75% of B2B Leaders Trust Human Guidance Over AI When the Two Conflict

New Seismic research finds AI is raising the value of human judgment, context and accountability in complex B2B decisions

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seismic, the Go-To-Market Performance company, today released The New Go-to-Market Standard for B2B Selling, a new report examining what C-suite buyers need to make confident enterprise technology decisions and how go-to-market (GTM) organizations can better equip sellers to meet that standard.

The research finds that while AI gives buyers unprecedented access to information, it has made enterprise buying more complicated, not less. Decisions now involve more stakeholders, greater scrutiny and more competing inputs, raising the value of human judgment in the buying process. In fact, three in four leaders (75%) say they trust human guidance more when it conflicts with AI-generated content, while nearly half (46%) say AI-generated information has made them more reliant on people in high-stakes decisions. What’s more, 34% rely on a vendor representative or human expert to validate claims they encountered elsewhere.

“AI has made information abundant, but buyers still need help deciding what matters,” said Rob Pinkerton, Chief Marketing Officer, Seismic. “This is creating a selling renaissance, where sellers play an increasingly important role and earn trust by helping buyers make sense of complexity, navigate tradeoffs and reach decisions they can defend.”

As buyers turn to AI for research, comparison and information-gathering, they are relying more on sellers to decipher that information when a purchase decision is on the line. The research found:

• More than half of leaders (55%) say they rely on a vendor representative or human expert when negotiating pricing or contract terms.
• Nearly half (49%) turn to people to assess ROI or business-case fit, while 45% rely on human expertise to understand risk and potential downsides.
• More than two in five respondents (43%) say they rely on a vendor representative or human expert to interpret how a solution applies to their specific situation.

That shift is raising the standard for sellers. When buyers can research products and compare options on their own, value increasingly comes from understanding the customer’s business, making the economics clear and helping stakeholders navigate the tradeoffs behind a decision. More than half of leaders (51%) say sellers could guide them more effectively by explaining and quantifying ROI, underscoring how the role is moving from delivering information to helping buyers act on it.

“The higher the stakes, the more buyers turn to people,” Pinkerton said. “That raises the bar for every seller to deliver consistent, sound judgment. GTM teams need to make great seller performance repeatable by connecting trusted information, customer context and guidance in the flow of work, so every seller can act with confidence in the moments that matter.”

The full report is available on Seismic’s website.

Methodology

Seismic commissioned NewtonX to conduct research with 200 C-level and senior leaders across North America and Northern EMEA who evaluate, approve, manage or fund revenue technology. The survey was fielded from July 20 to July 30, 2026.

About Seismic

Seismic is the Go-To-Market Performance company, driving how organizations turn their strategy into revenue. Seismic brings together signals from customer conversations, buyer engagement, governed content, coaching and seller behavior to turn intelligence into winning action. Through its AI revenue execution platform, the company equips customer-facing teams with the insights, governance, and contextual guidance they need to execute with confidence and deliver measurable business outcomes. Trusted by 2,500 organizations and over 3.5 million users around the globe, Seismic is headquartered in San Diego with offices across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Learn more at seismic.com.