A new research report from TrustRadius focused on helping B2B companies better understand the tech landscape to match their go-to-market efforts details how workers are using artificial intelligence (AI) and how software buyers are leveraging these tools as part of their buying journey.
From Buzzword to Backbone: How AI Is Redefining B2B Search and Buying found of those surveyed who stated they use AI at work, 95% use it at least weekly and 69% daily. Younger professionals are more likely to use AI at work, with 86% of Gen Z respondents reporting they use AI daily.
Job functions are impacting daily usage, with technical roles like engineering and product more likely to use AI tools daily. In contrast, finance and accounting professionals are the least likely to use AI.
A View of the AI Age
TrustRadius’ Allyson Havener stated with AI seemingly everywhere these days, the report’s focus was to go beyond the surface-level trends and take a deeper dive into the real-world data to uncover what’s truly driving the AI Age.
“Our research has revealed some fascinating insights, and we’re looking forward to opening up new conversations with B2B vendors eager to get a better grasp on, and gain more traction in, this evolving AI market,” said Havener in a statement.
Report Details
Across the board, the TrustRadius consensus is that professionals are testing out varied AI tools to establish what works best for their particular use case. Testing typically doesn’t cost a lot of money because free versions of these tools are widely available.
The average survey respondent uses three separate AI tools, with interesting demographic data trends present here as well. Baby Boomers used an average of 2.3 tools, while Gen Z respondents averaged 3.6.
The report found that ChatGPT the most commonly used tool at 79%—enterprise users (those who work at organizations with at least 1,001 employees), in particular, are more likely to employ Copilot and Perplexity. Gemini ranks third on this survey, at 46%.
Tool Trends
These use cases extend beyond standalone AI tools as 75% of respondents reported they utilize tools that offer AI features; only 9% of this group stating that they don’t use the AI features offered.
With so many AI tools now prevalent in the workplace, just how are professionals utilizing them? According to our survey, the most common categories of AI use at work include research at 46%, Other uses cited include writing (43%), content creation (19%), ideation (17%) and process automation (14%). The most common goals for the buyer community were efficiency at 86%, innovation at 57% and cost/time savings at 49%.
These companies are looking to accomplish their goals by adopting AI tools and cultivating their own. Among all respondents, 32% work at companies that are developing proprietary AI tools for internal use cases. This number is higher in the enterprise (54%), unsurprisingly, because these organizations presumably have more resources to allocate towards AI.
AI Work Policies
Even with businesses of all sizes turning to AI tools, there are often certain rules of engagement. Just over half— 51%— of professionals surveyed stated their employer has a policy that governed AI use in the workplace. This is even more prevalent in larger companies, with 72% of enterprise employees reporting their company adheres to an AI policy.
As AI is being used for more daily tasks, this includes software buying— 45% of respondents and 51% of enterprise buyers have turned to AI during their software-buying processes. C-suite buyers (65%) and Gen Z (51%) leverage AI more often in their buying processes, which means that both early-stage researchers and the final decision-makers are using AI tools to evaluate products.
Buyers are still learning how to employ AI for software buying and are evaluating it for use cases from preliminary research to final decision-making as 94% of buyers who utilize AI say they find it helpful or very helpful.
Report Conclusions
According to TrustRadius AI usage in work and software buying will continue to become the status quo. AI that automates workflows and simple tasks are key use cases, leading to the conclusion that AI tools and features that support these uses will keep growing.
“Conversely, it’s probable that a large number of tech companies will release AI features that simply fall short,” the report states. “Users can see right through AI features that don’t add value and were built just so the product can be called AI-enabled.”
Additionally, with Google’s dominance waning and shifts in their algorithm, a bleak picture for search engine optimization (SEO) is emerging. Not only is it harder to get visibility, companies now need to have both traditional SEO and generative engine optimization (GEO) strategies.
“There’s less traffic to go around if you do get your content in front of people,” write the authors of the report. “If this sounds like twice the work, it is, but only kinda. Having clear, helpful, authoritative, and insightful content will help you on both fronts.”
