Why 69% of B2B Buyers Now Use Reps to Verify AI
By Jonathan Justus | jonnynow.com | 22 May 2026
Photo: Unsplash / Free for commercial use
Sales representatives are reasserting their value in the business-to-business buying process even as artificial intelligence floods the research stage, according to survey data released this week by Gartner. Presented at the firm’s CSO & Sales Leader Conference in Las Vegas on 20 May, the research found that 69 per cent of B2B buyers now turn to a human sales representative to validate insights generated by AI tools — a finding that recasts the seller’s role at a moment when many had written it off.
The result lands against a backdrop of rapid AI adoption across commercial functions. Gartner’s survey of 645 B2B buyers, conducted between August and September 2025, found that 45 per cent used generative AI during a recent purchase, drawing on an average of seven separate information sources to inform their decision. Yet trust has not kept pace with usage. More than half of buyers reported receiving misleading information from AI tools, and only 33 per cent rated supplier-provided generative AI as trustworthy.
The tension is sharpened by an earlier Gartner finding, published in March 2026, that 67 per cent of B2B buyers say they would prefer a rep-free purchasing experience. Buyers want to research independently — but when the stakes rise, they want a human to check the machine’s work.
From Persuader to Verifier
Gartner analyst Alyssa Cruz framed the shift directly: sellers must move from being persuaders to being verifiers. The distinction is operational, not semantic. A persuader pushes a position; a verifier helps a buyer confirm whether the information they have already assembled — much of it AI-generated — is accurate, complete and applicable to their own circumstances.
The economics reward the change. Gartner found that when buyers experienced what it terms “value affirmation” from a sales representative — a credible, evidence-based confirmation of their thinking — 75 per cent reported a high-quality deal. The representative who can stress-test a buyer’s AI-sourced assumptions is now worth more than the one who can merely recite a feature list.
Key Statistic: Only 33 per cent of B2B buyers rate supplier-provided generative AI as trustworthy, while 69 per cent turn to a human sales representative to validate AI-generated insights. — Gartner B2B Buyer Survey, May 2026
Marketing’s Widening Credibility Gap
The verifier dynamic exposes a problem on the marketing side of the revenue function. Adoption of AI among B2B marketers is now near-universal — 96 per cent report using it in their roles, according to 2026 industry data compiled by Sopro — and much of that output reaches buyers as automated content, chat responses and AI-summarised product information. But volume is not credibility. When buyers distrust the synthetic layer, the burden of proof shifts back to people.
For marketing leaders, the implication is that the next competitive advantage lies less in producing more AI content and more in producing verifiable content: claims that withstand scrutiny, sources a buyer can trace, and proof points a representative can stand behind in conversation.
What High-Performing Teams Are Changing
Commercial teams adapting fastest are retraining representatives as evidence brokers rather than closers. That means equipping them to ask sharper diagnostic questions, to surface independent data, and to correct AI-driven misconceptions without condescension — the precise skills that separate a trusted adviser from a vendor.
It also reorders the funnel. With buyers completing much of their journey alone, the human interaction that remains carries disproportionate weight. A single high-quality verifying conversation late in the cycle now does more for conversion than a sequence of early-stage touches ever did.
Watch: Why People Buy the ‘Why’
Simon Sinek’s talk on how great leaders and brands inspire action remains a foundational reference for sellers and marketers rebuilding trust around purpose rather than persuasion.
Sell as a Trusted Verifier, Not a Pitch Machine
Elevana’s Sales & Marketing Systems and PRO Communicator programmes equip revenue teams to build credibility-first selling motions — evidence-led client conversations, verifiable messaging, and the diagnostic questioning that turns AI-armed buyers into confident customers.
Sales & Marketing Systems → PRO Communicator →In 2026, the most valuable thing a salesperson can offer is not a pitch, but a second opinion the buyer can trust.