How is AI changing B2B buying behavior and making partnerships more important for distribution and trust? | Bryn Jones, Co-Founder, PartnerStack

Amanda Smith: Amanda smith. It's never been easier to build software in some form and fashion, but in some ways it's never been harder to get people to care about it. For years B2B teams focused on optimizing websites. Paid channels outdo bound motions. And a lot of that still plays today. But now buyers are showing up out after spending time inside of LLMs, um, community threads and conversations in areas that they already trust. So by the time they land on that company's website, a huge portion of the decision making process has already happened. So that creates a pretty big shift for B2B companies today. Which is why I wanted to bring in Bryn Jones, co founder of Partner Stack, to help me understand this little bit more. He works closely with B2B companies thinking through modern partnership strategies. And right now he's really paying close attention to the way AI and user generated content are, uh, changing how buyers discover, evaluate and ultimately trust these software companies. So the question I asked Bryn, how is AI changing the role of partnerships in B2B buying? Here's what he had to say.

Bryn Jones: Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. At the tone, please record your message. Hey Amanda, great question. Before I answer it, I want to actually set a framework as to what B2B partnerships are and what they mean. B2B partnerships let companies go to market through trusted sources. The buying journey for consumers has changed so much in the last 15 years and companies recognize that trust exists inside of um, the ecosystem, trust exists inside of communities, trust exists inside of partners. And when consumers show up to companies websites looking to purchase software, right now 90 something percent of the decisions already made. So B2B companies, they know how important partnerships are and they know that if they can orchestrate their ecosystem of partners, it can have a significant impact on, on buying and adopting different pieces of technology. So that's the framework for what partnerships means in 2026 and it's very, very exciting stuff. Getting to your question, AI has significantly changed consumer buying. People are starting inside of LLMs and making prompts, asking questions and engaging the LLM like it's a true trusted source. And they're showing up even more educated. Now what's interesting is that all these LLMs are influenced by user generated content. So this could be content on Reddit, it could be content in communities. If you look at the sources of these LLMs, it's all user generated content. And that's where partnerships actually can influence these LLMs today. And it's really changed what partnerships can mean inside of a B2B company, and it's given partnerships more power to influence the way that consumers buy software. Yeah, B2B companies recognize that it's never been easier to build software. It's so easy to build software. There's so many competitors that have now come into the space, and at the same time, it's never been harder to get distribution. And so B2B companies realize that partnerships is the way to make that happen, whether it's through tech partnerships, whether it's through agency partnerships, whether it's through user generated partnerships partnerships. And at, uh, PartnerStack, we've been very focused on technology partnerships with other platforms like Profound and Evertune and Crossbeam, because when we go to market together, we're stronger. But we've also explored use generated content partnerships, and we've seen an immediate impact on how we rank inside of these LLMs. So we're going to just keep doubling down as you see these early returns. And my bet is that, uh, companies that really take advantage of this moment and are open to experimentation, they're going to unlock growth that has yet to be discovered. All right, Amanda, I know that was a lot, but I hope it was helpful. Feel free to give me a shout. We can talk through a little bit more. There's a lot to unpack in this space, and it's important to talk it all through. All right, take care.

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