AI is shaping the B2B buyer experience and impacting brand-led growth—this report demonstrates why gaining buyer trust is the way forward and how to do it.
TrustRadius, the most credible buyer intelligence platform, published its ninth annual B2B buyer research report. This year’s report highlights AI’s effects on B2B technology buying and how vendors can bring trust back into the buying process.
In the report, Bridging the Trust Gap: B2B Tech Buying in the Age of AI, readers will learn how AI shapes the buyer experience and impacts brand-led growth. The report makes it clear that buyers seek confidence-building resources and go with brands they know and trust.
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Five important takeaways from the 2025 report include:
- AI Overviews are impacting product research. 72% of buyers encountered Google’s AI Overviews during their research process and 90% clicked through to one of the sources cited.
- A trust gap is growing. Prior experience is the most frequent and most influential resource consulted by buyers.
- Vendors underestimate the occurrence of buyer-user conversations: Vendors estimate that 38% of buyers speak with a user before purchasing a SaaS tool, when in reality, it’s 54% of buyers.
- User reviews continue to be a trusted source of information. 77% of buyers looked at user reviews when making a software purchase.
- Trusted sources are found in different places for different generations. Gen Z is more heavily influenced by social proof than older generations, indicating a stronger preference for user reviews, peer conversations, and forums.
The report’s data was compiled from 2,058 technology buyers’ and 490 technology vendors’ responses, which were gathered through an online survey of TrustRadius’ global network. All respondents were offered a nominal incentive (a $10 gift card) as a thank-you for their time.
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“Years of market research has shown that vendors continually lag behind shifting buyer preferences,” says Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius. “Our annual report gives vendors the opportunity to see how buyers are researching and choosing products right now, like the recent addition of AI Overviews, reliance on their own prior experience, and looking for transparent pricing. It also shares behavior predictions so modern teams can get ahead for once. Performance marketers, these insights are your wake-up call. Use this report as your guide to aligning buyer preferences with sales and marketing firepower—and then take action.”
