How does a B2B company get on the shortlist when buyers ask AI for vendors?

How B2B buyers use AI to choose vendors

B2B buyers don't use AI tools once. They come back at each stage of the purchase. This is what Semrush found when it asked 519 US B2B professionals, surveyed in March and April 2026, where AI fits in:

The way they ask matters for you. 61% describe their specific use case or problem, 56% ask for direct vendor comparisons and 45% add constraints such as budget, required features or compatibility. G2 found the same: comparing vendor strengths and weaknesses was the top use of AI chatbots in software research (41%).

That changes the question from "do we rank for our category?" to "when a buyer describes their exact problem, does the AI have enough material to name us as a fit?"

ChatGPT's search works that way too. OpenAI says it typically rewrites a question into one or more targeted queries that it sends to search partners, then may send more specific follow-up queries after reading the first results. A buyer's long, detailed question becomes several narrower searches, and pages that answer a narrow need clearly have more chances to be found.

What gets a vendor noticed in an AI answer

When an AI tool lists several vendors, Semrush asked buyers which ones they pay attention to:

Buyers' complaints point the same way. The top one was that AI recommendations are too generic for their use case (33%). 28% said answers lack depth or accuracy, and 27% said they don't reflect real pricing or contract structures.

This is good news for smaller firms. A well-known competitor with vague pages can lose to a smaller company that clearly says who it serves, what problem it solves and roughly what it costs.

The 7-step plan for B2B companies

1. Ask the AI tools your buyers' real questions

Start with a baseline. Write down 10 to 15 questions a real prospect would ask, using their words, their problem and their constraints. For example: "Which accounting software works for a 30-person engineering firm in Spain with multi-currency invoicing, under €500 a month?" or "Which branding agencies in Lisbon have worked with B2B tech companies?"

Ask them in ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, the three tools most used for product research in Semrush's survey (71%, 61% and 45%). Note who gets named, how you're described, and which sources are cited. Repeat the same questions every month. Answers change from one run to the next, so look for patterns, not single results.

2. Publish one page per use case, industry or problem

A single "Solutions" page that lists everything is hard for an AI tool to match to a specific question. Give each main use case its own page with a plain title, such as "Payroll software for construction companies" or "B2B website redesign for SaaS startups". On each page, say in the first lines:

• who it's for (industry, company size, country or language)
• the problem it solves
• what's included and what isn't
• how it works with the tools buyers already use

Write it in plain text on the page. AI tools quote sentences, so put the key facts in sentences they can quote, not only inside images, sliders or PDFs.

3. Show how your pricing works

27% of buyers in Semrush's survey said AI answers don't reflect real pricing or contract structures. If your price isn't on your website, the AI tool has to guess, or it leaves you out of a "under €X" question.

You don't have to publish a full price list. "Projects usually start at €8,000", "plans from €49 per user per month, billed yearly" or "a fixed fee per audit, plus an optional monthly retainer" gives AI tools and buyers something concrete. Keep the numbers the same on every page and every third-party profile.

4. Write honest comparison pages

56% of buyers ask AI tools for direct vendor comparisons. If the only comparison pages online are written by your competitors, the AI tool will use them.

Publish a page that compares your approach with the main alternatives: other vendors, doing it in-house or a different type of tool. Be fair. Say when an alternative is the better choice, for example for a bigger budget or a different company size. Buyers will check your claims anyway, so stick to facts you can prove, and check competitors' details on their own websites before you publish.

5. Earn reviews and mentions on other sites

AI tools don't only read your website. They also read what others say about you. In G2's survey, 45% of buyers said citations from software review sites were the most confidence-inspiring signal in an AI answer. And 38% of Semrush's respondents check reviews on G2 or similar platforms after an AI recommendation.

Pick the review sites and directories that matter in your category (software review sites for SaaS, agency directories for agencies, industry associations for professional services) and complete your profiles there. Ask happy clients for reviews regularly, not all at once. Industry articles, podcast guest spots and partner pages that mention you by name also give AI tools more material to work with.

Note that G2 runs a software review site, so it has an interest in this finding. It still matches what buyers do: they want a second opinion.

6. Make your proof easy to find and quote

After the AI tool names you, the buyer checks. In Semrush's survey, 71% visit the vendor's website and 63% search for the company on Google. That's where you win or lose the deal.

Make sure the visit answers their next questions fast:

• Case studies with numbers: the client's industry, the problem, what you did and the result, with the client's permission.
• Named clients and logos, where you're allowed to show them.
• Team and company facts: who you are, where you're based, how long you've been doing this, certifications.
• A clear next step: a demo, a call or a quote form that doesn't ask for 15 fields.

7. Let AI search bots read your website

None of the above helps if AI tools can't read your pages. OpenAI says that to be eligible for ChatGPT search results, a site must allow OAI-SearchBot to crawl it, and the host or CDN must allow traffic from OpenAI's published search bot IP addresses. Check your robots.txt and your firewall or CDN settings. Our guide on allowing AI search bots but blocking AI training shows the exact lines.

Also make sure your key pages work without JavaScript tricks: text in the HTML, clear headings and a fast page. For the full technical list, see our checklist for getting cited by ChatGPT.

How to tell if it's working

B2B sales cycles are long, so you won't see results in a week. Track three things:

The third one matters most. A buyer who saw your name in ChatGPT may later type your company name into Google, so analytics will often credit the visit to search, not to AI.

What you can't control

• Answers change. The same question can give different vendors on different days or for different users.
• AI tools make mistakes. 64% of G2's respondents said they run into inaccurate AI recommendations often or very often. You can make correct information easy to find. You can't force an AI tool to use it.
• The surveys have limits. G2 surveyed software buyers worldwide and Semrush surveyed US professionals. G2 runs review sites and Semrush sells AI visibility tools, so both have an interest in the topic. Treat the numbers as a strong signal, not an exact measure for your market.

Next step

Before AI tools can match you to a buyer's question, they need to be able to read your website. Run the free AI visibility check to see whether AI search bots can reach your pages and how your homepage scores across 6 AI-readiness areas. If you want the robots.txt, llms.txt and schema written for your site, the €19 AI-Ready Kit has them ready to install. For a local business, our guide on getting recommended by ChatGPT as a local business is a better fit.