94% of B2B buyers use ChatGPT to decide: guide to the new B2B marketing [2026]

TL;DR — 94% of B2B buyers used an LLM (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) during their buying journey in 2025. This isn't a passing trend — it's a structural shift in how companies select vendors. The traditional B2B funnel — built on Google, gated whitepapers, and cold outreach — is being dismantled at speed. In this article we analyse the 2026 data from Forrester, CMI, and Gartner, tear apart the tactics that no longer work, and give you the 6 concrete actions to realign your B2B strategy to the new paradigm. No fluff, just data and execution.

The paradigm shift: 94% of B2B buyers ask ChatGPT, not Google

Let's start with the number that should keep every B2B marketing director awake at night: according to Forrester's B2B Predictions 2026, 94% of B2B buyers reported using at least one Large Language Model during their buying journey in 2025. Not as an experiment. Not out of curiosity. As a core decision-making tool.

Let's make this simple: out of 100 decision-makers evaluating whether to buy your software, your consulting service, or your logistics solution, 94 of them — before even visiting your website — asked ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini something like:

• "What are the best providers of X in the Y sector in Europe?"
• "Compare [your product] with [competitor] for a mid-sized company"
• "What are the main risks of adopting [your solution category]?"

And the LLM answered. With data. With comparisons. With a ready-made shortlist. If your company doesn't appear in that response — or worse, if it appears with inaccurate information — you have an enormous problem. A problem that no Google Ads campaign can solve.

As we at Deep Marketing have been telling our clients for months: you can't optimise a funnel your customers no longer use. And the traditional B2B funnel — awareness via search, consideration via whitepaper, decision via demo — has been replaced by something radically different.

Data from the Content Marketing Institute B2B 2026 confirms the picture: 75% of top-performing B2B marketers say their strategy has changed substantially in the last year — not because of new AI tools, but because of changes in buyer behaviour.

It's essential to understand this point: the change is behavioural, not technological. Buyers don't use ChatGPT because it's trendy. They use it because it's faster, more impartial (in their perception), and more comprehensive than traditional Google search. And this brings us to the first great paradox.

The paradox: 74% of B2B marketers credit strategy, not AI tools, for improved results

Here's a data point that demolishes the dominant "just use AI to win" narrative pushed by marketing gurus: according to the CMI 2026 report, 74% of B2B marketers who improved their results attribute the improvement to strategy refinement, not to AI tool adoption.

Let's say it again: tools matter less than strategic thinking. Always. In every technological era.

This doesn't mean AI isn't important — it is, enormously. But AI is an amplifier, not a substitute for strategy. If your B2B strategy is weak — generic targeting, confused value proposition, mediocre content — AI will only amplify that weakness. Faster. Across more channels.

The Harvard Business Review finding is illuminating: B2B companies that achieved the best results in 2025 are those that invested in strategic team training before implementing AI tools. Those that did the opposite — buying ChatGPT Enterprise licences without a plan — saw marginal or zero results.

The lesson is clear: strategy first, tools second. Never the other way around. And strategy in B2B 2026 requires understanding a completely new funnel.

How the B2B buyer searches for information in 2026

Before talking strategy, let's look at the numbers. This table synthesises how B2B buyers are actually searching for information to guide their purchasing decisions in 2026, based on combined data from Forrester, Gartner, and CMI:

The most relevant finding? Google Search is still used by 85% of buyers, but its role has changed. It's no longer the starting point of research — it's the validation point. The buyer asks ChatGPT "who are the best CRM providers for manufacturing SMEs in Europe", gets a shortlist, and then goes to Google to verify the existence and credibility of the companies cited. The search engine has become a confirmation engine, not a discovery engine.

This reversal has enormous implications for your SEO strategy: ranking first on Google for a keyword is no longer enough if you're not cited by the LLM the buyer consulted first.

The new B2B funnel: from Google-centric to AI-assisted

The 2026 B2B funnel no longer resembles what we were taught in marketing programmes. Here's what it actually looks like, based on behavioural patterns documented by Gartner and Forrester:

1. Awareness → LLM conversation: the buyer identifies a problem or opportunity and asks an LLM directly. No Google search. No blog visit. The first interaction with your brand occurs when the LLM cites you (or doesn't) in its response.
2. AI-assisted research → Automatic shortlist: the LLM provides the buyer with a list of 3-5 options with pros and cons. This shortlist becomes the starting point for evaluation. If you're not on this list, you don't exist.
3. Validation → Google + peers + website: the buyer verifies the AI's shortlist through Google searches, asking colleagues, and visiting vendor websites. Here your website, testimonials, and case studies still matter enormously.
4. Decision → Human interaction: demos, sales calls, negotiation. This phase remains deeply human. AI assists but doesn't decide on behalf of the company. Not yet.

Notice the pattern: the discovery phase has been entirely delegated to AI. And the decision phase remains human. This means B2B companies must command both ends: be visible to LLMs and be credible to humans. The tactics in the middle — gated whitepapers, generic webinars, cold emails — are losing effectiveness rapidly.

The 6 concrete actions for B2B marketing in 2026

Enough analysis. Let's move to execution. Based on data from Forrester, CMI, Marketing Dive, and AMA 2026 Trends, here are the 6 actions every B2B company must implement. Not tomorrow. Now.

1. Invest heavily in thought leadership

The Forrester data is unequivocal: 75% of top-performing B2B companies are increasing their thought leadership budget in 2026. We're not talking about "posting more on LinkedIn". We're talking about producing original thought content that positions your company as an undisputed authority in your sector.

Why thought leadership specifically? Because it's exactly the type of content that LLMs cite. When a buyer asks ChatGPT "what are the best practices for X", the LLM searches its training sources for content that demonstrates competence, originality, and depth of analysis. Self-referential press releases and 300-word posts don't register on this radar.

In practical terms, this means:

• Publishing reports with proprietary data at least quarterly
• Having real people with demonstrable expertise sign the content, not "Editorial Team"
• Taking clear, argued positions on controversial topics in your sector
• Investing in long-form content (2,500+ words) with verifiable evidence and sources

As we do at Deep Marketing with every article we publish: data, sources, clear positions. No fluff, no clickbait, no "5 things you didn't know". Content that deserves to be cited.

2. Bet on experiential marketing

A data point that surprised many analysts: 78% of B2B companies are investing in experiential marketing in 2026 — live events, workshops, immersive demos, proprietary conferences. In the midst of the AI era, the budget for human experiences is growing, not shrinking.

The reason is what we call the "human connection premium": the more digital becomes automated and AI-driven, the more authentic human interactions acquire perceived value. A buyer who received a shortlist from ChatGPT and validated options on Google will choose, all else being equal, the vendor with whom they had a memorable human interaction.

This doesn't mean returning to the expensive trade show stands of the 2000s. It means:

• Organising niche events for 20-50 decision-makers in your sector
• Creating free educational workshops that demonstrate your operational expertise
• Investing in dinners, roundtables, and qualified networking moments
• Putting your technical experts in front of clients, not just salespeople

The goal isn't to generate leads. It's to generate relationships. And relationships in B2B close six-figure contracts.

3. Optimise for AI visibility (GEO)

If 94% of buyers ask ChatGPT, you need to be present in ChatGPT's answers. Full stop. This discipline — called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) or AI Visibility — is the new battleground of B2B marketing.

Unlike traditional SEO, GEO isn't based on keyword density, backlinks, and meta tags. It's based on:

• Topical authority: the LLM cites sources it considers authoritative. This is built through years of consistent publishing, third-party citations, and presence in training datasets.
• Information structure: well-organised content with clear headings, numerical data, and structured comparisons is extracted more easily by LLMs.
• Data uniqueness: LLMs prioritise content with proprietary data unavailable elsewhere. If your content says the same thing as 500 other articles, the LLM has no reason to cite you specifically.
• Freshness: the latest models (GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini) have access to current data via browsing. Dated content loses relevance.

In practice: SEO isn't dead, but it must evolve towards GEO. And GEO rewards exactly what good marketing has always rewarded: real expertise, original data, and clear positioning.

4. Produce original research with proprietary data

This is the highest-ROI tactic in B2B 2026, and also the most undervalued by SMEs. Content based on proprietary research and data is 3 times more likely to be cited by LLMs compared to content that recycles others' data.

Every B2B company — even an SME with 20 employees — has access to unique data:

• Aggregated, anonymised data on your customers and their behavioural patterns
• Industry benchmarks based on your operational experience
• Surveys among your clients or professional network
• Trend analysis based on your sales or product usage data

You don't need a McKinsey-level budget. You need the willingness to collect, analyse, and publish what you know better than anyone else. Our advice: start with an annual industry report. Even 15 pages will do, if the data is unique and the methodology is transparent.

5. Build communities, not contact databases

Cold outreach is dying. This isn't an opinion, it's data: response rates to cold B2B emails dropped below 2% in 2025, according to aggregated data from HubSpot and Salesloft. And with AI generating increasingly sophisticated emails, volumes have exploded — making every single cold email even less effective.

The alternative? Communities. Networks of professionals in your sector where your company participates (not sells), contributes (not promotes), and builds credibility over time.

This can mean:

• Creating a Slack or Discord group for professionals in your sector
• Launching a podcast with interviews of decision-makers in your market
• Organising periodic meetups (even virtual) on specific technical topics
• Actively contributing to existing communities (forums, LinkedIn groups, industry subreddits)

The goal is to create what in B2B is called a "warm pipeline": a flow of potential customers who already know you, respect you, and consider you a natural option when they need what you offer. Is it slow? Yes. Does it work? Enormously.

6. Evolve your measurement: from MQLs to pipeline influence

Last point, but perhaps the most important: you need to change how you measure B2B marketing success. The model based on Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) — "how many leads did this campaign generate?" — is inadequate for the new paradigm.

Why? Because in the new funnel, the buyer has already completed 70% of their buying journey before they ever contact you. The "lead" who fills in your form isn't at the beginning of the funnel — they're almost at the end. And measuring marketing only by forms filled means ignoring all the awareness, authority, and trust-building work that brought that buyer to you.

The metrics that matter in B2B 2026:

• LLM citations: how often is your company mentioned in LLM responses for relevant queries? Tools like Profound, Otterly.ai, and Peec AI allow you to monitor this.
• Pipeline influence: how many deals in your CRM had at least one marketing touchpoint? It doesn't matter if marketing "generated" the lead — what matters is whether it contributed to closing it.
• Share of voice in your sector: how much are people talking about you versus competitors? Measure mentions, citations, backlinks, and references in industry communities.
• Sales cycle velocity: if your marketing works, the time between first contact and contract signature should decrease, because the buyer arrives already informed and partially convinced.

Dropping MQLs doesn't mean stopping lead generation. It means recognising that the lead is the end result of a much broader process — and measuring everything that comes before it too.

B2B marketing: what works in 2026 vs what doesn't

Let's summarise everything in an operational table. If you're planning your B2B marketing budget for the next 12 months, this table should be on every decision-maker's desk:

The trust premium: why human beats AI in B2B

There's one final point we want to address, and it's perhaps the most counterintuitive: the more AI automates B2B marketing, the more the value of human trust increases.

Think about it: if every company can generate content with AI, if every vendor can have a perfect chatbot on their website, if every sales email can be personalised by an algorithm — then what differentiates one company from another? The answer is: people. Demonstrable expertise. Relationships built over time. Reputation earned in the field.

Data from Marketing Dive confirms this intuition: B2B companies that invested in both AI and human capital (training, events, community) in 2025 achieved significantly better results than those that invested only in AI or only in traditional activities.

The future of B2B isn't AI or human. It's AI and human. But with a fundamental distinction: AI handles scale (distribution, personalisation, analysis), humans handle trust (relationships, reputation, expertise). Companies that understand this distinction — and organise their teams, budgets, and processes accordingly — win. The rest chase.

We see this every day at Deep Marketing with our clients: the companies closing the biggest contracts aren't those with the best AI tool. They're those with the best blend of thought authority, presence in AI responses, and the ability to build authentic human relationships. And that blend requires strategy, not technology.

FAQ: Frequently asked questions about B2B marketing in 2026

Is traditional SEO dead for B2B?

No, but its role has changed. SEO remains important for the validation phase — when the buyer verifies on Google the information obtained from the LLM. But it's no longer the primary discovery channel. You need to evolve from traditional SEO to GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), which optimises content to be cited by LLMs as well.

How do I know if my company is being cited by ChatGPT?

Dedicated tools exist such as Profound, Otterly.ai, and Peec AI that monitor your brand visibility in LLM responses. Alternatively, you can run manual tests: ask ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity the queries your buyers would typically make and check whether you're mentioned. Do this regularly, because responses change with model updates.

How much budget should I shift from performance marketing to thought leadership?

There's no universal answer, but the trend is clear: top-performing B2B companies are shifting 20-30% of budget previously allocated to paid advertising towards thought leadership content, original research, and events. This doesn't mean eliminating performance marketing — it means rebalancing the mix. The Forrester data showing 75% of companies increasing thought leadership budgets should guide your thinking.

Does experiential marketing work for SMEs with limited budgets?

Absolutely, and it may work even better. An SME doesn't need to organise 500-person events. A half-day workshop for 15-20 decision-makers in your sector, with high-quality educational content and a networking lunch, can cost less than a month of LinkedIn Ads — and generate relationships that produce revenue for years.

How do I convince my CEO that MQLs are no longer the right metric?

Show them the data on the new funnel: 70% of the buying journey happens before the buyer fills in a form. This means the MQL captures only the tail of the process, not the entire process. Propose a pipeline influence model that tracks all marketing touchpoints that contributed to a closed deal — not just "first touch" or "last touch". CFOs understand numbers: show the correlation between thought leadership activities and deal closure velocity.

How long does it take to see results from a GEO strategy?

Longer than traditional SEO, unfortunately. Being cited by LLMs requires your content to enter training datasets or be accessible via browsing/RAG. For web-indexed content, results can appear in 2-4 months. For inclusion in training datasets, timelines are longer (6-12 months). That's why it's essential to start now — not next quarter.

Sources and References

• Forrester B2B Predictions 2026
• Content Marketing Institute — B2B Content Marketing Trends Research 2026
• Harvard Business Review — AI Is Upending Marketing on Two Fronts (2026)
• Gartner — Strategic Predictions for 2026 and Beyond
• Marketing Dive — Marketing Predictions for 2026
• American Marketing Association — 2026 Trends Report