Everyone Has AI. Few Are Doing It Well: The 2026 B2B Commerce AI Benchmark

The B2B commerce edition of Lucidworks’ fourth annual Generative AI Global Benchmark Study — combining global survey data with independent evaluations of live B2B digital experiences to reveal exactly where the AI execution gap is widest.

Adoption is universal. Execution is not.

AI adoption in B2B commerce is now nearly universal: 69% of organizations plan to increase AI spending in 2026. But adoption is no longer the story. The story is the widening gap between organizations that have AI and organizations that have operationalized it.

Advanced buying experiences — guided selling, technical interrogation, autonomous workflows — remain rare, even as nearly half of companies believe they’re ahead of their peers. This report shows exactly where the execution gap is, and what the leaders widening it in their favor do differently.

Key findings that will shape your 2027 roadmap

AI investment keeps climbing: 69% of B2B commerce organizations plan to increase AI spending in 2026 — and investment is following results.
The ‘Above Average’ Paradox: 47% believe they outperform peers on AI maturity; only 8% think they’re behind. Statistically impossible — and exactly why we paired survey data with independent evaluation.
Productivity leads the value story: 73% report meaningful productivity gains; employee and customer satisfaction both hit 68%.
Multi-model is the new normal: Companies use 2.7 AI models on average; 47% mix commercial and open models.
Chatbots are not buying assistants: Chat interfaces are everywhere, but conversational commerce that actually guides, interrogates specs, and transacts remains rare.
Workforce anxiety is rising: 45% express major concern about job disruption — the fastest-growing concern in the study.

The next advantage won’t come from access to models — AI is rapidly commoditizing. It will come from the quality of operationalization: product discovery, relevance, governance, and orchestration.

A two-part methodology: what companies say vs. what they ship

Global Survey of B2B Commerce Leaders

Survey data from B2B commerce professionals across e-commerce, digital experience, merchandising, product discovery, AI strategy, and technology leadership.

Independent Evaluation of Live B2B Digital Experiences

Because AI maturity cannot be measured by announcements alone, we independently evaluated live B2B digital experiences to document which capabilities — search, enrichment, conversational commerce, governance — are actually in production.

The Capability Curve

A concrete picture of the plateau: core search features are widely deployed, AI-enriched discovery is growing, and advanced experiences like guided selling and cross-system orchestration remain uncommon. See where you actually sit on the curve.

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