Good morning, Insiders!

Spoiler alert: AI is referenced in this week’s brief. ;-)

This number deserves a second look:

That’s the percentage of B2B buyers who told us they use AI to scrutinize agreements, technical docs or compliance documents during purchasing.

We’re digging deeper into this stat because it underscores just how far revenue generation in the AI-powered buying era reaches across departments. These documents have always been reviewed by lawyers, accountants and subject matter experts, whose scrutiny frequently resulted in questions and requests for clarification. Now, the buyer’s AI reviews you first. What it finds can sink your deal without a word.

Let’s grab our shovels.

The AIRI Team

P.S. Want more data on AI’s influence over B2B purchasers? “The AI-Powered B2B Buyer Has Arrived,” is free to AI Revenue Insiders:

TL;DR

By regularly, we mean buyers told us they do it “often” or “always.” Include buyers who do it “sometimes,” and the number climbs to 96 percent. So, yeah, as they say in Fargo, “this is a deal.”

If you’re thinking, “Wait, those documents usually come into play after we’re already deep in the deal,” you're right. Or rather, you were right. And that’s the point.

Most companies treat contracts, specs and security documentation as detail that follows a buying decision. But for a growing number of buyers, AI is reading them as part of the decision, period. And that raises their stakes.

The B2B purchasers and purchasing influencers we surveyed told us documentation scrutiny is broad and remarkably even. Nearly two-thirds of buyers regularly run each document type through AI:

This even spread suggests buyers are moving toward vetting the whole package rather than singling out one document, though adoption is still evolving, and at this point, 44 percent confirmed they regularly vet all three.

You know the adage that the devil’s in the details? In some quarters, that’s a fitting description for AI because AI excels at details. (We’ll leave the other “AI is evil” debates to YouTubers and keyboard warriors. Unless you catch us at happy hour. Then, all bets are off.) It catalogs them and compares your documents against each other, your website, public sources, competitors and, on the other side of the deal table, your buyers’ requirements and documentation. Every gap is flagged (and potentially scored).

And buyers are acting on what AI finds:

Your documents are now evidence. If your security documentation says one thing, your website says another and your sales deck promises a third, your buyers’ AI are likely to notice before anyone on your team gets a chance to explain. Similarly, if you claim compatibility that you don’t yet have (e.g., you’ll build it if a deal executes), AI may flag it.

Here’s another way to look at it: Some of your documents have been written for lawyers, auditors and IT reviewers who were supposed to inspect them and ask questions. AI does this instantly. Depending on what it finds and how much, whether you get follow-up questions is, if you’ll forgive the pun, a question mark. If AI finds enough wrong or questionable, your deal can die. Moreover, you may never know why.

This is why we call AI “the silent deal killer.” The effect isn’t limited to documentation, but AI makes the dark funnel darker. You can flip that dynamic in your favor to some extent, which we wrote about in a recent blog, “The Light at the End of the Dark Funnel.”

Right about now, you’re likely thinking, “Wow, this is a pain in the backside.” We hear it all the time when discussing the steps necessary to adjust to buyers using AI. Legible, complete schema? Pain in the backside. Messaging and document alignment? Renewals becoming auditions? Having to do more on your side the more buyers use AI to do less on theirs? Pains in the backside.

Our response is: True, true, true and true.

But once you get past the initial jolt of understanding all the areas interceded by buyer use of AI, it becomes clear that this is also an enormous opportunity for you. Your competitors don’t want to do all of that, either. Be the one to do it, and you have a real advantage. So, let’s not look the gift horse in the mouth for too long on this one, eh? Adapt to your buyers, and your revenue lane widens.

Some steps you can take right now include:

Finally, once you have your arms around these processes, reengineer your content and communications operations for messaging unity across channels and departments. If you can’t break down those stubborn silos that create divided responsibilities and goals, you need to bridge them.

Yes, this is all a big pain. And that’s why it’s a big opportunity.

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