Trust More, Verify Everything: What the 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect Report Says About Where Buying Is Actually Heading

Somewhere in the middle of 2026, a B2B buyer opened ChatGPT, asked it to compare three data platforms, got a clean answer in eight seconds, then spent the next forty minutes checking whether any of it was true. That buyer is not an outlier. According to the 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect report from TrustRadius, which surveyed 1,862 buyers and 444 vendors, that behavior is becoming  the norm.

The contradiction at the center of this year’s data is hard to ignore: buyers are using AI more, trusting online resources less, and fact-checking almost everything.

Quick Answer: The 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect report shows that 63 percent of buyers used AI in their buying process, yet 47 percent trust online resources less than they did a year ago. Buyers are adopting AI tools faster while simultaneously verifying AI outputs more aggressively, with 72 percent saying they always or very often fact-check AI outputs .

Skepticism is the new default

A year ago, 39 percent of buyers said they trusted online resources less than before. That number jumped to 47 percent in 2026. More telling: the “neutral” cohort, buyers who neither trusted more nor less, shrank eight points in a single year (from 50 percent to 42 percent). Neutral buyers did not become believers; they became skeptics.

This is not simply a broad decline in trust . It is directional. Buyers are not checking out of the research process. They are reading more carefully, cross-referencing more sources, and demanding evidence that used to be optional. Vendor marketing collateral ranked dead last among resources buyers actually consult. Analyst reports dropped 63 percent in usage since 2022, bottoming out at 13 percent. The resources buyers are abandoning are the ones that feel controlled.

What they are turning to instead is each other. Fifty-three percent spoke to a peer during their buying process, and every single one of them found it at least somewhat helpful. 74 percent of buyers consulted customer reviews during their purchase journey. Separately, review-site usage increased from 58 percent in 2025 to 63 percent in 2026.

AI made research easier but did not make it trustworthy

Here is the paradox that defines this year’s report. Fifty-four percent of buyers say AI made their research easier, up from 40 percent in 2025. Adoption is accelerating. But trust in AI outputs has barely moved: 60 percent trust AI “sometimes,” 20 percent “very often,” and just 2 percent “always.”

The gap between “useful” and “trusted” has real consequences. Ninety-four percent of buyers fact-check AI-generated information. The share who always or very often verify jumped from 58 percent to 72 percent. Buyers treat AI like a capable intern: fast, helpful, not to be trusted unsupervised.

This creates a specific problem for vendors who assume that showing up in an AI-generated answer equals credibility. It does not. If the citation does not hold up to a fact-check, or if the source behind the AI summary is vendor-controlled content, the buyer moves on. Third-party validation, peer reviews, community consensus: these are the assets that survive the verification pass.

Buyers already know what they want before they start looking

The 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect report includes a stat that should make demand-gen teams uncomfortable. Seventy-nine percent of buyers had already heard of the product before they started researching. Eighty-three percent shortlisted three or fewer products, with an average shortlist of 2.7. And 67 percent ended up buying their first-choice product.

That sequence, heard of it already, shortlisted it early, bought it anyway, tells a story about when buying decisions actually form. They form before the buyer ever fills out a form. The research phase is not a discovery process for most buyers; it is a confirmation process. They are looking for reasons to feel confident in a choice they have already leaned toward.

This is why 66 percent purchased an established, leading product and 87 percent bought either a market leader or a niche-specific tool. Familiarity wins. “Safest, most trusted option” rose in importance this year while price dropped slightly. Even the demo mattered more: “their demo blew us away” jumped from 13 to 18 percent as a deciding factor.

The ROI blind spot nobody wants to talk about

Fifty-nine percent of purchases in the 2026 data were AI tools or tools with AI features. Sixty-five percent of companies are prioritizing AI investments, rising to 76 percent at the enterprise level. That is a lot of budget moving in one direction.

But here is where the vendor-buyer gap gets uncomfortable. Sixteen percent of buyers are not tracking AI ROI at all. Vendors estimate that number at just 3 percent. That is not a rounding error; it is a five-to-one mismatch in how the two sides perceive accountability.

The market is spending on AI faster than it is measuring AI. And while the early returns may justify the optimism, the measurement lag creates risk. When budgets tighten, tools without clear ROI documentation are the first ones cut, regardless of how useful they feel in practice.

What holds up when buyers verify everything

The pattern across every data point in the 2026 B2B Buying Disconnect report points in the same direction. Buyers are not retreating from technology. They are not slowing down. They are adding a verification layer to every step of the process, and the resources that survive that layer are the ones vendors do not control: peer conversations, third-party reviews, independent validation.

For GTM teams, the implication is specific. Being present in an AI-generated summary is necessary but not sufficient. The citation behind the summary has to be credible when a buyer clicks through. The review has to be real. The peer has to corroborate the claim.

HG Insights, through TrustRadius, helps B2B companies build the kind of third-party presence that holds up under buyer scrutiny. See how verified reviews and buyer intelligence support modern GTM strategy.