Today’s enterprise buyers expect complete clarity upfront: transparent pricing, implementation details, all visible up front on your website. They want to evaluate solutions on their own time and shortlist vendors who make that possible.

Forrester expects that by the end of 2025, half of all million-dollar B2B purchases will happen through digital self-serve channels [1].

Buyers Aren’t Call. Here’s What They Expect.

Gartner projects that 80% of B2B interactions will occur digitally by 2025, while 44% of millennial buyers prefer no salesperson involvement [2]. Even before 2024, McKinsey found that 27% of buyers were comfortable spending over $500,000 entirely online [3].

Today, 89% of B2B buyers use generative AI as a primary research tool [4]. Vendor selection often begins with ChatGPT or other GenAI agents, not a website visit. If your product details are hidden behind forms, you are no longer in the race.

Modern buyers expect open access to:

• Pricing frameworks

• Implementation timelines

• ROI models

• Security and compliance information

They are not seeking a conversation first. They are verifying credibility, accuracy, and transparency before ever deciding to engage.

How to Adapt

At AdWave, we are working with our B2B client portfolio to rebuild their digital presence around AI discoverability and buyer self-education. The goal is to help clients be found, understood, and trusted before the first contact. It comes down to understanding the buying criteria for their products and ensuring that it is public, easily accessible and indexable by search engines and AI alike. Key areas of focus include:

1. Publish enterprise-grade detail. Move specifications, pricing, and implementation guidance onto public pages.

2. Structure for AI readability. Use schema markup and technical hierarchy so AI tools can interpret content correctly.

3. Simplify comprehension. Replace promotional text with factual summaries and validated metrics.

4. Convert friction into enablement. Redesign landing pages to include decision-enablement elements such as ROI tools, and benchmarks.

The Consequence of Waiting

Transparency is no longer optional.

Within the next 12 to 24 months, businesses that fail to publish clear, machine-readable information will vanish from every shortlist that matters.

This isn’t a minor change. 2025 marks the start of a self-serve default for high-value sales.

Organizations that act now will lead. Those that wait will no longer be in the race.

References:

1. Forrester (2024), B2B Marketing & Sales Predictions 2025: More Than Half Of Large B2B Purchases Will Be Processed Through Digital Self-Serve Channels. https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-predictions-2025-b2b-marketing-sales/

2. Gartner (2020), Gartner Says 80% of B2B Sales Interactions Between Suppliers and Buyers Will Occur in Digital Channels by 2025. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-09-15-gartner-says-80-of-b2b-sales-interactions-between-suppliers-and-buyers-will-occur-in-digital-channels-by-2025

3. McKinsey & Co. (2020), These Eight Charts Show How COVID-19 Has Changed B2B Sales Forever. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/these-eight-charts-show-how-covid-19-has-changed-b2b-sales-forever

4. Forrester (2024), B2B Buyer Adoption Of Generative AI (Data Overview). https://www.forrester.com/report/b2b-buyer-adoption-of-generative-ai/RES181769

Imagine a drone that lives in a weatherproof pod on your site. It charges itself, flies scheduled missions, and returns automatically. The data is processed and delivered as a ready-to-use report in near real time. That’s Drones-as-a-Service (DaaS): subscription access to aerial data without the burden of buying hardware, training pilots, or carrying liability for operations. Where conventional drone programs require capital investment, maintenance, and insurance, DaaS delivers the same output as a managed service.

SkySnap’s 2025 DaaS Initiatives:

In Canada, SkySnap is preparing to launch a fully managed drone-in-a-box service. Each pod is remotely supervised by humans, and SkySnap handles all data processing and delivery. Two initial deployments in 2025:

• Crop monitoring: A single pod will serve multiple farms in one region. Some farms may only need weekly scans, while others will receive daily missions. By pooling operations from one location, costs stay low while delivering consistent, analytics-ready data.

• Development projects: For subdivision construction and other large builds, pods will fly weekly missions. The output will be turned into progression visual reports for management oversight and client updates.

Additional initiatives are planned in business intelligence (e.g., parking and traffic utilization) and conservation, where regular monitoring can deliver environmental insights at a fraction of the cost of manual surveys.

Outlook and market context. PwC projects that the global drone market could generate $127 billion in value across industries as automation scales, with infrastructure, agriculture, and security among the largest segments [1]. McKinsey estimates that in the United States alone, the addressable market for drone delivery could reach $5 billion annually by 2035, underscoring how drones are shifting from hardware to service-based models [2]. Regulatory changes are also enabling this growth: Canada’s new BVLOS rules take effect in November 2025 [3], while in the United States, the FAA’s proposed Part 108 would normalize routine BVLOS operations [4].

DaaS is emerging as the smarter model for aerial data. It is cheaper, easier, and more effective for the buyer in every way. By pooling resources and automating flights, DaaS enables data collection in areas where it would otherwise be too costly or complex.

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References:

1. PwC — Clarity from Above: PwC’s Global Report on the Commercial Applications of Drone Technology
   https://www.pwc.pl/en/services/clarity-from-above.html

2. McKinsey — Parcel Delivery by Drones: Market Potential and Roadblocks (2023 update)
   https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-logistics-and-infrastructure/our-insights/parcel-delivery-by-drones

3. Transport Canada — 2025 summary of changes to Canada’s drone regulations
   https://tc.canada.ca/en/aviation/drone-safety/2025-summary-changes-canada-drone-regulations

4. Federal Register — Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations (Proposed Part 108; Aug 7, 2025)
   https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/07/2025-14992/normalizing-unmanned-aircraft-systems-beyond-visual-line-of-sight-operations

Procurement used to mean endless spreadsheets, weeks of research, and painful vendor evaluations. That world is already slipping away.

At MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics, researchers found that buyers are now using generative AI to “get supplier shortlist capabilities” in the RFI (Request for Information) stage and then to “synthesize information from questionnaires… enabling more comprehensive and consistent supplier comparisons” in the RFP (Request for Proposal) evaluation stage [1]. The OECD echoes this, noting that AI helps contracting authorities “identify and engage with potential suppliers” and “support bid evaluation and price analysis” [2].

This isn’t hypothetical. Research from Boston Consulting Group shows that AI is already helping global manufacturers compare and evaluate supplier offers far more efficiently, cutting the time required by roughly half [3]. IBM highlights similar gains, noting that companies using AI have been able to onboard suppliers dramatically faster and reduce complex pricing analyses from days to just minutes [4]. Even NASA has said plainly that “AI can automate supplier identification [and] proposal evaluation,” underscoring its growing role in procurement [5].

I’m observing this shift firsthand. At AdWave (adwave.ca), a digital marketing firm, we track client analytics closely. In cases where we’ve specifically optimized for GenAI visibility, as much as 20–25% of new RFQs (Request for Quotation) are now tagged as originating from GenAI-driven searches (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity). That’s a dramatic change from 2024, when GenAI sources didn’t even register in our top source reporting. Traditional SEO strategies don’t fully carry over to GenAI. While there is some overlap, tools like ChatGPT do not rely on Google Search, which means the vendor lists they generate can differ significantly. This shift is reshaping local search, as many SMBs depend on their Google Business Profile (Maps listing), which is a data source ChatGPT ignores entirely. Consequently, optimizing for AI search is quickly becoming a top priority for businesses that want to avoid fading into obscurity.

This isn’t just a minor change. What we are seeing in 2025 is only the beginning. As AI becomes the default approach for structuring and executing RFQs and RFPs, businesses that adapt will thrive. We are likely to see this trend become the norm in the next year or two.

References:

1. MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics — AI-powered RFx Intelligence for Strategic Supplier Excellence (Capstone Report, 2025):

https://ctl.mit.edu/sites/ctl.mit.edu/files/theses/zaunicknastasja_170045_5333547_SCM15_Zaunick_Paredes_CapstoneReport.pdf

2. OECD — Digital transformation of public procurement (June 12, 2025):

https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2025/06/digital-transformation-of-public-procurement_90ace30d/79651651-en.pdf

3. Boston Consulting Group — Executive Perspectives: The Future of Procurement with AI (Feb 27, 2025):

https://media-publications.bcg.com/BCG-Executive-Perspectives-Future-of-Procurement-with-AI-2025-27Feb2025.pdf

4. IBM — The future of procurement: Moving beyond cost savings to AI-driven value creation (May 12, 2025):

https://www.ibm.com/think/insights/ai-procurement

5. NASA Office of Procurement — Leveraging AI: Enhancing RFP Analysis and Response Strategies (June 18, 2025):

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/osbp-learning-series-ai-jun-2025.pdf?emrc=0d17b6