In my role as a senior partner at BuzzTheory, a B2B revenue marketing consultancy and agency, my team and I started paying close attention to answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO) in 2023, not long after the world-changing introduction of ChatGPT.

Even then, we could see that AI was changing how buyers found information. We knew revenue leaders would need to adapt, so we began helping our clients with AI search optimization.

But by mid-2025, we realized we were looking at something much bigger. AI assistants and agents weren’t simply becoming another way for buyers to search. They were becoming part of how buyers worked through purchasing decisions, in ways traditional search never could, by validating and evaluating vendors’ claims about their companies and solutions.

Forrester’s research confirmed what we were seeing in its December 2025 report, 2026 Buyer Insights: Buyer Usage of GenAI, which found that around half of B2B buyers are using AI to research product information (54%), compare products (55%), analyze request for proposal (RFP) responses (48%) and build a business case (47%).

It turns out that AI’s well-publicized disruption of search is actually a disruption of the B2B buyer’s journey.

We’re not simply watching buyers adopt a new way to find information. We’re watching AI become part of how they evaluate options, form opinions and make decisions. The potential impact extends far beyond marketing. It could change how buyers buy, how sellers compete and how revenue is won or lost.

The magnitude of that shift raises a whole new set of questions. How deeply is AI becoming embedded in the buying workflow? Are buyers still experimenting, or are they developing structured ways to use it? And how consequential are the purchases involved?

These are among the innumerable questions we set out to explore at the AI Revenue Institute (AIRI), where I am a co-founder and editor-in-chief. Our new B2B AI Buying Behavior Survey Report, “The AI-Powered B2B Buyer Has Arrived,” examines how B2B buyers are using AI throughout the purchasing process.

The findings reveal five major AI-driven shifts in B2B buying behavior. This blog focuses on the first and most fundamental: Buyer AI has become mainstream and material.

We spend a lot of time talking about how sellers can use AI to market more efficiently, sell faster and get more done. Meanwhile, buyers are adopting AI at a pace many revenue organizations may not fully appreciate.

Recent studies from Forrester and 6sense estimate that approximately 94 percent of B2B buyers now use AI during the purchasing process. That’s pretty much everyone.

And honestly, I understand the appeal. AI is the ultimate “easy button.” It can help you get up to speed on an unfamiliar market, make sense of complex information and complete hours of work in minutes. B2B buyers have jobs to do beyond evaluating vendors. If AI can help them move a purchase forward while still keeping up with everything else on their plates, of course, they’re going to use it.

But here’s what revenue leaders need to understand: Buyer AI use is no longer experimental, casual or confined to low-stakes research. It’s becoming a regular part of the buying workflow.

AIRI surveyed 521 B2B professionals actively involved in researching, evaluating, recommending or approving business purchases. We wanted to understand what buyers were actually doing with AI, not simply whether they had tried it.

A few findings from the AIRI survey stood out.

Buyers reported using AI across every purchase-value range we studied, from purchases under $25,000 to those worth more than $5 million.

That reach is surprising and ahead of the common wisdom that humans will directly handle high-value contracts. I expected to see buyers using AI to research products and services. I expected it to show up in routine or relatively low-risk purchases. I didn’t expect AI to already be involved in six- and seven-figure decisions.

When AI becomes part of purchases worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, we’re no longer talking about an interesting technology trend, but something with wide-ranging revenue implications.

Buyers aren’t only opening an AI assistant when they have an occasional question. They’re incorporating AI into repeatable evaluation processes. This activity is spread across general-purpose AI assistants, search experiences, custom agents and AI capabilities embedded in procurement and business software.

While 60 percent of respondents to AIRI’s survey use casual-language chats, their methods go much further:

The significance isn’t simply that buyers are becoming more sophisticated AI users; it’s that AI is becoming part of the infrastructure for how companies buy.

Once AI is built into evaluation processes, procurement systems and business software, it’s no longer an ad hoc tool but a routine part of purchasing.

Revenue leaders already have many more AI issues competing for their attention than they can possibly tackle at once. Every week brings another platform, capability, prediction or urgent mandate.

But B2B buyer use of AI is a different challenge than prioritizing the AI technologies your company is deciding whether, when or how to adopt. Here’s why: You don’t control its rollout.

Like it or not, B2B buyers are bringing AI into purchasing decisions now, which means they’re not waiting for sellers to catch up. What’s more is B2B buyer use of AI in purchasing is pervasive, their methods are becoming more sophisticated, and they’re applying it to purchases with real revenue attached.

Ultimately, B2B buyer use of AI can no longer be considered solely as a search issue or handed off to the marketing team to solve only through AEO and GEO. Smart revenue leaders will recognize it as a change in the buying environment that has implications across marketing, sales and the broader revenue organization.

You don’t need to have all the answers today. None of us do. But you do need to stop planning around the assumption that buyers still research, evaluate and make purchasing decisions the way they did before AI.

Start by putting B2B buyer use of AI on your agenda. Bring your revenue teams together and begin asking:

That conversation won’t solve the challenge overnight, but it will move B2B buyer use of AI from an overlooked buyer behavior to a shared business priority.

The reality is the AI-powered B2B buyer isn’t “coming soon.” Your company is selling to that buyer right now (possibly without knowing it), across decisions that may be worth thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars.

The sooner you recognize that reality, the sooner you can begin figuring out what it means for your revenue strategy.

Editor’s Note: Buyer use of AI becoming mainstream and material is only one of five major shifts uncovered in AIRI’s research. Together, they reveal how significantly buyer use of AI is changing the way B2B revenue is won and retained.