B2B Buying

Analyst relations is one of the larger fixed costs in an enterprise B2B marketing budget and one of the least examined. As buyers begin vendor research in AI assistants, and the analyst firms put generative interfaces over their own research, the path by which analyst opinion reaches a buying committee has changed. The briefing matters less than what ends up in writing. Here is how to evaluate the program honestly before the 2027 renewal, and where to move the effort.

Autonomous AI agents are beginning to do the work of B2B buyers—discovering vendors, building shortlists, comparing options, and screening out non-compliant suppliers before a human is ever involved. This shifts a portion of the buying journey from persuading people to being selectable by machines, and most B2B marketing is not built for it. Here is what changes, what doesn’t, and how to prepare without overreacting to the hype.

B2B buying behavior has fundamentally shifted. Younger decision-makers, self-directed research, and consensus-driven purchases require new approaches from marketing and sales teams.