Metric Monday: LLMs Join the Buyer Journey — They Don’t Replace It

Hi all,

Our head of research @Kerry wrote a great LinkedIn article taking on the chatter about LLMs overtaking search traffic and intent data — or so 'they' say. It’s absolutely packed with stats that tell a very different story (some of which are net-new 🎉 from our 2025 Buyer Experience Study coming in November). I’ve dropped them below, and Kerry lays out the full picture (and why they matter) in the article, which I’ll link below.

Buyers’ Existing Awareness

• 95% of buyers already have prior experience with at least one vendor they’ll evaluate.
• On day one of the buying journey, buyers have 4 of the 5 vendors on their shortlist already.
• Buyers purchase from their Day 1 shortlist 80% to 90% of the time.
• 75% of buyers engage with someone at your company through a backchannel before ever talking to sales.

LLM Adoption

• 94% of B2B buyers used LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) during their buying journey.
• Despite near-universal LLM adoption, buyers reported the same number of vendor interactions as in prior years (17 per person, per vendor).

6sense Signalverse™ Trends

• Intent signal volume: +16% YoY vs. last year, +9% vs. two years ago.
• Unique accounts with intent signals: +5% YoY vs. last year, +30% vs. two years ago.
• 6sense now processes 1 trillion buyer signals every day.

Generative Search Impact

• <1% of traffic comes from generative search tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity).
• ~20% of traffic still comes from traditional search engines.

Thought Leadership Influence (2025 Edelman–LinkedIn Thought Leadership Impact Report)

• 55% of hidden buyers and 56% of target buyers use thought leadership to vet vendors.
• 71% of hidden buyers trust thought leadership over marketing materials.
• 79% are more likely to advocate for a vendor that consistently produces high-quality thought leadership.