# AI writes the shortlist. Are you on it? > Free live webinar for software vendors and IT service providers: how ChatGPT and co. write your buyers’ shortlist — with data from 3,744 AI answers. Held in German. Source: https://www.codaai.ai/en/webinar/ Updated: 2026-11-06 May be quoted with attribution and a link to the source. --- Live webinar Tue, 24 Nov 2026 · 11:00 CET 60 minutes Held in German For software vendors, system integrators and IT service providers How ChatGPT and co. decide which software and which IT partner your customers contact — before your sales team hears about it. - “Which DMS works with SAP for a mid-sized company?” - “Which IT provider can support 150 workstations?” **This webinar is held in German.** Both speakers present in German and the Q\&A runs in German. If you would rather have it in English: the [Digital Visibility Audit](https://www.codaai.ai/en/digital-visibility/) and the 30-minute intro call are available in English at any time. With [Norbert Schuster](https://www.linkedin.com/in/norbertschuster/)\ Author of the Haufe standard reference “Digitalisierung in Marketing und Vertrieb” - Date Tue, 24 Nov 2026 · 11:00 CET - Duration 60 minutes - Attendance free of charge - Language German - For everyone registered Guide as PDF (German) **This webinar is held in German.** The audit and the 30-minute intro call are available in English at any time. The basis of this webinar KI-Blindtest B2B-Tech 2026, measured in November 2026: **100 IT and software companies** from the German-speaking market, **800 buyer questions**, **3,744 analysed AI answers** from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode, all with web search. [Read the study →](https://www.codaai.ai/en/study-b2b-tech/) The problem ## Potential buyers ask the AI first — and you never hear about it. Where does your segment stand? Share of AI answers that name the company asked about - Software vendors · 40 companies 33% 2 of 40 never named - IT security & cloud · 20 companies 25% 2 of 20 never named - System integrators & IT services · 40 companies 6% 16 of 40 never named 4 in 5 ### AI answers do not name the company asked about For typical buyer questions the IT or software company appears in only one answer in five (766 of 3,744). The other answers recommend someone else — and no statistic shows you that. Base: 3,744 AI answers 46% ### of answers name a competitor instead In almost every second answer the company is missing and the AI names a competitor outright. That firm is then on your customer’s shortlist. Base: 3,744 AI answers 59% ### of the competitors recommended are mid-sized firms, not corporations When the AI names another company, it is usually a mid-sized firm like yours — for system integrators in 72% of cases. Size alone does not decide who gets recommended. Base: 5,814 competitor mentions Day to day, it feels like this: - Prospects arrive at the first call with a finished shortlist — and you do not know where it came from. - Comparison portals and your competitors’ best-of lists describe your market. Your own website hardly appears in them. - You do not know what ChatGPT answers when a head of IT asks about your solution — and nobody tells you. - Your business runs on referrals. The AI has just become the colleague who refers. And your buyers ask there first: 51% of software buyers now start their research in an AI chatbot more often than on Google (G2, survey of 1,076 B2B decision-makers, March 2026). The figures above come from the KI-Blindtest B2B-Tech 2026: 3,744 AI answers on 100 software vendors, system integrators, IT service providers and IT security and cloud providers. The answer — in the live webinar ## Three answers you take away from the webinar 1 ### Understand where your deals are decided today The silent pre-decision in IT buying: how buying centres choose software and IT partners, why the shortlist is set before the first contact — and who writes it. 2 ### See what the AI says about companies like yours Live cases from software and IT services, anonymised: who the AI recommends, which pages it reads to do so, and why a mid-sized firm often wins rather than the corporation. 3 ### Know how to get onto the shortlist Found, read, named: the three stages a recommendation depends on, the content gaps per customer question — and what you can do yourself with the resources you already have. Live check Check right now whether the AI knows your brand. Enter your website — the answer is there in seconds. Your result ## After 45 minutes you have: - **Clarity on whether ChatGPT and co. recommend you** — and who they name instead. - **The three stages found, read, named** — and which one your company depends on. - **The figures from the KI-Blindtest B2B-Tech 2026** — what 3,744 AI answers on 100 IT and software companies mean for a company like yours. - **The guide “Die KI schreibt die Shortlist.”** — everyone registered receives it by email after the webinar, together with the recording (both in German). Agenda & speakers ## Webinar agenda 1. 20 min ### The silent pre-decision in IT buying — how buying centres choose software and IT partners Norbert Schuster on the dark funnel, the buying centre and the decision-makers you never meet: head of IT, security, the business unit, purchasing and management — and the places they inform themselves, from comparison portals to partner programmes. Starts with a short live poll. 2. 25 min ### Live: who is on the shortlist? Two anonymised cases from software and IT services, the results of the KI-Blindtest B2B-Tech 2026 and the three stages found, read, named — plus what you can check yourself with ChatGPT or Copilot, and where the limit is. 3. ### Open Q\&A Your own cases in conversation with Norbert Schuster and Oliver Parrizas — for example: is a comparison-portal listing enough? Should we block AI crawlers? And what happens after the webinar. ### Your hosts — strategy meets execution ### [Norbert Schuster](https://www.linkedin.com/in/norbertschuster/) Strategy consultant, author & speaker Author of the Haufe standard reference “Digitalisierung in Marketing und Vertrieb” and of more than a dozen further books — most recently “KI im B2B — Marketing und Vertrieb neu denken” (2026). Creator of the strike2® framework: systematic lead management along the buyer journey (Schuster-Modell®), presence where buyers go to inform themselves (Wasserloch-Strategie®), and a sales funnel built around what buyers actually need (Empathischer Funnel®). In the webinar he supplies the strategic frame: from the silent pre-decision to a scalable system for revenue from new and existing customers. ### [Oliver Parrizas](https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-parrizas/) Digital & visibility analyst Has worked on digital visibility since the early days of Google — more than 25 years, from the first rankings through SEO and AEO to GEO in the AI era. His clients are typical mid-sized B2B companies: firms that develop, manufacture and sell technically demanding products worldwide — often the leader in their niche, barely known outside their own industry. That is exactly where it is decided whether an AI system knows a company and recommends it. He analysed the KI-Blindtest Mittelstand 2026 and the KI-Blindtest B2B-Tech 2026. In the webinar he shows the live cases: real AI answers, anonymised, and the figures from 100 IT and software companies. Who this webinar is for ## Built for software vendors, system integrators and IT service providers ### Managing directors You want to know whether your company is on the shortlist the AI writes for your customers — before competitors extend their lead. ### Heads of marketing You invest in your website, content and review portals — and need to know whether any of it arrives in AI answers. ### Heads of sales You can feel enquiries thinning out or arriving with a finished shortlist — and you do not want to leave the silent pre-decision to chance. You are in the right place if: - You sell software, IT services, security or cloud solutions to businesses. - Your customers consult comparison portals, best-of lists and now the AI before the first contact. - Referrals still carry you — but the flow of enquiries is noticeably thinning out. - You want to know where you stand before you put budget into measures. Not the right format for B2C shops — our methodology is built for B2B buying processes. ## Frequently asked questions ### What language is the webinar held in? German. Both speakers present in German and the Q\&A runs in German. The study behind it measures companies in the German market. If you do not follow German comfortably, the webinar will not serve you well — the Digital Visibility Audit and the 30-minute call are available in English at any time. ### How do I get the access link? After registering you receive a confirmation by email. We send the access link to the same address in good time before the session — there is no newsletter and no advertising. ### Will my company be tested publicly during the webinar? Only if you explicitly allow it when registering — and then anonymously, without your company name being named. Your personal analysis goes to you and nobody else. ### What does attending cost — and where is the catch? Attending is free, and everyone registered receives the guide “Die KI schreibt die Shortlist.” (in German). There is no project commitment and no sales block in the webinar. Anyone who wants to talk through their results can book a 30-minute call voluntarily. That is all. ### We are only allowed to use Microsoft Copilot — is the webinar still useful to me? Yes. Copilot runs on the same GPT models as ChatGPT, so everything we show for checking your own company works there in exactly the same way. Our measurements cover ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode; the mechanism by which AI assistants recommend or omit a provider is the same in Copilot. ### We are listed on comparison portals — is that enough? It helps, but it is rarely enough. In the KI-Blindtest B2B-Tech 2026, around 13% of the sources the AI relies on lead to comparison portals and directories, around 70% to vendor websites — often to your competitors’ guides and best-of lists. The AI combines several sources. If you are only on the portal, you leave the rest to others. ### We rank well on Google — is it still worth it? Especially then: in the KI-Blindtest Mittelstand 2026, 35% of the companies with over 100 top-10 rankings on Google were completely invisible in ChatGPT. Classic SEO strength and AI visibility are two different disciplines — and it is exactly this SEO paradox we demonstrate live. ### Is there a recording? Yes. Everyone who registers receives the recording and the guide “Die KI schreibt die Shortlist.” by email afterwards — including those who cannot make the live session. ## 60 minutes that show whether you are on the shortlist. Free, with the guide for everyone registered — all we need is your website, your name and your email. Held in German.