Key Takeaways
- AI usage kept climbing in 2026 but trust in AI tools flatlined, which means an AI feature alone no longer sets you apart because buyers now judge these tools on results, not hype.
- Vendors dramatically underestimate the power of peer conversations and reviews, so an off-site content strategy is now what decides whether AI surfaces your brand and whether buyers shortlist you at all.
The way B2B buyers make decisions has changed, and the old playbook won’t get you cited, shortlisted or trusted anymore. AI now shapes how buyers discover products, compare options and validate claims before they ever talk to sales— but the tools that speed up discovery haven’t earned buyers’ full trust.
That gap, between how buyers actually behave and how vendors think they behave, sits at the center of the TrustRadius 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect Report. This year’s data breaks a two-year pattern. AI usage kept climbing, but trust in AI tools leveled off, which means an AI feature alone is no longer a differentiator. Buyers have used enough of these tools to judge them on results, not hype. For marketing leaders trying to boost campaign ROI and stay ahead of the curve, understanding that gap isn’t optional. It’s the difference between showing up in the buyer’s research and getting skipped entirely.
To unpack the report, we sat down with Katie Allison, Director of Leads, Content, and Research at HG Insights, who brings a practitioner’s view to the data and doesn’t hedge her recommendations. Allison helped up digs into the widening trust gap in AI tools and why individual contributors and VPs see value so differently, why a third-party and off-site content strategy now decides whether AI surfaces your brand at all; and how to operationalize customer advocacy so your reputation does the selling before the formal buying process even starts.
Demand Gen Report (DGR): What was the single most surprising finding in this year’s report, and why do you think it matters most for B2B teams right now?
Katie Allison: For the first time, we saw trust in AI tools level off. Usage kept growing this year; however, trust didn’t grow with it, which breaks a two-year pattern. People are figuring out where these tools actually help and where they don’t live up to the hype. For B2B teams, that means an AI feature alone isn’t a differentiator anymore; buyers have used enough of these tools to judge them on results, not claims.
DGR: What differences stood out between buyer perceptions and vendor perceptions in the research, and which disconnect do you think is most dangerous for go-to-market teams?
Allison: Two disconnects really stood out this year. The first is around peer conversations. Vendors consistently underestimate both how many of their prospects speak to a current customer, and how helpful their prospects find these conversations. Over half of all buyers and almost two-thirds of enterprise buyers spoke to a current customer, while vendors thought that this number was 41%. 100% of buyers said the conversation was at least somewhat helpful, while vendors estimated the conversations helped 83% of the time. Vendors may be dramatically underestimating the power their current customers have over their new business pipeline.
The second disconnect is around measuring success for AI investments. 16% of buyers said they weren’t tracking their success with AI, while vendors estimated that only 3% of their customers weren’t tracking AI ROI. Unfortunately, this is likely to lead to some rough renewal conversations for these vendors when their customers struggle to justify their purchase to the budget holder.
How Should Marketers Adjust Content Strategy When AI Assists Discovery but Doesn’t Earn Trust?
DGR: Buyers are using AI more, but still fact-checking heavily. How should marketers adjust content strategy to win in an environment where AI assists discovery but doesn’t earn trust on its own?
Allison: Marketers need to control the narrative everywhere they can. This includes making sure that answers to common buyer questions are available on their website (both for LLMs to discover and for buyers to fact-check), but this isn’t sufficient. LLMs will never rely solely on a vendor’s site for information about the product. A 3rd party/off-site content strategy is vital to ensuring that buyers find the information they need, both via AI search and while fact-checking.
DGR: The report says 75% of buyers felt AI tools lived up to expectations. What separated the successful AI purchases from the disappointing ones?
Allison: To be honest, we’re not sure yet! An important caveat is that we surveyed buyers at the beginning of 2026 about a 2025 purchase. Many of the AI tools purchased were new, and our buyers haven’t been through a renewal process yet. We plan to ask this question again next year and see how the numbers change.
What was notable in this year’s data was that individual contributors (ICs) were far more likely to say the tool lived up to the hype than VPs and above. ICs, who likely trialed the tool in the sales process, may have more reasonable expectations, but VPs hold the budget come renewal time, and our data indicates that they may need some additional convincing that the tool really is providing sufficient value come renewal.
DGR: What kinds of third-party signals seem to matter most when buyers verify AI-generated information—reviews, comparisons, customer proof, editorial coverage, or something else?
Allison: In our research, we found that people trust other people and what they can see with their own eyes. They want to know that a product will work for them and their use case, and seek out the information that will help them make this determination. In practice, this means reviews, customer proof, and peer conversations with users in similar roles and industries. It also means that free trials and demos are hugely influential, as seeing is believing in a lot of cases.
What Separates a Successful AI Purchase From a Disappointing One?
DGR: If buyers are shortlisting three or fewer vendors, what should companies do differently to make sure they’re even considered before the formal buying process starts?
Allison: This is another area where an off-site or 3rd party content strategy is vital. Building your brand’s reputation in the market and ensuring your prospects have heard of you before they’re ready to buy is vital. This may include working with review sites, building a social media presence, or working with relevant industry publications.
While this is a tremendous amount of work, it serves multiple purposes. In addition to boosting general brand awareness, this can also ensure that your buyers find your product in AI search, and can easily find information to fact-check LLM responses when they need to.
DGR: Since peer conversations and reviews ranked so highly, what are the most effective ways for B2B brands to operationalize customer advocacy without making it feel manufactured?
Allison: B2B brands should constantly seek real, unbiased customer feedback and respond to it. Knowing how your customers feel about your product is vital, because you never know when these peer conversations are happening. Understanding what makes your happy customers happy is a good start. Figuring out your unhappy customers pain points and fixing them is a great way to turn your customers into advocates.
DGR: The report highlights transparent pricing as buyers’ top wish-list item again. Why do you think so many vendors still resist publishing pricing, and what are the tradeoffs of continuing to withhold it?
Allison: The risks of withholding pricing are high, particularly if your target market is small or mid-sized businesses. Buyers may assume no pricing means the product is expensive and pass over a product out of fear that it would exceed their budget.
That said, some products are expensive, have complex pricing models, or are sold through resellers, which can make it difficult to publish actual numbers. In these cases, businesses would do well to find a way to provide estimates or a ballpark number for their prospects so that these prospects can confirm that the product in question won’t break the budget.
Why Do Buyers Want Transparent Pricing, and What Do Vendors Risk by Withholding It?
DGR: You mention a shift from traditional SEO to GEO. What practical changes should B2B marketers make now if they want to be surfaced and cited more often in AI-driven research experiences?
Allison: Marketers should invest in a third party or off-site content strategy. (Do I sound like a broken record yet?) AI will always use multiple, authoritative sources to answer a buyer’s query, which means that marketers must ensure that these authoritative sources are creating content about their product.
Beyond this strategy, marketers should make more tailored content. Buyers are shifting from 2–3-word searches to a more conversational search experience with LLMs. They reveal far more about themselves to LLMs than they ever did in a traditional Google search, and are looking for specific information. Think “best ERP software for enterprise” vs. “I’m looking for an ERP that would work for a manufacturing company of over 10,000 employees that operates across 12 countries”. Creating content that is tailored to specific use-cases for your product will increase the chances that your brand shows up for these specific searches.
DGR: If a B2B CMO or CRO could act on only three recommendations from this report in the next quarter, what would you want those priorities to be?
Allison: All of these recommendations will require long-term investment, but the three that I would recommend getting started on ASAP are:
- Start tracking your brand’s AI visibility. You won’t have any way to identify gaps or measure success with your content strategy if you don’t.
- Develop an off-site content strategy. You need to understand, and where possible, influence how authoritative sources are talking about your product. Buyers are both using and fact checking AI. You want to know how your product is portrayed across all relevant channels so that you know what your prospects are seeing when they do their research.
- Learn how your customers talk about you when you aren’t in the room. Your prospects are reaching out to your customers and reading reviews. Understanding where your product performs well, and what pain points your customers have can help you proactively address them (both in the sales cycle, and in your product roadmap).
