Here’s a stat worth sharing with your legal, security and product teams: Eighty-two percent of the B2B buyers we surveyed at AI Revenue Institute (AIRI) regularly use AI to scrutinize contracts and agreement terms, technical specs, or security and/or compliance documentation (or all three).
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.
What AI looks for in your documents
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:
Contract language and agreement terms (65%)
Security or compliance documentation (64%)
Technical specifications/documentation (63%)
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:
Nearly two-thirds (62%) of buyers we surveyed use AI to fact-check sales claims against public sources.
More than half (56%) of buyers surveyed have removed a vendor after AI surfaced a discrepancy.
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.”
How to prepare your documents for AI scrutiny
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:
Testing your documents the way your buyers use AI to do so. Run your contracts, specs and security documentation through multiple AI models and ask the questions your buyers ask. What risks does this contract create for us? Does this product meet our compliance requirements? How does it compare to the alternatives? Review your documents as a set, too. (Tip: Do this at scale across multiple models. Random tests can give you wildly erroneous data.)
Reconciling your documents with everything else. Your contracts, security documentation and specs need to agree with your website, case studies, sales materials and third-party sources. Wherever your sources disagree, AI will find it. This requires some research on your end to figure out what AI is surfacing, and how to respond by updating your documents and influencing the sources AI relies on. You need to be methodologically rigorous here in the models you use and questions you ask. And again, you must do it at scale to get reliable data. (Take the time to get this right or work with a consultant who’s built this out. We developed proprietary tools and methodologies at AIRI’s sister company, BuzzTheory, because the generic platforms don’t deliver what you need to reliably move the needle across all models and buying behaviors.)
Making your data and commitments easy to find and understand. AI can’t credit you for what it can’t find or decipher. Use clear headings, plain-language summaries and explicit statements of what you commit to, including certifications, dates and version numbers. Make current versions available where buyers’ AI can reach them and retire outdated versions that may still be circulating. Your goal is to make every piece verifiable to the maximum extent possible.
Bringing your documentation owners into the revenue conversation. Your legal, security, compliance and product teams are now producing sales collateral, whether they think of it that way or not. Give them visibility into the questions buyers are asking and the objections AI is raising. And make document review part of your deal process, rather than an afterthought.
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.
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.”