"Review sites have overtaken AI chatbots as the top source influencing which vendors make the buyer's shortlist, for the first time."
G2, the B2B software review platform, has published its 2026 Buyer Behavior Report: The Evaluation Maze, based on a survey of 1,038 B2B software decision-makers conducted in June 2026. The headline finding: AI has made software faster to discover and harder to close. Buyers are reaching a shortlist more quickly than ever, but the evaluation stage has become the longest and most friction-filled part of the buying journey.
82% of B2B software buyers sourced software recommendations from an AI chatbot in the last 24 months. But once a shortlist forms, the friction intensifies. Evaluation now accounts for 40% of the total buying timeline, surpassing research (down to 36%) as the longest stage. IT security review is the single biggest source of post-selection delay, cited by 39% of buyers and rising to 50% among enterprise buyers. Finance involvement in software decisions jumped from 31% to 46% in a single year, and 49% of buyers say their CFO vetoed an already-approved software purchase in the last 12 months.
The AEO Implication: Shortlist or Invisible
The finding with the most direct AEO relevance is the shortlist dynamic. Among buyers who used AI chatbots, 50% said the greatest impact was narrowing and comparing options. Review sites (38%) have now overtaken AI chatbots (37%) as the top source influencing which vendors make the initial shortlist, the first time review platforms have led that ranking. Brands that do not appear in AI answers and review sites are eliminated before a buyer ever reaches out.
G2 notes that it has become the most-cited B2B software source across AI-first channels, a position that reflects the broader pattern identified in large-scale citation research: AI engines weight third-party, high-credibility review sources heavily when answering vendor evaluation queries. For B2B brands, the practical implication is that G2 review presence is now an AEO asset, not just a sales tool.
Pricing and Contracts Under Pressure
AI has also disrupted B2B pricing expectations. Preference for outcome-based pricing more than doubled in a single year, from 11% to 23%. 80% of organizations now provide developers or technical teams with a dedicated LLM usage budget, creating a new line item that procurement teams are scrutinising alongside traditional seat licenses. 70% of buyers say the pace of technology innovation is pushing them toward shorter contracts.
On the question of AI agents in the buying process: 61% of buyers currently use or plan to use AI agents as part of software evaluation, primarily for total cost of ownership analysis, shortlist building, and vendor research. But only 9% are comfortable letting agents execute purchases within approved guardrails, and just 2% would allow purchases without pre-approval. The agentic buying era is approaching, but human sign-off remains firmly in place.
AEO Updates is published by The Prompt Group. Editorial decisions sit with the AEO Updates team, and any commercial relationship that touches a story is labelled on the page.