# AI Blind Test B2B Tech 2026: Analysis of 3,744 AI answers on 100 software vendors, system integrators and IT service providers

> Analysis of 3,744 AI answers on 100 software vendors, system integrators and IT service providers

Source: https://www.codaai.ai/en/study-b2b-tech/
Published: 2026-11-06
Updated: 2026-11-06
May be quoted with attribution and a link to the source.

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**Author:** Oliver Parrizas ([author page](https://www.codaai.ai/en/author/oliver-parrizas/)) · **Publisher:** CodaAI (AMP Beratung, Gütersloh) · **Version:** 1.0 · **Data as of:** 5–6 November 2026

## Key findings

1. In 79.5% of the 3,744 AI answers evaluated, the IT or software company asked about is not named; it is named in 20.5% (766 answers).
2. Software vendors are named in 32.6% of answers, IT security and cloud providers in 25.1%, system integrators and IT service providers in 5.9%.
3. 20 of the 100 companies are not named in a single answer — among system integrators and IT service providers, 16 of 40.
4. In 46.4% of answers (1,737) the company is missing and the AI names at least one competitor instead.
5. 59% of the competitors named are mid-sized firms, not corporations (for questions about system integrators and IT service providers, 72%).
6. Only in 9.7% of answers (365) is the company's own website used as a source; 26 of the 100 companies are never cited with their own website.
7. Around 70% of all source citations lead to vendor websites, around 13% to comparison portals and directories.
8. No AI system is the exception: the mention rate per system lies between 18% and 23% of answers.

_Source: CodaAI, AI Blind Test B2B Tech 2026 (n = 100 companies, 3,744 AI answers, 5–6 November 2026), https://www.codaai.ai/en/study-b2b-tech/_

## Mentions by segment

| Segment | Companies | Answers | Mention rate | never named |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software vendors | 40 | 1,568 | 32.6% | 2 of 40 |
| IT security & cloud | 20 | 657 | 25.1% | 2 of 20 |
| System integrators & IT services | 40 | 1,519 | 5.9% | 16 of 40 |

## Sources the AI relies on

- Vendor websites: around 70%
- Comparison portals, directories, best-of lists: around 13%
- Trade media and press: around 5%
- Agency and advice blogs: around 4%
- Public bodies, associations, institutes: around 3%
- Analysts and consultancies: around 3%
- Wikipedia, YouTube, LinkedIn: around 1%

## Methodology

- **Companies:** 100 companies with 20 to 1,000 employees: 40 software vendors, 40 system integrators and IT service providers, 20 IT security and cloud providers. 91 are based in Germany, 6 in Switzerland, 3 in Austria.
- **Selection:** From association, label and partner directories (for example "Software Made in Germany", the German IT SME association BITMi, the BSI list of qualified incident-response providers, TeleTrusT, eco, system-integrator partner networks) — deliberately not from comparison portals or AI answers. Excluded: subsidiaries of corporations, customers and prospects of CodaAI. Not a random sample.
- **Questions:** Eight questions per company without the company name, phrased the way buyers ask: two on the market overview, four on the use case, two comparing competitors. Derived from each company's website and market and checked before measuring. 800 questions in total, in German.
- **Systems:** ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode, all with web search, in German, model versions as of November 2026. One answer per question and system. Measured on 5 and 6 November 2026.
- **Evaluation:** We recorded whether the company is named (including common short forms), in which position, which competitors from its peer set are named, which websites serve as sources and whether its own website is among them. Of 4,000 answers, 3,744 could be evaluated; the rest failed because one system intermittently did not respond.
- **Sources and company size:** The 420 most frequent source websites were classified individually, the rest extrapolated from a random sample of 200 citations. A corporation is a company with more than 1,000 employees or one that belongs to a group, based on public information.

## Limitations

- Not a random sample: the results hold for these 100 companies, not for "the IT industry" as a whole.
- A snapshot: AI answers vary from day to day and model updates can shift mentions. There is one answer per question and system.
- Only competitors from each company's pre-defined peer set are counted — the number of answers naming competitors is therefore more likely too low than too high. A mention is not always a recommendation.
- The shares of source types are rounded and may differ by a few percentage points.
- Gemini answered only 17 times for IT security and cloud; that single value is not reliable and is not shown.
- The comparison with the KI-Blindtest Mittelstand 2026 is only partly possible: there, ChatGPT answered without web search, Google AI Overviews were measured instead of AI Mode, and the models were older. The direction is robust; read the gap as an order of magnitude only.
- The study measures the German-speaking market in German. AI systems work the same way elsewhere, but we have not measured other markets — so we do not claim them.

## How to cite

The aggregated figures may be quoted freely with attribution. Please state the base (share of answers or number of companies) and note that this is not a random sample.

**APA (7th edition)**

Parrizas, O. (2026). AI Blind Test B2B Tech 2026 [KI-Blindtest B2B-Tech 2026]: Analysis of 3,744 AI answers on 100 software vendors, system integrators and IT service providers (Version 1.0). CodaAI. https://www.codaai.ai/en/study-b2b-tech/

**Harvard**

Parrizas, O. (2026) AI Blind Test B2B Tech 2026: Analysis of 3,744 AI answers on 100 software vendors, system integrators and IT service providers. Version 1.0, data as of 5–6 November 2026. Gütersloh: CodaAI (AMP Beratung). Available at: https://www.codaai.ai/en/study-b2b-tech/

**Short credit for articles and slides**

Source: CodaAI, AI Blind Test B2B Tech 2026 (n = 100 companies, 3,744 AI answers, 5–6 November 2026), https://www.codaai.ai/en/study-b2b-tech/

**BibTeX**

```bibtex
@techreport{parrizas2026aiblindtestb2btech,
  author      = {Parrizas, Oliver},
  title       = {AI Blind Test B2B Tech 2026: Analysis of 3,744 AI answers on 100 software vendors, system integrators and IT service providers},
  institution = {CodaAI (AMP Beratung)},
  address     = {G{\"u}tersloh},
  year        = {2026},
  month       = nov,
  note        = {Version 1.0, data as of 5–6 November 2026},
  url         = {https://www.codaai.ai/en/study-b2b-tech/}
}
```

Key figures as CSV: https://www.codaai.ai/en/study-b2b-tech/key-figures.csv