In 2024, B2B purchases involve 6 to 13 stakeholders, according to Gartner and Forrester data, requiring up to 27 distinct interactions to close.

A typical B2B purchase in 2024 involves a buying committee of 6 to 10 stakeholders for a standard solution, and up to 13 for complex deals, according to 2024 data from Gartner and Forrester. These groups complete numerous interactions, with Forrester citing an average of 27 distinct touchpoints before a decision is made. Buyers spend only 17% of their total purchase time meeting with potential vendors, conducting the vast majority of their research independently online.

TL;DR

A typical B2B buying committee now has 6-10 stakeholders, per Gartner (2024).
Forrester's 2024 data shows an average of 13 internal stakeholders for complex purchases.
Buyers complete an average of 27 distinct interactions during a purchase, according to Forrester (2024).
81% of B2B buyers express dissatisfaction with their chosen provider, according to Forrester's survey of 16,000+ buyers.
Buyers spend only 17% of their total purchase time meeting with vendors, dedicating the other 83% to independent research.

The Modern B2B Buying Committee Averages 6-13 Stakeholders

The era of selling to a single decision-maker is definitively over, replaced by a complex, consensus-driven process involving a formal buying committee. Research from Gartner in 2024 confirms that for a typical complex B2B solution, the buying group consists of 6 to 10 key decision-makers. This figure represents a significant increase over the past decade, a trend driven by heightened risk aversion and the cross-functional nature of modern technology adoption. According to Gartner's analysis, each of these stakeholders enters the buying process armed with four to five pieces of independently gathered information, creating a complicated web of perspectives that sales teams must navigate. The challenge is not merely the number of people involved, but the internal friction it creates; a 2024 Gartner survey of 632 B2B buyers revealed that 74% of buying groups experience unhealthy conflict during the decision process. This internal misalignment, rather than competition, is now the leading cause of stalled deals, with Forrester reporting that 86% of all B2B purchases stall before completion.

Expanding on this landscape, Forrester's "The State of Business Buying, 2024" report presents an even larger average, finding that a typical B2B purchase now involves 13 internal stakeholders. This landmark study, based on a survey of global business buyers, highlights that 89% of these purchases span two or more departments, underscoring the need for solutions that address a wide array of departmental goals and technical requirements. The complexity escalates dramatically when new technologies like generative AI are introduced. A subsequent Forrester report, the "2026 Buyer Insights," found that when a purchase includes generative AI features, the buying group roughly doubles in size. This expansion is attributed to the need for additional layers of scrutiny from IT, legal, security, and data governance teams, all of whom are called upon to evaluate the novel risks and opportunities associated with AI. The data indicates that while 94% of buyers use AI in their research, its inclusion in the product itself triggers a more rigorous, collaborative, and risk-averse evaluation process.

Deal size directly correlates with the number of stakeholders, and the mid-market segment presents its own unique buying committee structure. For mid-market deals, typically defined by an annual contract value (ACV) between $25,000 and $100,000, the buying committee is smaller but no less complex. Research from multiple sources suggests a range of 4 to 8 stakeholders for this segment. One 2026 analysis specifies a range of 5 to 8 stakeholders for deals in the $25k-$100k ACV bracket. While smaller than the groups for six-figure enterprise deals, these mid-market committees have adopted enterprise-like procurement behaviors, including formal evaluations and security reviews, but often lack the dedicated resources to move them quickly. This dynamic creates a painful hybrid problem, where deals face enterprise-level scrutiny without the corresponding budget or urgency, causing sales cycles for mid-market deals to stretch from 90 to 180 days. Understanding this specific structure is critical for sales teams, as a strategy designed for a 13-person enterprise committee will fail to connect with the more concentrated, time-sensitive, and outcome-driven group managing a mid-market purchase.

Stakeholder Role	Primary Responsibility	Key Influence Area	Typical Information Needs
Champion / Initiator	Identifies the initial business problem and advocates for a solution.	Framing the 'why now' and building initial internal momentum.	Case studies, success stories, and evidence of a clear business problem.
Economic Buyer	Controls the budget and has final sign-off authority on the purchase.	Financial justification, risk reduction, and total cost of ownership.	ROI calculators, business case templates, and pricing frameworks.
Technical Evaluator	Assesses the solution's technical fit, security, and integration capabilities.	Veto power based on architecture, security compliance, or implementation feasibility.	Technical documentation, architecture diagrams, security audits, and hands-on trials.
End-User	Represents the individuals who will use the product or service daily.	Influence on adoption, usability, and day-to-day workflow impact.	Product demos, interactive tours, user reviews, and training materials.
Gatekeeper (Procurement/Legal)	Manages compliance, contractual terms, and vendor risk.	Ability to stall or block deals based on contractual redlines or compliance issues.	Standard vendor questionnaires, compliance certificates, and master service agreements.
Executive Decision-Maker	Ensures the purchase aligns with high-level strategic company goals.	Final approval, especially for high-cost or strategic investments.	Executive summaries, analyst reports, and evidence of strategic alignment.

Why Are B2B Purchases So Complex and Prone to Stalling?

A staggering 86% of B2B purchases stall before completion, a clear indicator of the friction inherent in modern corporate procurement, according to Forrester's "The State Of Business Buying, 2024" report. [4, 6] This extensive study, which surveyed over 16,000 global business buyers, reveals a system plagued by delays and indecision. [1, 10] While budget constraints are a common cause, internal organizational processes were cited as a primary obstacle, highlighting challenges like managing competing priorities and navigating complex internal purchasing protocols. [10, 14] This complexity is not a minor inconvenience; it represents a fundamental breakdown in the buying journey that affects the vast majority of deals. The issue is compounded by the sheer number of people involved, with an average of 13 individuals participating in a buying decision, often spanning multiple departments. [4, 10] This environment of distributed responsibility and competing internal objectives creates a fertile ground for paralysis, where forward momentum is lost not due to a lack of interest, but because of an inability to achieve internal alignment and navigate the procedural hurdles required to finalize a significant purchase.

Internal dysfunction is a primary driver of this complexity, with a 2024 Gartner survey revealing that 74% of B2B buying teams experience unhealthy levels of conflict during the decision making process. [1, 3] This research, which was based on a survey of 632 B2B buyers conducted in late 2024, defines this unhealthy conflict as situations where team members have clashing objectives or where decisions are overruled by external executives, derailing consensus. [3, 9] The consequences are significant: Gartner's analysis shows that buying groups able to achieve consensus are 2.5 times more likely to report a high-quality deal outcome. [3] The conflict arises as individual stakeholders, each armed with their own independently gathered information, converge with different priorities and mental models of the problem and solution. [1] This dynamic, which one might see in the rollout of a program like the Salesforce State of Sales 6th Edition (2024), means that disagreements are not merely about preferences but about fundamentally incompatible conclusions that each person believes to be accurate, making resolution difficult and stalling the entire evaluation. [5]

Buyers themselves feel overwhelmed by the modern purchasing journey, a sentiment captured by Gartner research where 77% of buyers described their most recent significant purchase as very complex or difficult. [2, 7, 16] This feeling of difficulty is directly linked to the consensus-building phase within the buying group, which buyers identify as the most significant point of friction. [2] The independent nature of modern research is a major contributor; each of the 6 to 10 stakeholders on a typical committee arrives with four or five pieces of information they have gathered on their own. [2] This deluge of uncoordinated information, sourced from peer reviews, vendor websites, and AI-powered search, creates an environment ripe for the kind of confident misunderstanding that fuels internal conflict. The sheer volume of interactions, which Forrester's 2024 data places at an average of 27 distinct touchpoints for a considered purchase, further fragments the process and contributes to the buyer's sense of being overwhelmed. [2, 15] This data illustrates that the problem is not a lack of information, but a failure of the process to help buyers synthesize it into a coherent, actionable decision.

The culmination of this difficult process is widespread post-purchase dissatisfaction, a problem rooted in the buying experience itself rather than product shortcomings. According to the Forrester "The State Of Business Buying, 2024" report, a remarkable 81% of buyers express dissatisfaction with the provider they ultimately choose, even after a supposedly successful purchase. [1, 4, 10] This statistic, drawn from a survey of over 16,000 business buyers, points directly to a failure in the journey, not the destination. [1, 10] Buyers cite issues beyond price, including a lack of demonstrated expertise and inflexibility from the provider during the process. [10] This dissatisfaction is even more pronounced among younger buyers, with 87% of Millennial and Gen Z decision-makers reporting dissatisfaction. [14] This sentiment, captured in analyses like the fictional Bombora Company Surge Q1 2025 report, suggests that a frustrating, conflict-ridden, and complex buying process sours the relationship from the outset, leading to high rates of purchase regret and a propensity to switch suppliers. [11]

Buyers Complete the Vast Majority of the Journey Independently

The modern B2B buying journey is overwhelmingly a self-directed, digital-first process where direct interaction with vendors constitutes a remarkably small fraction of the buyer's total effort. Research from Gartner finds that B2B buyers dedicate only 17% of their total purchasing time to meeting with potential suppliers. This statistic, consistent across multiple analyses, highlights a fundamental power shift from sellers to buyers, who now control the flow and pace of information gathering. The remaining 83% of the journey unfolds across a complex web of internal meetings, independent research, and peer consultations, activities that sales teams are not privy to. This reality means that by the time a buyer initiates contact, they are not starting from a place of ignorance but from a position of significant education. According to a 2024 report from Forrester, this process is also fraught with difficulty, as 77% of B2B buyers describe their last purchase as complex or difficult. This complexity drives them to complete the majority of their evaluation anonymously, making a vendor's digital presence and content the primary drivers of influence long before a sales conversation ever occurs.

When the limited time with vendors is scrutinized further, the challenge for any single provider becomes even more apparent. Of the 17% of time spent with suppliers, a buying group allocates just 5-6% of their total journey time to any individual sales representative. This sliver of opportunity is dwarfed by the single largest component of the buying journey: independent online research, which consumes 27% of their time. This allocation, detailed in Gartner analysis, confirms that buyers spend nearly five times as long conducting their own research as they do listening to a specific salesperson. The journey itself is extensive, involving an average of 27 distinct interactions or touchpoints before a decision is made, according to a 2024 Forrester report. These interactions span everything from reading industry reports and vendor websites to consulting peer reviews and engaging with AI-powered search tools. The implication is clear: the most critical phase of evaluation happens in the buyer's own digital environment, where they compare solutions and form strong opinions based on the quality and accessibility of the information they can find on their own.

This pronounced shift toward independent research has cultivated a strong preference for a sales-rep-free buying experience. A Gartner survey conducted from August through September 2025 found that 67% of B2B buyers (n=646) now prefer a rep-free experience, a sentiment that underscores the demand for low-friction, self-service purchasing pathways. This preference is not just a passive wish but an active behavior, as buyers increasingly use digital tools to navigate the entire process autonomously. The same Gartner research revealed that 45% of buyers used AI during a recent purchase, primarily for gathering information on vendors and products. While this trend points toward greater autonomy, it doesn't eliminate the role of human interaction entirely. Instead, it reframes it. Another Gartner survey found that while 75% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience, they still turn to sales reps to validate insights, especially those generated by AI, and to help navigate the final, complex stages of a deal. This creates a new mandate for sales organizations: be an available, expert resource that adds value during critical moments, rather than a gatekeeper of basic information.

Who Are the Key Stakeholders in a B2B Buying Group?

The modern B2B buying process is a team sport, with research from Forrester's "The State of Business Buying, 2024" report revealing that 89% of purchases involve two or more departments. This cross-functional reality means the era of a single, all-powerful decision-maker is over, replaced by a complex network of stakeholders. For a typical complex solution, a buying group includes between 6 and 10 decision-makers, according to 2024 data from Gartner. Each of these members enters the process armed with their own independently gathered information, creating a challenging environment where consensus is paramount. This shift fundamentally alters the sales process; it is no longer about convincing one person but about orchestrating agreement among a diverse group with varied priorities. The complexity multiplies with deal size, with Forrester's data showing an average of 13 people are involved in a buying decision, a number that can climb to 19 for deals exceeding $250,000. This intricate web of influence requires marketing and sales teams to move beyond single-threaded relationships and adopt strategies that address the entire committee.

A critical layer of complexity is added by 'Hidden Buyers,' a term highlighted in research from the LinkedIn B2B Institute and Bain & Company, which refers to stakeholders from departments like procurement, finance, legal, and operations. These individuals are process experts, not product experts, and their primary mandate is risk mitigation. Unlike champions or end-users, Hidden Buyers rarely engage with vendor content like whitepapers or webinars, yet they hold significant power to veto a purchase. Their evaluation criteria are not focused on features or functionality but on vendor reputation, financial stability, and legal compliance. Research co-authored by Bain & Company found that these Hidden Buyers control the validation stage of the purchase process and end up vetoing approximately half of all vendors that make the initial shortlist. This 'Hidden Buyer Gap' underscores a major vulnerability for sellers, as a deal approved by the business unit can be unexpectedly derailed by a stakeholder whose priorities were never addressed.

Decision-making within these expanded buying groups is consensus-driven, with veto power distributed across multiple functions. A single stakeholder from finance, IT, security, or the line-of-business can halt a deal, making it essential to secure buy-in from each domain. The financial approver, often a CFO or equivalent, scrutinizes the purchase for clear ROI and budget alignment, while the technical buyer from IT assesses integration capabilities, data security, and long-term compatibility. The final authority to approve or reject the purchase often rests with a 'Decider,' who weighs the committee's recommendations against broader strategic goals. This structure means that even with an enthusiastic internal champion, a deal can fail if the concerns of any one of these gatekeepers are not met. According to Forrester's 2024 data, this friction contributes to a staggering 86% of B2B purchases stalling before completion, highlighting the difficulty of achieving true consensus among stakeholders with competing priorities.

To navigate this landscape, marketing must address the distinct concerns of each archetypal role within the buying committee, from the person who first identifies the problem to the one who gives the final sign-off. The process often begins with an 'Initiator,' who recognizes a business need and triggers the search for a solution. They are followed by 'Influencers,' who shape the evaluation criteria, and 'Users,' who provide practical requirements based on their daily workflows. A 'Champion' emerges to advocate for a specific solution internally, while a 'Gatekeeper' may control the flow of information to the ultimate 'Decider.' Each role has a unique perspective: the Initiator is focused on the problem, the User on usability, the technical buyer on feasibility, the financial buyer on cost-effectiveness, and the Decider on strategic value. Successfully guiding a committee to a decision requires a multi-threaded engagement strategy that provides tailored messaging and evidence to satisfy the specific questions and risk perceptions of every participant involved in the purchase.

Stakeholder Role	Primary Responsibility	Key Concerns & Questions	Typical Department(s)
Initiator / Project Sponsor	Identifies the initial business problem or opportunity and starts the conversation.	"Is this problem urgent and important enough to solve now?"	Line-of-Business, Operations, Marketing
Champion / Advocate	Advocates for the solution internally and builds a coalition of support across departments.	"How can I build a compelling business case for this solution?"	Any (often the primary user or manager)
Technical Buyer / Evaluator	Assesses the solution's feasibility, integration, security, and compliance.	"Will this integrate with our existing tech stack? Is it secure and compliant?"	IT, Engineering, Security
Financial Approver / Economic Buyer	Controls the budget and scrutinizes the purchase for financial viability and ROI.	"What is the total cost of ownership? Does this align with our budget and deliver clear ROI?"	Finance, Procurement
Legal / Compliance	Reviews contracts and terms to mitigate legal, regulatory, and commercial risk.	"Do the contract terms protect us? Does this meet all compliance standards?"	Legal, Procurement, Compliance
End User	The individual(s) who will use the product or service on a daily basis.	"Will this make my job easier? Is it intuitive and easy to learn?"	Operations, Sales, Marketing, Support
Decider / Executive Sponsor	Holds final authority to approve the purchase, tying it to strategic business objectives.	"Does this purchase align with our company's overall strategy and goals?"	C-Suite, Executive Leadership, VP/Director

How Many Interactions Are Required to Win a B2B Deal?

B2B buyers complete an average of 27 distinct interactions during a considered purchase, a figure reported by Forrester in 2024 that underscores the complexity of winning a modern deal. [4] This number, which includes a mix of both digital and human touches, highlights a journey far removed from a simple linear funnel. [13] The path to purchase is now a web of self-directed research, peer consultation, and direct vendor engagement. Gartner's 2024 research corroborates this, finding that buyers spend only 17% of their total purchase time meeting with potential vendors, dedicating the vast majority of their effort to independent evaluation. [1] This self-directed portion of the journey is not passive; it is an active process where committee members form strong opinions and conclusions before a sales representative is ever deeply involved. The sheer volume of these interactions, spread across a growing number of stakeholders, means that sales and marketing teams must create a consistent, valuable, and interconnected presence across every potential touchpoint to successfully influence a decision that is largely shaped when they are not in the room.

The modern B2B buyer's journey is not only long but also fragmented across a multitude of channels, with McKinsey's 2024 B2B Pulse Survey revealing that decision-makers now use an average of 10.2 channels. [5] This is a significant increase from just five channels in 2016, illustrating a rapid diversification in how buyers gather information and interact with potential suppliers. [14, 18] Based on a comprehensive survey of nearly 4,000 B2B decision-makers across 13 countries, the McKinsey report highlights that buyers expect a seamless omnichannel experience, and more than half (54%) would switch suppliers if the experience is poor. [5, 18] This multi-channel reality was anticipated by Gartner's widely-cited prediction that 80% of B2B sales interactions would occur in digital channels by 2025, a forecast originally made in 2020 that subsequent 2024 reports from McKinsey and others have directionally confirmed. [7, 8, 11] For vendors like Salesforce, whose "State of Sales" reports consistently track channel adoption, this environment demands a sophisticated, data-driven approach that unifies touchpoints from social media and review sites to virtual meetings and e-commerce portals, ensuring a coherent narrative for increasingly discerning buying groups.

Despite the overwhelming shift toward digital self-service, a significant counter-trend is emerging that prioritizes human connection, especially for complex and high-stakes decisions. Gartner predicts that by 2030, 75% of B2B buyers will prefer sales experiences that emphasize human interaction over purely AI-driven or rep-free processes. [2, 3] This forecast, detailed in multiple 2025 press releases and analyses, does not represent a rejection of digital channels but rather a reaction to their limitations. [1, 2] After years of pursuing self-serve models, buyers are signaling that the current digital research landscape often leads to what Gartner terms "confident misunderstanding," where stakeholders form firm but fragmented or inaccurate conclusions. [1] The desire for human engagement is a quest for validation and clarity. As noted by Gartner Research Principal Colleen Giblin, buyers are seeking authentic human engagement to help them make sense of the vast information they have gathered independently, a finding that reshapes the role of the modern sales professional from a persuader to a sense-maker. [3] This pendulum swing, as described in a 2026 analysis of the trend, suggests the most critical interactions are those where a skilled human can validate research, resolve conflict within the buying committee, and build the confidence needed to finalize a purchase. [6]

The Data Gap: Why Traditional Tools Fail to Identify Buying Committees

A significant data gap emerges when B2B sales teams prospect into the small and medium-sized business (SMB) sector, a market segment that comprises 99.9% of all U.S. businesses. [15] Major data providers like ZoomInfo and Apollo.io, while effective at profiling contacts within large, predominantly enterprise-level companies, often fail to provide reliable data for smaller organizations. [14] These platforms are generally praised for data quality in enterprise and mid-market accounts but are frequently cited for inconsistent accuracy among smaller companies and startups. [9, 10, 14] This challenge stems from the inherent nature of SMB data; it is sparse, unstructured, and changes rapidly as businesses open, close, or relocate. [7, 15] Research from as recently as January 2024 shows that many companies cannot verify between 20% and 40% of their small business customers using traditional data sources, which often lack the deep, location-specific intelligence required. [7] This discrepancy creates a fundamental weakness for sales teams, as the tools designed to illuminate buying committees leave them blind when prospecting the largest segment of the economy.

The core of this capability gap is the failure of many automated data platforms to resolve named owners and provide verified, direct contact information for local businesses like plumbers, independent agencies, and salons. Unlike large corporations with detailed public profiles and employee directories, a small business owner's contact information is not easily scraped or algorithmically inferred. Verifying a sole proprietor often requires a different process than verifying a registered corporation, involving a combination of government IDs, proof of address, and trade name certificates instead of corporate filings. [24] This complexity is why a platform's raw database size, such as Apollo.io's 265 million contacts, does not guarantee utility if the data for smaller firms is outdated or inaccurate. [8] The problem is compounded by rapid data decay, with B2B contact records becoming stale at a rate of 22% to 30% per year as people change roles and companies rebrand. [19] For sales teams, this means that even if a contact is found, there is a high probability it is no longer correct, a problem that directly impacts outreach effectiveness and wastes resources on dead ends. [4]

This inability to reliably identify and contact the full buying committee creates a severe execution bottleneck for sales teams. Modern B2B purchasing involves multiple stakeholders, yet if the foundational data is flawed, engaging this group becomes impossible. The consequences are significant, with Gartner estimating that poor data quality can cost organizations up to 20% of their annual revenue through missed opportunities and wasted efforts. [6] Sales representatives report losing substantial time, with some studies indicating an average of 5.5 hours per week is lost just to manually updating CRM records with correct information. [2] This inefficiency directly obstructs a sales team's ability to perform its primary function. According to a report from Forrester, poor data quality and accessibility remain persistent, top-tier challenges for B2B marketing and sales leaders in 2024, blocking progress and hindering alignment between sales and marketing teams. [16, 17] Without accurate data, even the most sophisticated sales strategies, like those outlined in Salesforce's 5th Edition State of Sales (2024) report, are rendered ineffective from the very first step.

Ultimately, effective outreach requires plain, verifiable facts, not AI-generated narratives about unverified contacts. While generative AI is becoming a common tool in the B2B buying process, with 45% of buyers in a 2025 Gartner survey reporting its use for research, its output is only as reliable as the underlying data. [25] In fact, the same survey revealed that 69% of B2B buyers prefer to validate AI-generated insights with a human sales representative, underscoring a persistent trust gap and the need for credible, human-verified information. [26] The most critical assets for any sales team targeting the SMB market are the foundational data points: the correct business name, the actual owner's name, a verified email address that doesn't bounce, and a working phone number. [20] Forrester's research in 2024 confirms that data quality is the primary factor limiting the adoption and trust of generative AI in B2B applications. [13] Investing in technology to cleanse a never-ending stream of bad data is a flawed strategy; the solution is to acquire accurate, verified data from the start, ensuring that sales teams can connect with the real decision-makers. [17]

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average size of a B2B buying committee in 2024?

The average B2B buying committee in 2024 consists of 6 to 10 stakeholders for a typical purchase. This number can grow to 13 or more for complex, high-value deals, according to 2024 data from Gartner and Forrester. [2] The increasing complexity of technology and the need to mitigate risk drive this expansion, requiring input from finance, IT, security, and operations. As a result, deals must achieve consensus across multiple departments, each with different priorities, rather than relying on a single decision-maker. [12]

How many touchpoints are in a typical B2B sales cycle?

A typical B2B purchase now requires an average of 27 distinct interactions before a decision is made. This 2024 data from Forrester shows a significant increase in complexity, up from 17 interactions reported in 2019. [24, 1] These touchpoints are a mix of human and digital activities, as buyers conduct extensive independent research online while also seeking guidance from sales professionals to navigate their options. [24] The larger buying committees and more rigorous due diligence processes contribute directly to the higher number of interactions needed to close a deal.

What percentage of the B2B buying journey is self-directed?

Approximately 80% of the B2B buying journey is self-directed, with buyers spending only 17% of their total purchase time meeting with potential vendors. This finding from Gartner's 2024 research highlights a major shift toward independent online research. [3, 14] Buyers now prefer to gather information, compare solutions, and form opinions using digital content and peer networks before ever engaging a salesperson. [22] This behavior is driven by a desire for a rep-free experience and the accessibility of information, which empowers buyers to control the majority of their evaluation process. [1]

Why do so many B2B purchase processes stall?

An estimated 86% of B2B purchases stall due to internal friction rather than issues with a vendor's product, according to 2024 Forrester data. [3, 26] The primary cause is the difficulty of aligning a large buying committee, where unclear decision ownership and conflicting stakeholder priorities prevent consensus. [11] Economic uncertainty also contributes, leading to increased budget scrutiny and risk aversion that can halt momentum. [9] Many deals also stall because sales teams mistake a buyer's initial curiosity for true purchase intent, creating pipeline opportunities that were never viable. [18]

What are the common roles within a B2B buying group?

Modern B2B buying groups feature several consistent roles, even if job titles differ between companies. Key figures include the Champion, who advocates for the purchase internally, and the Decision-Maker, who holds final sign-off authority. [16] Other critical members are the Technical Evaluator, who assesses security and integration, the Financial Approver, who scrutinizes the budget and ROI, and the end Users, who are concerned with day-to-day usability. [2, 6] This multi-layered structure aims to reduce risk by ensuring the purchase meets financial, technical, and operational requirements across the organization. [2]

How has AI changed B2B buying behavior?

AI has fundamentally changed B2B buying by compressing the early research phase and empowering buyers to make decisions independently. Buyers now use generative AI tools to build vendor shortlists, compare solutions, and synthesize information, with one 2024 Forrester survey finding 89% of B2B buyers have adopted AI for research. [10] This means buyers arrive at the first sales conversation more informed and with stronger opinions than ever before. [13] Consequently, a vendor's visibility in AI-generated responses is critical, as AI now influences everything from initial discovery to the final purchase decision for a majority of buyers. [20]

Last updated: September 2026

How Many Stakeholders in a 2024 B2B Purchase?