B2B leaders have spent the past few years asking how AI can make their teams more productive. That internal focus must transition to a bigger question that demands more urgent attention: How do we respond to AI changing how buyers discover, evaluate, and choose providers?
That question sits at the center of what I call the great go-to-market (GTM) reset for partner ecosystems. Changing buyer behavior, AI, and growing ecosystem complexity are converging. Together, these forces are reshaping how organizations build preference, differentiate through expertise, and create value across increasingly interconnected ecosystems.
Buyers Are Taking More Control
B2B buyers already had more information, more options, and more influence than ever before. AI is accelerating even greater buyer control. Forrester’s Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2025 (of about 17,000 global business buyers) revealed that nearly all business buyers (94%) report using AI during their buying process. Buyers now use AI to research vendors, compare alternatives, summarize information, and support purchase decisions.
As discovery becomes easier, differentiation depends less on access to information and more on the ability to create value. That means expertise and insight to help clients achieve outcomes creates competitive advantage.
Expertise Must Be Discoverable
In AI-mediated buying journeys, expertise matters more, not less. Buyers increasingly rely on AI tools to research providers, evaluate alternatives, and narrow consideration sets before engaging with a salesperson. But as AI influences more discovery and evaluation decisions, suppliers and partners must do more than possess expertise. They must make it visible in ways that buyers — and AI systems — can find.
Trust remains important, but competence carries particular weight. Buyers want confidence that a provider will solve their problem and deliver results before they buy. Organizations that demonstrate deep expertise, relevant experience, and a track record of success will gain the advantage over those that fall short. In AI-mediated buying journeys, trust increasingly stems from visible expertise, credible evidence, and consistent proof of value.
For partner ecosystem leaders, this creates both an opportunity and a challenge. Partners often provide the specialized knowledge and implementation experience that customers value most. Those capabilities can differentiate both the partner and the supplier but only if buyers can find them and connect the lines between partners and providers. That makes discoverability as important as expertise itself. Thought leadership, customer evidence, partner advocacy, communities, and authoritative content help organizations demonstrate competence and increase their visibility in AI-driven buying journeys.
It is no longer enough to be the best choice. You must also be the choice that buyers — and the AI systems assisting them — can confidently find and recommend.
Preference Forms Earlier
Many organizations still optimize primarily for demand capture. Yet buyer preference often forms before a lead appears, before an opportunity enters the pipeline, and before a seller has any influence over the decision. According to Forrester’s Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2025, 68% of business buyers have a front-runner in mind at the start of the buyer journey and select this preferred vendor 80% of the time. Overall, the preferred vendor wins 55% of deals.
Buyers are now able to more regularly conduct research independently, compare providers more efficiently, and form opinions earlier. As a result, expertise, credibility, visibility, and ecosystem influence increasingly determine whether an organization even makes the shortlist. This is where partner ecosystems matter. Buyers rarely evaluate a supplier in isolation. They evaluate the broader network of expertise, services, implementation support, and customer success capabilities surrounding that supplier.
Partner Ecosystems Must Become Value-Creation Networks
Partner ecosystems are no longer just routes to market. They are becoming routes to value.
Customers expect integrated solutions, connected experiences, and measurable outcomes. No single provider can deliver all of that alone. Strong ecosystems combine technology, services, expertise, and customer insight in ways that are difficult to replicate.
The opportunity for partner ecosystem leaders is clear: Incorporate changing buyer behaviors into partner demand strategies. Help partners understand how buyers use AI. Elevate partner expertise. Improve discoverability. Align programs, incentives, and content strategies around creating value for buyers.
In the era of AI-mediated buying, the organizations that stand out will be those that can demonstrate expertise, build trust, and make both discoverable across their ecosystems.
Want to explore what this shift means for your partner ecosystem strategy? Forrester clients can schedule a guidance session with Maria Chien to discuss this topic and what it means in your specific business context.
