The B2B software buyer journey has changed. And not just a little bit. Thanks to AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, it’s being fundamentally rewritten.
For years, marketers optimised for traditional search engines by aligning content with keywords. But AI search doesn’t behave like Google. There are no search result pages with ten blue links, no fixed rankings, and no linear journey.
And that changes everything. Welcome to the new world of AI native B2B SaaS & software buyer journeys.
The emergence of AI search in B2B research
AI tools are being used across the B2B buying journey as buyer enablement co-pilots, answer engines, and recommendation engines.
- Users are bypassing Google to ask ChatGPT directly for recommendations
- Google’s own AI Overviews are pushing traditional organic listings further down the page
- Models are citing trusted sources, not necessarily the brands themselves
In short, there are now entire buying journeys happening that brands have much reduced visibility of. This is the new B2B dark funnel.
At FirstMotion, we see AI tools as being inside the B2B decision making unit. They are part of the buying unit, providing guidance, counsel, advice and active assistance as B2B buyers navigate their buying journey.
How AI assistants shift behaviour at each journey stage
AI might not be always be changing what buyers search buyers search for, but it’s certainly changing how they search.
Problem identification
Buyers are turning to AI assistants to articulate challenges, validate pain points, or explore peer experiences:
- “As a CISO at a mid-sized fintech company expanding into the EU, what are the common third-party risk challenges I should be aware of going into 2025?”
- “How do in-house legal teams at high-growth SaaS companies typically manage visibility and control over contract renewals across departments without relying on shared drives or email threads?”
Solution exploration
Buyers use LLMs to map the landscape of solutions based on their specific context:
- “What tools are used by growth-stage cybersecurity companies to automate ongoing SaaS vendor risk assessments while maintaining ISO 27001 compliance?”
- “Compare Ironclad, LinkSquares, ContractPodAi, and SpotDraft specifically for legal teams in B2B SaaS companies with 200–500 employees that need Google Workspace and Salesforce integrations.”
Requirements building
LLMs help buyers define the scope and specifics of what they actually need:
- “What features should a legal team prioritise in CLM software if we’re aiming to automate fallback clauses, track negotiation workflows, and ensure version control across sales and procurement?”
- “We’re preparing an RFP for an enterprise DAM platform – what technical requirements, integration capabilities, and user access controls should we specify for a distributed marketing team operating across three global regions?”
Supplier evaluation
Buyers are now getting multi-dimensional comparisons based on their role, goals and constraints:
- “As the VP of Legal in a late-stage tech company preparing for IPO, which CLM platform is rated highest for rapid deployment, scalability, and audit readiness – LinkSquares, Ironclad, or ContractWorks?”
- “What do in-house counsel teams in 500+ employee SaaS companies typically say in reviews about the quality of implementation support and ease of adoption when comparing Ironclad to SpotDraft?”
It’s important to notice that these prompts are longer, more contextual, and more reflective of real decision making than ‘SEO keywords’ ever were.
Read more: What AI prompts should B2B software brands optimise for?
AI tools aren’t just providing information
AI assistants like ChatGPT are no longer just search engines in disguise. They’re not simply surfacing content or summarising articles – they’re actively doing the work sometimes.
In B2B marketing, this shift is subtle but profound.
Buyers aren’t just asking for lists of tools or pros and cons anymore. They’re using AI to create the artefacts that drive purchase decisions:
- Researching how other similar businesses might be solving similar problems
- Creating business cases for investing in a new solution
- Drafting full RFPs tailored to internal requirements
- Building vendor comparison frameworks with weighted criteria
- Generating scoring models for evaluating product demos
- Creating checklists for compliance or technical due diligence
- Drafting internal summaries for board or budget approval
This means the assistant isn’t just part of the research phase – it’s shaping the actual decision making process.
If your content, product positioning, and proof points aren’t being picked up, understood, and incorporated by these tools, you’re not just missing traffic – you’re missing influence at the most critical moment.
B2B marketers now need to think beyond visibility. You need to ask:
“Is my brand showing up in the outputs buyers are taking into meetings?”
That’s a very different game. And winning it starts with understanding buyer behaviour and ensuring your information is findable, credible, and structurally usable by AI.
Why audience intelligence is more important than ever
Because buyers are using AI assistants like humans – in plain English, in long form, with detail – your prompt strategy is only as strong as your understanding of the buyer.
At FirstMotion, we use our ContextualJourney™ technology platform to:
- Map real companies and their buying units
- Identify individual personas and their needs, pain points, triggers etc
- Enrich the ICP & persona data with AI & various sources such as review data, analyst research
- Align likely prompts across each buyer journey stage
- Generate prompts that may be used across each stage of the buyer journey
Prompt strategy without buyer context is guesswork. We don’t do guesswork.
Implications for B2B content strategy
This shift in buyer behaviour, and the role AI tools are playing across the full length of the B2B buyer journey, demands a new B2B SEO/content strategy approach:
- Answer full questions, not just keywords
- Provide structured, scannable content that LLMs can parse
- Focus on semantic depth over SEO fluff
- Align all content with ICP, persona & buyer stage
- Think about usable assets that can assist the buyer journey – checklists, templates, spreadsheets etc
If ChatGPT is building your buyer’s shortlist, your content needs to shape the answer.
Why visibility tracking is now critical
With AI search, you can’t just rely on Google Analytics to tell you what’s happening.
We use tools like Peec AI to:
- Monitor how often your brand appears in AI answers
- Track changes in inclusion over time
- Compare against competitors
- Spot which prompts are driving the most visibility
- Understand the sources of influence and content that LLMs reference
Generative engine optimisation isn’t about a specific ranking position – it’s about the probability of being visible – and that’s a big shift in mindset for lots of B2B marketers.
What B2B SaaS marketers need to do
To keep up with the shifting buyer journey, B2B software marketers should:
- Map their ICPs, personas, and journey stages
- Identify and map prompts at each stage
- Audit prompt visibility using specialist tools
- Create content aligned with buyer needs and language
- Optimise for influence, not just presence
- Monitor and iterate continuously
The AI search revolution isn’t coming. It’s already here.
B2B buyers are researching, evaluating, and shortlisting using AI assistants as their one source of truth and buyer enablement co-pilot – from ‘first prompt’ through to ‘closed won’. If your strategy doesn’t adapt, your brand risks becoming invisible.
At FirstMotion, we help enterprise B2B SaaS & software brands navigate the shift from SEO to the new world of AI native B2B buyer journeys. Check out our recent post if you need help building your business case to invest in AI search.