or flag concerns. Review your materials for consistency, specificity, current evidence and claims that can be verified publicly.
Strengthen the evidence behind the pitch. Being easy for AI to verify is becoming part of being easy for partners to sell. If you tell partners you’re strong in healthcare, for example, make sure AI can find current customers, relevant use cases, measurable results and credible third-party support.
Advise partners to ask buyers about their use of AI. Encourage them to ask whether buyers are using AI to vet their recommendations and what concerns, questions or alternatives it has surfaced. Simple questions, such as, “Are you using AI to vet our recommendation? If so, has it surfaced anything you want us to address?” can bring an otherwise invisible objection into the conversation while there’s still time to respond.
Build a feedback loop with your partners. Ask partners to share what they’re hearing from buyers, including recurring questions, which competitors AI is introducing and claims they’re having trouble defending. Those conversations can surface credibility gaps that may never show up in your CRM and help you strengthen the evidence on-site and off-site that partners need to close the next deal. And your direct sales teams will benefit, too.
The channel’s strength still lies in trusted relationships, but the channel trust loop now has to survive AI scrutiny, too. Give your partners evidence they can stand behind, and you protect more than today’s deal. You protect partner credibility with the buyer and their willingness to recommend you time after time.
Want to learn more about how buyers are using AI in the purchasing process? Download AIRI’s B2B AI Buying Behavior Survey Report, “The AI-Powered B2B Buyer Has Arrived.”