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Study: AI Hype Is Slowing Enterprise Buying
(MENAFN- PRovoke)
LONDON - Enterprise investment in AI is accelerating, but a flood of hard-to-verify claims is making buying decisions slower and more complex, according to new global research from tech specialist The Hoffman Agency.
The agency's report, 'How to influence enterprise technology buyers', surveyed 450 senior technology decision-makers across the UK, US, France and Germany. It found that 78% believe many AI companies make claims that are difficult to verify or compare, while 69% say vendors often sound similar and are difficult to differentiate.
Three in five buyers, 61%, said they were unsure which AI products were genuinely credible because of the sheer volume entering the market.
The credibility problem is having a direct impact on purchasing behaviour. When claims are difficult to verify, 46% of buyers said the decision-making process takes longer, 37% are more likely to favour larger or more established suppliers, 27% delay the purchase and 16% abandon it altogether.
Tom Broughton, VP and head of enterprise AI at The Hoffman Agency and author of the report, said:“Buying enterprise AI solutions has become a full-body contact sport. Vendors are flooding the zone with unsubstantiated and incomparable claims.
“The result? More scrutiny, more scepticism, and more friction that is dramatically slowing purchasing and adoption. Enterprise AI buyers are yearning for evidence and credible claims that can help them make decisions with confidence.”
Despite that caution, enterprise investment in AI remains strong. Over the past 12 months, 45% of respondents said their organisations had invested in data and AI infrastructure, 44% in generative AI, 40% in cloud infrastructure, 39% in AI-enabled solutions and 34% in agentic AI.
Investment is expected to continue over the coming year, led by generative AI, cited by 36% of respondents, followed by agentic AI, data and AI infrastructure and cloud infrastructure, all at 34%.
The main drivers remain relatively pragmatic. Improving operational efficiency was cited by 32% of buyers, followed by keeping pace with technological change at 30%, reducing costs at 25% and accelerating product development at 25%.
Task automation, workflow optimisation, product development, risk analysis and customer support are among the most common areas where enterprises are deploying new technology.
Broughton said:“Despite all the hype around a multitude of benefits, enterprise AI buyers are still heavily focused on productivity gains. While perhaps understandable in the current economic environment, the AI growth narrative has yet to land with many enterprises.”
The findings suggest that evidence and independent validation are becoming increasingly important as AI vendors compete for attention.
Transparent explanations of how products work were cited by 46% of respondents as a key confidence-builder, followed by customer case studies with measurable outcomes at 41%, proof of real-world deployment at scale at 40%, demonstrated technical performance benchmarks at 37% and independent third-party validation at 36%.
Third-party sources are also playing an important role in the buying journey. More than half of respondents, 57%, said their organisations use industry analysts to help identify and shortlist vendors, while 25% turn to business technology media to discover new suppliers.
LLMs are also beginning to influence enterprise technology purchasing, with 17% of respondents using them to discover new vendors or solutions and the same proportion saying they are influential when choosing between suppliers.
For communications teams, the findings point to a similar challenge: as AI vendors become harder to distinguish, credibility is increasingly likely to depend on evidence rather than volume of messaging. Customer proof points, independent validation, technical transparency and credible third-party endorsement could therefore become as important to corporate and product communications as the claims companies make about the technology itself.
Broughton said:“A frenzy of AI marketing messages has confounded enterprise buyers. They're increasingly frustrated by the 'black box' nature of products and a lack of evidence-based success stories.
“They're turning to third-party experts to help in their assessments and short-cut their processes. These are important lessons for marketers within vendors if they're to deliver ahead of their competitors and meet growing market expectations for growth and profitability.”
The research was conducted in April 2026 among senior decision-makers responsible for purchasing technology, equipment, software or services across the US, UK, France and Germany. The full report can be accessed here.
The agency's report, 'How to influence enterprise technology buyers', surveyed 450 senior technology decision-makers across the UK, US, France and Germany. It found that 78% believe many AI companies make claims that are difficult to verify or compare, while 69% say vendors often sound similar and are difficult to differentiate.
Three in five buyers, 61%, said they were unsure which AI products were genuinely credible because of the sheer volume entering the market.
The credibility problem is having a direct impact on purchasing behaviour. When claims are difficult to verify, 46% of buyers said the decision-making process takes longer, 37% are more likely to favour larger or more established suppliers, 27% delay the purchase and 16% abandon it altogether.
Tom Broughton, VP and head of enterprise AI at The Hoffman Agency and author of the report, said:“Buying enterprise AI solutions has become a full-body contact sport. Vendors are flooding the zone with unsubstantiated and incomparable claims.
“The result? More scrutiny, more scepticism, and more friction that is dramatically slowing purchasing and adoption. Enterprise AI buyers are yearning for evidence and credible claims that can help them make decisions with confidence.”
Despite that caution, enterprise investment in AI remains strong. Over the past 12 months, 45% of respondents said their organisations had invested in data and AI infrastructure, 44% in generative AI, 40% in cloud infrastructure, 39% in AI-enabled solutions and 34% in agentic AI.
Investment is expected to continue over the coming year, led by generative AI, cited by 36% of respondents, followed by agentic AI, data and AI infrastructure and cloud infrastructure, all at 34%.
The main drivers remain relatively pragmatic. Improving operational efficiency was cited by 32% of buyers, followed by keeping pace with technological change at 30%, reducing costs at 25% and accelerating product development at 25%.
Task automation, workflow optimisation, product development, risk analysis and customer support are among the most common areas where enterprises are deploying new technology.
Broughton said:“Despite all the hype around a multitude of benefits, enterprise AI buyers are still heavily focused on productivity gains. While perhaps understandable in the current economic environment, the AI growth narrative has yet to land with many enterprises.”
The findings suggest that evidence and independent validation are becoming increasingly important as AI vendors compete for attention.
Transparent explanations of how products work were cited by 46% of respondents as a key confidence-builder, followed by customer case studies with measurable outcomes at 41%, proof of real-world deployment at scale at 40%, demonstrated technical performance benchmarks at 37% and independent third-party validation at 36%.
Third-party sources are also playing an important role in the buying journey. More than half of respondents, 57%, said their organisations use industry analysts to help identify and shortlist vendors, while 25% turn to business technology media to discover new suppliers.
LLMs are also beginning to influence enterprise technology purchasing, with 17% of respondents using them to discover new vendors or solutions and the same proportion saying they are influential when choosing between suppliers.
For communications teams, the findings point to a similar challenge: as AI vendors become harder to distinguish, credibility is increasingly likely to depend on evidence rather than volume of messaging. Customer proof points, independent validation, technical transparency and credible third-party endorsement could therefore become as important to corporate and product communications as the claims companies make about the technology itself.
Broughton said:“A frenzy of AI marketing messages has confounded enterprise buyers. They're increasingly frustrated by the 'black box' nature of products and a lack of evidence-based success stories.
“They're turning to third-party experts to help in their assessments and short-cut their processes. These are important lessons for marketers within vendors if they're to deliver ahead of their competitors and meet growing market expectations for growth and profitability.”
The research was conducted in April 2026 among senior decision-makers responsible for purchasing technology, equipment, software or services across the US, UK, France and Germany. The full report can be accessed here.
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