What Marketers Are Missing About the New B2B SaaS Buyer Journey
AI search visibility is quickly becoming a make-or-break input to pipeline, but most B2B SaaS teams are still measuring “search” like it’s 2019: rankings, clicks, sessions.
The surprise is that buyers are already behaving differently. AI search visibility is increasingly deciding who gets considered before Google ever gets a chance.
Raising the stakes is the fact that B2B buyers are adopting AI-powered search at 3× the rate of consumers, with 90% of organizations using generative AI in some aspect of their purchasing process.
Here are the numbers worth paying attention to.
1) 25% of B2B buyers now use GenAI over traditional search for vendor research
A quarter of B2B buyers say generative AI has overtaken traditional search for them when researching vendors, according to research by Demand Gen Report.
For B2B SaaS, the implication is uncomfortable: you can be “winning SEO” and still be missing the earliest (and often most influential) discovery moments happening inside chat tools.
2) 87% of B2B software buyers say AI chat is changing how they research
G2’s survey of 1,000+ B2B software buyers found 87% say AI chatbots are changing the way they research software.
This isn’t a niche behavior shift. It’s a mainstream research behavior shift—especially in software, where comparison, validation, and “tell me what to pick” questions are perfect for chat.
3) 50% now start their software buying journey in an AI chatbot (a 71% jump in 4 months)
In that same G2 research, half of buyers said they now start the journey in an AI chatbot instead of Google, and that figure jumped 71% versus G2’s prior survey four months earlier.
That means many “first impressions” are forming in an environment you don’t control. Recall that in AI search visibility, being mentioned matters more than being #1.
4) 47% of B2B buyers pick ChatGPT as their preferred LLM
When asked their favorite LLM, 47% of buyers chose ChatGPT—roughly 3× any other model.
Strategically, if you’re prioritizing which AI surfaces to test/monitor first, this is a practical place to start.
5) 2%–6% of B2B organic traffic is already AI-generated—and it’s growing 40%+ per month
Forrester estimates that AI-generated traffic is currently 2%–6% of B2B organic traffic and growing at 40%+ month-over-month.
Even if your AI referral traffic still looks small in analytics today, the growth curve suggests it will become a meaningful acquisition stream faster than most teams are planning for.
Importantly, one of the key impacts of AI search is the reduced number of clicks it generates relative to traditional search engines (see stat #8). So, we might expect that the continued proliferation of AI search won’t necessarily result in more traffic to your site, even if your visibility metrics are competitive.
6) AI-referred visitors spend up to 3× longer on-page—and ask 15–23 word queries
AI-referred visitors are spending longer on-page, and their queries are more specific, more contextual, more purchase-adjacent. One of LLMs’ key innovations is its understanding of natural language queries rather than simpler keywords. Users engage in multi-part, context-rich conversations before ultimately determining if they want to click through to a suggested link.
This is why AI traffic can look “small but mighty”: fewer visits, but higher engagement.
7) AI search visitors convert 4.4× better than traditional organic search visitors
Semrush reports AI search visitors convert 4.4× better than traditional organic search visitors.
If you’re judging AI visibility purely by volume today, this stat is the qualification. Indeed, quality can outrun quantity.
8) Google users click links inside AI summaries only 1% of the time
Pew Research Center found that when an AI summary appears, users rarely click links in the summary itself—just 1% of visits to pages with AI summaries included a click on a link in the summary.
Translation for B2B SaaS marketers: influence without clicks is becoming normal. You need a measurement story that doesn’t depend on last-click traffic.
9) Organic CTR drops about 70% when AI Overviews appear
Seer Interactive reports a roughly 70% decline in organic click-through rate when AI Overviews are present, based on tracking across 100+ clients and 7.8k queries.
This is one of the clearest heads-up stats for teams relying heavily on SEO as a predictable traffic engine.
10) 90% of buyers clicked through to sources cited in AI Overviews (trust is shifting, not disappearing)
TrustRadius reported that 90% of higher-intent buyers clicked through to at least one cited source when they encountered Google’s AI Overviews during research.
This is the nuance many teams miss: AI can reduce generic browsing, but buyers still seek proof. Citations and credible sources become the battleground in the war for visibility.
11) For “how-to” research, 40% already choose AI tools over search engines
Orbit Media’s survey found that for “step-by-step instructions,” 40% use an AI chat tool vs 60% using a search engine.
B2B takeaway: the more your content answers “how do I…” and “what should I do…”, the more you’re competing in AI-first territory.
Still, marketers need to be comfortable with the idea that this type of content is likely to become memorized training data for LLMs, rather than citations that will generate clicks.
Frequently Asked Questions: What B2B SaaS Marketers Should Do About AI Search
What should B2B SaaS marketers optimize for if rankings matter less in AI search?
B2B SaaS marketers should optimize to be recommended by AI models, not just ranked in search results. In AI-driven search, visibility often means being mentioned as a trusted option inside an AI-generated answer or shortlist. If an AI model does not mention your brand when buyers ask category or comparison questions, you are effectively invisible at that stage of the journey.
How is AI search changing keyword strategy for B2B SaaS marketing?
AI search shifts keyword strategy toward buyer questions and prompts, rather than short, high-volume keywords. Buyers increasingly ask AI tools long, specific questions that describe their context, constraints, and use case. Content that directly answers these questions in clear, structured language is more likely to be surfaced by AI systems.
What does “prompt-shaped demand” mean for content creation?
Prompt-shaped demand refers to demand that is expressed as full questions or scenarios, not keywords. For example, instead of searching “CRM software,” buyers ask AI tools questions like “What CRM is best for a mid-size healthcare company with a small sales team?” B2B SaaS content should be written to answer these types of prompts explicitly.
If AI reduces clicks, how should B2B SaaS marketers measure success?
B2B SaaS marketers should measure success beyond raw traffic. AI search often influences buyers without generating a click. More relevant metrics include brand consideration, assisted conversions, lead quality, sales cycle velocity, and whether prospects mention AI tools as part of their discovery process.
What replaces traffic as the primary indicator of search visibility?
In AI-driven search, influence replaces traffic as the primary indicator of visibility. Influence shows up as being cited, summarized, or recommended by AI tools, and as buyers arriving later in the funnel with stronger intent. Fewer visits can still produce better pipeline outcomes if those visits are driven by AI-assisted research.
Why is being “mentioned” by AI more important than being #1 in search results?
AI systems often present a single synthesized answer or a short list of options. Buyers may never see a ranked list of links. Being mentioned means your brand is part of the buyer’s consideration set. Being ranked but not mentioned may result in no visibility at all in AI-first research flows.
How should B2B SaaS teams think about SEO going forward?
SEO should expand from ranking-focused optimization to answer-focused optimization. This includes clear explanations, comparison content, FAQs, structured pages, and authoritative proof points that AI systems can easily extract and trust. Traditional SEO still matters, but it increasingly supports AI visibility rather than driving all discovery directly.
What is the biggest mindset shift B2B SaaS marketers need to make?
The biggest shift is moving from thinking “How do we get clicks?” to “How do we shape the answer?” In AI search, the brands that win are the ones that consistently provide clear, credible answers to the questions buyers are already asking.
Let's upgrade your marketing game
Get fresh tips, how-tos, and expert marketing advice every week. (15,000 people already are.)
