B2B companies have long optimized their landing pages for the first steps in the buyer’s journey. AI search is upending how buyers search for and find providers, with AI answers now shaping the shortlist and next steps.
Research shows more buyers are using AI search, with many first queries now happening in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, or Google AI Mode. G2’s March 2026 survey of 1,076 B2B decision-makers found that 51 percent start software research in an AI chatbot more often than Google, up from 29 percent in April 2025. Forrester’s The State of Business Buying, 2026 report (roughly 18,000 buyers) found 94 percent used generative AI in their purchase process, 55 percent used it to compare vendors, and 47 percent used it to build the internal business case.
What is important for B2B companies is knowing the prompts that these prospects are using. The questions typically follow a pattern, and companies whose content best matches the category prompts and language are more likely to be included in the recommendations:
1. The category shortlist: “best / top X for Y”
Many users start by asking for a list of the best for a certain category. Research backs this up. In a 609-query analysis of Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, 48 percent of commercial SaaS prompts asked for “best,” “top,” or “leading.” Some examples of these prompts include:
• Best [category] for [company size / industry]
• Top [tools] for [use case] in 2026
• Best [category] that does not require an enterprise contract
• Leading [category] for mid-market [vertical]
The placeholders would differ by industry. For example, cybersecurity questions could include: “Best EDR for a 500-person fintech with SOC 2 and PCI,” or “Best SIEM for a SOC under 20 people.”
2. Solving the problem before finding a product
Sometimes buyers research the problem they are trying to solve before asking for solution providers. Examples of these questions include:
• How do I achieve [result] without [risk]?
• What are people doing instead of [old method]?
• What is [emerging category] and how does it work?
Companies with research into the underlying problems their solutions solve, or data on where their market is going, are more likely to feature in category-defining answers.
3. Alternatives and switching
This is a higher-intent question, since the buyer likely has an incumbent in mind. Some typical questions include:
• Best alternatives to [incumbent]
• Tools like [vendor] for [constraint]
4. Head-to-head comparisons
In this case, the buyer has two companies in mind and wants AI to analyze them:
• [A] vs [B] for [use case / industry / team size]
• Which is better for [one specific job], with pros and cons
5. Constraint and fit
This is where buying questions differ according to the role of the person asking (or the function of the team that will use the solution):
• CISO: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, single-tenant isolation, RBAC, data retention, where the model trains
• CFO: total cost of ownership, implementation time, migration friction, compliance
• CIO: integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Okta, SIEM), API limits, deployment model
6. Validation: after the shortlist is set
Buyers use AI search to determine the pros and cons of each vendor:
• What do users say about [vendor]?
• Common complaints / where [vendor] fails
• Is [vendor] a good fit for [team size / industry]?
Answers often pull in reviews from third-party sites like G2 and forums like Reddit.
7. Cost and setup time
These are usually the final questions before a buyer requests a demo:
• How much does [X] cost?
• Does [X] offer any discounts?
• How long does [X] take to implement?
The content you need for each type of AI search:
1. Clear problem definition
2. Category explainer
3. “Best X for Y in 2026”
4. Alternatives to the incumbent
5. A versus B
6. Fit under a concrete constraint (security, price, integration, team size)
7. Downside plus migration answer
AI search is now deciding which vendors make the shortlist, often before a buyer ever visits your site. If you want to know whether your company shows up when prospects ask these questions, book a short call with Coyle Emerald Narratives.