We’re standing on the cusp of a new era in B2B commerce.
In this new era, AI will revolutionize customer experiences outside of the traditional B2C experience. Buying committees will be drawn into the white glove, personalized conversations that have been used to engage individual customers.
Why?
Because AI in the B2B customer journey offers a more efficient, higher touch buying experience. And because a desire to have that experience isn’t exclusive to individuals. When you really break it down, B2B customer journeys have longer cycles, large buying committees, and bespoke budgets and contracts. With all those touch points, AI can only help in the process.
In fact, companies leveraging AI for lead scoring see a 30% increase in deal closure rates and a 50% reduction in time spent on prospecting. And, using AI-powered pricing optimization has increased revenue for B2B commerce companies by up to 5% and improved their margins by up to 10%.
If your company sells to other companies (or hopes to soon), learn how you can use AI in the B2B commerce journey to make an enterprise-level impact.
The 3 stages of the B2B customer journey
The B2B journey is a multi-stage, collaborative process that requires more of both the buyer and the seller than a typical consumer purchasing journey. It involves multiple stakeholders, longer sales cycles, and a greater emphasis on research and validation. Models vary, but most still showcase three core stages:
1. Awareness stage
The purchaser’s journey begins when a business recognizes a problem or need within its organization. At this point, they try to understand their pain points, often turning to industry reports, blogs, and thought leadership content.
For the vendor, this is the stage where marketing efforts become important. Businesses selling their products and services should focus on educational content and thought leadership to make their brands visible to prospective purchasing companies and demonstrate that they can solve a buyer’s challenges and pain points.
2. Consideration stage
Once the problem is clearly defined, buyers move into the consideration stage, where they actively research and evaluate potential solutions. This involves comparing different products, services, or vendors. It also means engaging with in-depth resources such as whitepapers, webinars, case studies, and product comparison guides. Buyers are looking for proof points, differentiation, and clear answers to their specific needs.
For vendor businesses, content should address common objections and highlight unique value propositions.
3. Decision stage
In the final stage, business buyers have narrowed down their options and are ready to make a purchase decision. This often includes requesting proposals, participating in product demonstrations or trials, negotiating pricing and contract terms, and seeking internal consensus with stakeholders.
The goal for vendors at this stage is to remove any last-minute barriers, make the purchasing process as seamless as possible, and provide reassurance through demos, free trials, and customer references.
Key characteristics of the B2B buying journey:
- Involves multiple stakeholders and decision-makers, often from different departments.
- Buyers revisit stages, gather information from multiple channels, and seek consensus before moving forward.
- The process is non-linear and can vary in length, sometimes taking months or even years for high-value or complex purchases.
- Content and touch points must be tailored to each stage, with educational resources at the top of the funnel and detailed, solution-oriented materials closer to the decision point.
AI in the awareness stage
AI can significantly enhance the awareness stage of the B2B customer journey by ensuring that potential buying committees encounter the most relevant, personalized, and timely content from the very first interaction. Here’s how commerce brands can leverage AI at this critical stage:
Businesses crave hyper-personalization, too
AI-driven personalization in B2B commerce transcends basic product recommendations, creating real-time, context-aware experiences throughout the buyer journey. This shift is supported by data indicating that 73% of B2B buyers now expect a personalized, B2C-like experience. The selling company can use AI-driven analytics to identify potential B2B clients most likely to benefit from their software. They can leverage this data to create highly personalized pitches tailored to each prospect's specific industry, pain points, and business goals.
Business targeting with AI finds better prospects
AI can automatically segment audiences based on behavior, demographics, and engagement history, enabling highly targeted ad campaigns and content distribution. This ensures marketing resources are focused on the most promising prospects, improving campaign efficiency and ROI.
Businesses like responsive, multi-channel flexibility
AI enables dynamic content adaptation in real time—adjusting website banners, emails, and social media ads based on a visitor’s actions or interests. It also helps orchestrate multi-channel campaigns, ensuring consistent, personalized messaging across LinkedIn, email, and digital ads, which is crucial since B2B buyers often require multiple touch points before they engage.
AI in the consideration stage
AI can be a game-changer for commerce brands during the consideration stage of the B2B customer journey, where buyers are actively comparing solutions, evaluating features, and involving multiple stakeholders in their decision. Here’s how AI can help brands stand out and guide buyers toward a favorable outcome:
Sales enablement for B2B buying committees
AI-driven alerts can notify sales reps when a prospect revisits key pages (like pricing or case studies), enabling timely follow-ups and personalized outreach that aligns with the buyer’s interests and readiness to move to the next phase.
Account-based marketing at B2B scale
AI-powered ABM platforms can identify high-value target accounts and orchestrate multi-channel campaigns that deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. Case studies show that using AI-driven ABM can increase engagement by up to 70%, as it ensures every interaction is highly relevant to each account’s stage in the journey.
Predictive analytics and B2B lead scoring
AI dynamically scores leads based on real-time behaviors and intent signals, helping sales teams prioritize accounts most likely to convert. This ensures that resources are focused on the highest-potential opportunities, improving conversion rates and deal velocity. AI's ability to analyze vast amounts of data will enable B2B companies to anticipate customer needs with stunning accuracy. This predictive capability will allow businesses to proactively address issues, optimize inventory, and tailor their offerings to meet future demand.
AI in the decision stage
AI can be a powerful differentiator for commerce brands during the decision stage of the B2B customer journey, where buyers are evaluating final options, seeking validation, and preparing to make a purchase. Here’s how AI can help brands win deals and accelerate conversions at this critical leg of the journey:
Data-backed validation from similar business cases
AI can surface the most relevant case studies, testimonials, and third-party reviews for the buyer’s industry or use case, helping validate the brand’s solution and build trust at the final decision point.
Business deal scoring and risk detection
AI evaluates a range of signals—such as email engagement, meeting attendance, and content interactions—to score deals and predict their likelihood of closing. It can flag at-risk opportunities and recommend targeted actions to re-engage stakeholders or overcome objections, allowing teams to focus resources where they’re most likely to win.
Simplified business proposals
AI can automate the creation of proposals and contracts, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and speed. By pulling in the latest pricing, terms, and customer data, AI reduces manual errors and accelerates the procurement process, making it easier for buyers to say yes.
3 ways AI can give B2B companies an advantage
By using these AI-driven approaches, the selling company will not only streamline their sales process but also provide a firsthand demonstration of how AI can enhance customer experiences.
1. AI-powered assistants
Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are set to handle a significant portion of these interactions, providing instant, 24/7 support and guiding customers through complex product selections.
AI will also surface important, deal-closing data for sales and support reps throughout the process, like meeting notes, changes to a prospective business purchaser’s budget, and more.
2. AI demos and case study matching
Instead of a traditional sales presentation, B2B vendors will start offering interactive, AI-powered demos that showcase their product’s capabilities in real time. AI will help vendors instantly adapt to a prospect's needs and questions, providing even greater product value.
AI in the B2B journey will also automatically select and present case studies most relevant to the prospect's industry and specific challenges, demonstrating proven success in similar scenarios.
3. Predictive analytics in B2B CX
B2B sellers will be able to use AI to analyze their prospects’ customer engagement data in order to share potential improvements for the prospects’ customers. AI in the B2B flow will help business buyers see how a vendor will fit into their customers’ journeys.
Better customer experience, projected ROI, and forecasted impact on key performance indicators will improve for both sides of the B2B experience.
Start using AI in your B2B selling process
B2B commerce companies can start using AI to successfully sell to other companies by following a strategic, step-by-step approach that leverages AI’s strengths in personalization, automation, and data-driven decision-making. Here’s how to get started and what’s working for leading B2B brands:
1. Pinpoint high-impact AI uses: Identify where AI can make the biggest difference, such as personalizing communication, scoring and qualifying leads, predicting sales opportunities, or automating content and emails.
2. Add AI to your tech stack: Integrate AI-powered CX platforms, chatbots for instant customer support, and recommendation engines to enhance your existing sales and marketing tools.
3. Gather market insights: Use AI to monitor competitors, analyze market trends, and map the customer journey, so you can target the right buyers with relevant messaging.
4. Automate routine tasks: Let AI handle repetitive work like order processing, RFP responses, and routing leads to the right sales reps, freeing your team to focus on building relationships and closing deals.
5. Pilot, measure, and expand: Start with a small, focused AI project—track its performance, learn from the results, and gradually expand AI usage as you see positive outcomes.
6. Upskill your team: Train your sales and marketing teams on new AI tools, showing them how these solutions streamline their workflow and help them succeed.
Ultimately, AI helps people sell to other people
The future of B2B commerce is undeniably intertwined with AI. Businesses that successfully use AI to enhance buying committee experiences will thrive in this landscape.
B2B commerce companies need to integrate AI into their sales and marketing stack, leverage automation and personalization, and measure their efforts. Early adopters are already seeing improved lead quality, higher conversion rates, and more efficient sales cycles.
When it comes down to it, though, AI helps find the most compelling data to engage the human parts of one business with another—and that will always be the best way to connect and grow.
Recommended Blogs
Elevate commerce experiences with AI
AI is transforming commerce. These conversational platforms offer personalized experiences, efficient service, and intuitive shopping.
The ROI of AI in commerce
AI is revolutionizing commerce, revenue, and efficiency. Measure your company's ROI in AI initiatives and improve your CX.
AI-driven conversational commerce — adopt it and grow
AI-driven conversational commerce is revolutionizing online sales. Discover how it boosts conversions, personalizes experiences, and save costs.