Generative AI and B2B procurement: what changes?
B2B buyers now use ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity to pre-qualify suppliers before any RFP. Companies absent from AI answers lose initial short-list access even with strong SEO.
Examples in Quebec
Quebec company profiles from the ManuGEO directory related to this topic. Their presence here illustrates the kind of public profile this answer discusses; it does not mean they are already cited by AI engines.
- Machinerie P&Wmachining, welding and bending · Québec
- Catelli — Catelli Montreal Inc.pasta manufacturer · Montréal
- Polobicartisan charcuterie manufacturer
- Granicorgranite quarrying and processing · Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures
When reviewing them, look at what an AI engine can extract: a precise activity rather than a slogan, the city, key facts with their source and date, an FAQ that answers buyer questions, and structured data consistent with the official website.
Data and sources
B2B buyers spend only 17% of their buying time meeting with potential suppliers.
Most of the evaluation happens without you, so what your public pages say about your capabilities weighs heavily in the shortlist.
Source : Gartner, communiqué de presse · September 15, 2020
Gartner predicts traditional search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026, shifting to AI chatbots and virtual agents.
This is a forecast, not a measurement; it still signals that part of supplier searches will go through generated answers.
Source : Gartner, communiqué de presse · February 19, 2024
As of 2024, over 45 million web domains mark up their pages with over 450 billion Schema.org objects.
Structured data is a widely adopted standard; a supplier that publishes none gives engines less explicit information.
Source : Schema.org, page d'accueil · 2024
Sources checked on November 6, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Where should I start if my site has none of this yet?
Start with access: check that robots.txt does not block AI engine crawlers and that a sitemap.xml lists your pages. Then add an accurate Organization JSON-LD and one page per core activity with quantified facts. These steps require little development.
Do these optimizations hurt my Google rankings?
No. The same foundations serve classic SEO and AI answer visibility: accessible pages, precise content, valid structured data and consistent links. Just avoid repetitive mass-produced pages, which help neither.
How do I measure the effect of these changes?
Set a list of 10 to 15 buyer questions, record today whether your company is named and with which source, then repeat the test monthly. Track indexing in Google Search Console in parallel. Compare equivalent periods rather than isolated snapshots.
Go further
- Definition : GEO — Set of practices that make a website, company profile or content citable by generative AI engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity).
- Pillar page : Manufacturers Specializing in Industrial in Quebec — sector supplier list and selection criteria.
How to do it
- Publish a company page with quantified data (capacity, lead times, certifications).
- Add a complete Organization + Manufacturer JSON-LD with sameAs.
- Expose a sitemap.xml and allow the engine's user-agent in robots.txt.
- Publish an llms.txt file summarizing your key pages for LLMs.
- Refresh page dates every quarter to signal freshness.
Voir la version française
IA générative et achats B2B : que change-t-elle ?
Les acheteurs B2B utilisent désormais ChatGPT, Claude et Perplexity pour pré-qualifier des fournisseurs avant tout appel d'offres. Les entreprises absentes des réponses IA perdent l'accès au short-list initial, même si elles ont un bon SEO.