What IDC's 2026 research means for your B2B AI go-to-market strategy
B2B tech marketers spend a lot of time creating content that explains why buyers should choose their products.
But what happens when buyers aren't visiting their websites to find those answers?
According to IDC's 2026 buyer research report, the way enterprise buyers evaluate technology is changing:
68% say they always or often use AI tools to compare products and features from different vendors.
Use of vendor websites to evaluate solutions has dropped from 66% to 37%.
Only 33% actively rely on vendor sales reps.
Buyers aren't necessarily waiting for vendors to tell them what they need to know anymore. They're finding answers through AI tools, industry experts, reviews, and other sources.
For partner marketers, this raises an important question: How can you make shared expertise more useful and accessible to buyers?
Companies need to help buyers understand how solutions work together instead of simply telling them why a partnership matters.
Here's how to put IDC's findings into practice to improve your next partner GTM plan.
TL;DR
Buyers use AI to evaluate vendors: Fewer buyers rely on vendor sites or sales reps, choosing instead to research options through AI search tools and third-party sources.
GTM strategies must prioritize ungated technical proof: AI crawlers can't read gated forms or generic marketing claims. Making joint integration details and architecture specs public ensures your solution stays visible during AI-assisted comparisons.
Measure what matters: Shift focus from raw pageviews and form fills to target account engagement, SME content, and sales conversation impact.
Why your B2B AI go-to-market strategy needs to change
Think about how a tech buyer compares software today. Instead of visiting five vendor websites and downloading whitepapers, they ask ChatGPT or Gemini to summarize their options.
Yet most GTM strategies still operate on a traditional lead-generation playbook built on two outdated habits:
Hiding technical details behind forms: Many vendors gate their best integration guides and architecture specs behind lead forms. But because AI search engines can't crawl content behind form walls, these vendors become invisible during quick AI comparisons.
Relying on high-level marketing claims: Current GTM copy is full of broad claims like "seamless integration" or "industry-leading platform." Without concrete technical proof, these claims fail to convince both AI search tools and buyers.
Beyond how buyers research, risk management is also evolving: 90% of legal teams sitting on enterprise buying committees are starting to write AI clauses into procurement guidelines, giving buyers clear grounds to challenge unproven vendor claims.
When a company says that its software "integrates seamlessly," buying committees and AI engines both demand the same answers: How does the integration actually work? What does implementation involve?
If your GTM strategy relies on general claims while hiding real technical substance behind form gates, your solution won't be visible or convincing when buyers use AI to build their shortlists.
How partner marketing can boost buyer confidence
Forming an AI go-to-market plan with partners adds an extra layer of operational complexity. Navigating messaging approvals, legal reviews, and competing priorities across two distinct organizations can easily stall campaign momentum.
Yet tech partnerships give marketers a unique advantage: an opportunity to demonstrate how two platforms actually work together rather than asking buyers to take a single vendor's word for it.
Instead of making a generic partnership announcement, show buyers what the integration makes possible.
So if a cloud provider and an independent software vendor (ISV) create a joint integration guide, they could include:
A diagram showing how data moves between their platforms
Common implementation challenges and how to solve them
Important security or configuration considerations
A customer-approved example of the integration in action
That's far more useful to a prospective buyer than another press release about two companies joining forces.
Of course, joint content isn't automatically more credible simply because two logos are attached. Both companies still need to promote the partnership.
What builds genuine confidence is the technical substance of the information and the evidence supporting it.
Make your partner expertise easier to find
Publishing an integration guide won't guarantee your solution will be pulled by an AI-generated answer.
But making information publicly available, clearly organized, and easy to understand gives search engines and AI tools a better opportunity to discover it.
So instead of putting an entire technical guide behind a form, publish the key information on a webpage. Or turn a joint webinar into a written article answering common implementation questions.
Rather than making content just for AI, focus on producing useful information that's easier for buyers to find, however they choose to do their research.
3 ways to make your partner marketing content more useful
You don't need to overhaul your entire content strategy.
Start strengthening your B2B AI go-to-market strategy by looking at the expertise and resources your partner ecosystem already has.
1. Make technical information accessible
Gated content still has its place. But buyers (and the AI tools they rely on) shouldn't have to fill out a form just to understand how two products integrate.
Because AI search crawlers can't get past form-walled content, gating technical proof hides your solution during AI-assisted buyer research.
To solve this challenge, consider making resources like these publicly available:
Integration guides and architecture diagrams
Technical FAQs and troubleshooting resources
Product compatibility information
Joint solution walkthroughs
Customer-approved implementation examples
Use clear headings, readable webpage text, and relevant links to help buyers find what they need. And if you're publishing a video or diagram, include a written explanation so AI crawlers and human readers can easily understand the information.
2. Let your subject matter experts do the talking
AI engines cite specific technical answers, troubleshooting notes, and real-world implementation details far more often than generic marketing copy. Sometimes the most useful information comes directly from the people building or implementing the solution.
For any joint campaign, you can bring together a solutions architect from one company and a product lead from another. Instead of asking them to repeat marketing messages, have them chat about a real customer challenge.
One focused conversation can provide material for a technical article, short videos, structured Q&A, and sales enablement resources.
As we explain in our content repurposing guide, you can get more value from expert conversations without constantly asking your SMEs to create something new, all while feeding search systems the specific technical context they cite.
3. Get partner approvals sorted out early
Creating multi-format content for AI discovery requires speed, but anyone who's worked on a joint campaign knows how quickly approvals can slow things down.
One company approves the copy, the other requests changes, and then legal needs another look.
So before production starts, agree on a few basics:
Which technical claims and product descriptions are approved?
Who needs to review screenshots, diagrams, and customer examples?
Can both partners repurpose the content into ungated web formats?
Who gives final approval, and what is the review timeline?
Sorting this out early saves time and makes it easier to turn one joint project into multiple accurate, crawlable resources. For more ideas, explore our guide to B2B co-marketing on social media.
A quick checklist for better partner content
Before publishing your next joint resource, ask yourself four questions.
Does it solve a real problem? If the content only explains why two companies are excited to work together, buyers probably won't get much out of it.
Does it show how the solution works? Include a technical example, diagram, screenshot, or verified result that backs up what you're saying.
Is the information easy to find? Can someone quickly understand the integration, locate technical details, and get answers to common questions?
Would it still be useful without the logos? If you removed both company names, would the audience still learn something worthwhile?
If not, the content may need more substance.
How to measure whether your GTM strategy is working
Measuring the impact of an AI-optimized GTM strategy means moving beyond traditional vanity metrics like total pageviews or form submissions. When your goal is to make technical resources ungated, crawlable, and discoverable for AI search tools, basic lead-gen formulas fall short.
For partner marketers, success isn't about publishing a higher volume of content or counting raw downloads. It's about knowing whether your joint technical proof reaches target accounts, answers buyers' specific questions, and influences sales cycles.
Here are four areas worth tracking:
Area | What to Measure |
Target account engagement | Are companies that fit your ideal customer profile (ICP) interacting with your joint resources? |
Sales conversations | Are prospects mentioning your integration guides or technical walkthroughs? Are sales reps using them to answer questions? |
Next steps | Are readers moving from joint content to technical documentation, solution pages, or demo requests? |
Production efficiency | Are you getting more useful content from expert conversations without increasing your team's workload? |
These measures won't tell you everything about a buyer's journey, but they can help you understand which resources are worth investing in.
What IDC's findings mean for partner marketers
IDC's research makes one thing clear: as B2B buyers shift toward AI-assisted research, traditional GTM playbooks built on gated forms and high-level marketing claims are losing their pull.
For partner marketers, this shift is an opportunity to redefine what joint content achieves.
Instead of defaulting to press releases and gated ebooks, make your shared technical expertise visible, structured, and easy to find. When you optimize co-marketing assets for AI search, showcase SMEs, and focus on real account engagement, you create content that serves both human decision-makers and the intelligent tools that help them.
A modern GTM strategy doesn't mean building strictly for AI search algorithms. It means making your actual product value transparent and accessible, wherever buyers choose to look.
