How ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity Travel With Buyers From Discovery to Purchase
AI rides shotgun
Imagine the buyer’s journey as a road. The prospect is on a motorcycle, with a sidecar mounted on it. In the sidecar sits a passenger. Not a real person, but an AI bot.
This non-human passenger is not just around before the motorcycle hits the highway. They are around, as a companion, throughout the entire trip.
Sometimes, the prospect switches passengers. More than 80% of active AI users report using two or more AI platforms rather than relying on a single assistant. So they might have ChatGPT in the sidecar with them before they hit the road and begin their buyer’s journey. They might then switch out ChatGPT and ride with Claude for the early-funnel trip, only to head to Perplexity mid-funnel and come back to ChatGPT for questions late in the purchase process. Heck, 77% of Americans use AI and traditional search together.
This is modern commerce. Both B2C and B2B.
It’s zig-zaggy, messy and often involves multiple LLMs in the same funnel.
How marketers should respond
How do you manage this?
- Survey customers and prospects BEFORE you start optimizing for a specific platform. Make sure you ask people if and when they use different chatbots, and what the query
- Monitor prompts across the ENTIRE funnel and into post purchase.
- Optimize for both prompt and platform at all stages of the buyer journey.
Never lose cite of the fact that there is a proverbial passenger in the sidecar for the whole trip and that the exact passenger may swap in and out.