A growing share of B2B buyers are starting their research with AI-powered chatbots, and if a brand is not part of the chatbot’s answer, it is never in the conversation. G2, a platform where 200 million B2B buyers go for software reviews, shared data that 50% of buyers now start their research on ChatGPT, and 54% are using it to build their vendor shortlist. The shortlist is assembled inside a chatbot conversation before buyers visit a review site or talk to sales. The urgency is driven by the stat that 9 out of 10 buyers choose the company in Position 1 in the chatbot’s recommendation. Researchers at Wharton, including Steven Shaw and Gideon Nave, studied 1,372 people across 9,593 trials and found that once people use AI regularly for decisions, they stop evaluating its output, a phenomenon called cognitive surrender. The researchers concluded that “Human review is theater once the reviewer has been using AI for more than a few weeks.” When a buyer asks ChatGPT for a recommendation, there is no comparison shopping or scrolling to Position 2; the chatbot picked the winner and the buyer’s brain accepted it without friction.