Your Buyers Are Using AI to Find Software. Here's What They're Trusting.

According to the G2 2026 AI Search Insight Report, 51% of B2B software buyers now start their research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google. Seven months ago, that number was 36%. It's still climbing.

This is how the software buyer’s journey starts, and it happens in real time across thousands of prompts running through ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, and Gemini, every day.

Another stat that should make every marketing leader stop scrolling: 69% of B2B software buyers ended up choosing a different vendor than they originally expected. And 33% purchased from a brand they'd never even heard of — because of what an AI chatbot recommended.

The buying journey hasn't just shifted. It's forked. And most brands haven't noticed which fork their buyers took. We analyzed our Profound MCP and G2 MCP data to help software sellers get a complete picture of the buyer journey and the signals software buyers trust. Here's what the data reveals — and what it means for every software seller trying to show up before the shortlist is set.

The front door for software buying and selling just changed

In 2025, AI search was shrinking the shortlist. But now, it's writing it before your sales team ever enters the room.

Today, a marketing leader types a prompt into ChatGPT: "best [your category] software for enterprise teams." Your brand doesn't appear, but a competitor’s might. What buyers are doing inside those chat windows matters as much as the fact that they're there. They're not browsing. They arrive with intent:

• 33% of buyers open with category comparison queries — "best CRM for enterprise" or "top marketing automation tools"
• 31% start with competitor-based prompts — they're already naming names
• 8 in 10 say AI accelerated their purchasing decision

[Source: G2 2026 AI Search Insight Report]

The shortlist is forming before your website even loads.

Source: G2 internal data via Profound, March–June 2026 

This is what makes it urgent for marketing leaders specifically: Your brand's first impression, its competitive positioning, how it stacks up against alternatives — all of it is increasingly being formed inside an AI answer. Not on your website. Not in a sales deck.

See also: MQLs Are Dead: Why AI Search Just Killed Your Old Funnel

AI cites based on third-party sources

The reason one brand appears and another doesn't have nothing to do with generous display ad spends and keyword-heavy content, or because they built a polished-looking website. AI chatbots recommend what third-party, authoritative sources already vouch for. And in the B2B software industry, that trust layer runs overwhelmingly through peer reviews.

According to G2's 2026 AI Search Insight Report, 45% of software buyers say a citation from a review site is the single most confidence-inspiring signal in an AI answer. Review sites rank as the no. 2 source influencing buyer shortlists overall, sitting just behind AI chatbots themselves.

And when it comes to which review platform AI trusts most in software, the data is clear. G2 is the most cited B2B software platform in AI search, with 22.4% influence on software-related queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode — based on an independent analysis of 30,000 AI citations by Kevin Indig, growth advisor at G2.

We've been tracking this shift for a while. When we first analyzed how G2 itself gets ranked in AI LLM search, the pattern was already forming. The data has since confirmed that the platforms AI trusts most aren't the ones with the biggest budgets behind them. They're the ones with the deepest, most verified peer signals, and those signals are built review by review.

We wanted to see what that looks like in practice, so we pulled category level data.

The pattern we noticed across three categories

We wanted to see if the data held beyond theory. So we looked at three software categories on G2 — Answer Engine Optimization, SEO Tools, and Marketing — and compared the brands, their review counts, their ratings, and how G2 showed up in AI search when buyers searched in those categories.

To put it to the test, we pulled G2 and Profound MCP data across three software categories — Answer Engine Optimization, SEO Tools, and Marketing — and measured review volume, star ratings, and G2's AI visibility score for each. The question: does a deeper review foundation actually move the needle on AI visibility?

Note: This analysis draws on G2's product catalog data and G2's AI search citation tracking across 1,668 software categories via Profound, March 1–June 3, 2026. AI visibility scores reflect G2's citation prominence when buyers search these categories across AI platforms. (Source: G2 internal data via Profound)

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) G2's AI search visibility score (buyers searching this category in ChatGPT): 8.53 (Source: G2 internal data via Profound, March–June 2026)

Source: G2 product catalog data via G2 MCP

The highest-rated product in this category has 40 times fewer reviews than the most reviewed one. In a category where G2's AI visibility score is 8.53 out of 10, the review gap between products is striking — and per G2's analysis of 30,000 AI citations, review volume is one of the strongest predictors of how confidently AI recommends a product.

Turns out that the brands buyers love most in their reviews aren't always the ones showing up when someone asks an AI chatbot for a recommendation.

SEO Tools G2's AI search visibility score (buyers searching this category in ChatGPT): 7.58 (Source: G2 internal data via Profound, March–June 2026)

Source: G2 product catalog data via G2 MCP

SE Ranking, for example, carries the highest star rating in this group and fewer than half the reviews of the two leaders. In a category as established and competitive as SEO tools, what does it actually take to move from being well-reviewed to being well-represented in AI answers?

The data doesn't tell us how any individual product appears in AI answers. But across 500 G2 categories, the pattern is consistent: Categories and products with deeper review foundations get cited more often. Star rating alone doesn't move that needle.

Marketing (Marketing Automation, Analytics, and Strategy) G2's AI search visibility score (buyers searching this category in ChatGPT): 8.92, the highest of the three (Source: G2 internal data via Profound, March–June 2026)

Marketing generated more AI search mentions than the other two categories combined — more than 32,000 ChatGPT mentions tracked in the same window. [Source: G2 internal data via Profound] It's the most active category for AI-driven software discovery right now, which makes it the most competitive for any brand trying to show up.

Across three categories, the same question kept surfacing: Does a great star rating translate to AI visibility? Or does something else drive it? Kevin Indig’s analysis of 30,000 AI citations across 500 G2 categories gives a clear answer — categories with 10% more reviews see roughly 2% more AI citations, which is a compounding advantage.

Star ratings tell buyers how good a product is. Review volume tells AI how trusted a product is as well as how confidently to recommend it. These aren't the same signal. Right now, most brands are optimizing for the wrong one.

Review signals drive discovery. But there's a second problem: AI isn't always right, and buyers know it.

64% of buyers encounter AI errors: Here's their safety net

AEO is the more intentional cousin of SEO, and trust is earned, not manufactured. AI search isn't infallible, and buyers know it. But where do they look for trust when AI fails them?

64% of B2B software buyers encounter AI inaccuracies frequently — weekly or more. [Source: G2 2026 AI Search Insight Report] When an AI chatbot leaves out a brand they trust or gets something wrong about one they're evaluating, their instinct isn't to accept the answer. It's to verify it. And the go-to verification source? Peer reviews — every time.

Evan Reiss, Vice President of Marketing at Foxit, put it plainly: "Advocacy is modern SEO — it defines how AI sees your brand. G2 gives us the platform to turn that advocacy into real visibility where it matters."

Buyers also cross-check across tools. If ChatGPT and Gemini describe your brand differently, that inconsistency registers as a red flag. The brands that have the most to lose here aren't the ones with bad products. They're the ones with thin review profiles — brands the AI doesn't have enough signal on to represent accurately.

A strong review presence isn't just a discovery play. It's your brand's defense against being misrepresented, incomplete, or absent in the answers that matter most.

Your review strategy is your AI strategy

When boardroom discussions kick off with questions like, “What are we doing for AI visibility?”, the stakes are high, and CMOs need to show up prepared.

The brands winning in AI search aren't running a separate AI visibility program. They're running a strong review program that's doing double duty.

G2 profiles with strong review foundations show up five times more often in AI search answers.

From prompt to pipeline

Step back for a moment and consider what this data is actually showing.

Buyers aren't waiting for your next campaign. They're opening AI chatbots, typing category queries and competitor comparisons, and walking away with a shortlist, weeks before your sales team enters the picture. 69% of them ended up choosing a different vendor than expected. A third bought from a brand they'd never heard of before that search.

The brands showing up in those answers aren't there because of bigger budgets or better ad targeting. They're there because AI has enough verified, specific, current peer proof to confidently recommend them.

Review volume. Recency. Category clarity. That's the trust stack AI is drawing from, and it's built on G2.

The brands winning aren't outspending anyone. They're out-trusted by the verified, current, specific peer proof that AI reaches for when a buyer types their first prompt.

That's the new job of marketing leadership, and it starts with a simple question worth sitting with: If a buyer typed your category into ChatGPT right now, what would come back? Would your brand be in that answer? Would it be represented accurately? Would it even show up?

If you're not sure, that's worth knowing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a software vendor show up in AI search recommendations?

Three things drive it: the volume and recency of verified peer reviews on platforms AI trusts, how completely and accurately a brand is positioned within its category, and consistent third-party validation across authoritative sources. AI doesn't pick brands at random — it surfaces the ones that independent, verified communities have already endorsed at scale. The brands with the deepest review foundations on platforms like G2 have a structural, compounding advantage in every AI-generated shortlist.

Can I trust what AI says about software vendors?

AI is a powerful starting point, but not a perfect one. According to G2's 2026 AI Search Insight Report, 64% of B2B software buyers encounter AI inaccuracies frequently. That's exactly why peer review sites remain the go-to verification layer, even for AI-fluent buyers. When AI gets it wrong, buyers cross-check against peer reviews. Brands with a strong G2 presence show up at both touchpoints — in the AI answer and in the verification step that follows.

How do I improve my company's visibility in AI answers?

Start with the foundation: build review volume and recency on the platforms AI trusts most. G2 is the most cited B2B software source in AI search. Getting your product well-represented there is the highest-leverage starting point. Optimize your G2 profile with specific, category-clear positioning. And use an AEO tool to measure how you're appearing across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode — because 78% of marketing teams say their current approach to measuring AI visibility is inaccurate. Measurement is step one.

Edited by Supanna Das

DATA AND METHODOLOGY

This article draws on the following sources:

• G2 2026 AI Search Insight Report — Survey of 1,076 B2B software buyers and decision-makers, March 2026, global respondents across North America, EMEA and APAC.
• G2 AI search citation data — G2's monitoring of citation volume and visibility scores across 1,668 software categories via Profound, March 1–June 3, 2026. Reflects G2's citation prominence across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Grok and Meta AI.
• G2 product catalog data — Review counts and star ratings sourced from G2's live product database at time of publication.
• Kevin Indig correlation analysis — "Do More G2 Reviews Mean More AI Visibility?" Analysis of 30,000 AI citations across 500 G2 software categories via Profound, published October 2025 on G2 Learn.