---
title: "Can AI search put our supply chain software on the RFP longlist?"
description: "Partly: AI answers now shape the vendor longlist before an RFP is written, so supply chain vendors must be named and verifiable there first."
canonical: "https://underneath.agency/resources/supply-chain-software-ai-search"
published: 2026-10-07
updated: 2026-10-08
publisher: "Underneath (https://underneath.agency/agent)"
entity: "https://underneath.agency/.well-known/entity.json"
---
Guide · AI search

# Can AI search put our supply chain software on the RFP longlist?

It can help, because the longlist for a supply chain software deal now forms in research that increasingly runs through AI assistants, long before procurement writes the request for proposal (RFP). Supply chain buyers are spending more and putting most of their digital budget into AI, so they arrive at vendor selection with a short list already in mind. Whether your planning, visibility or optimization product is on it depends on what independent sources say about you, not only on your own site.

## The short version

1. The prize is large: [Gartner](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/6666034) puts 2024 revenue of supply chain management software providers at about $33.4 billion, up 12.4% in a year.
2. Budgets are rising and tilting to AI: in the [2025 MHI and Deloitte report](https://www.intelligentcio.com/north-america/2025/03/20/new-mhi-and-deloitte-report-focuses-on-orchestrating-end-to-end-digital-supply-chain/), 55% of supply chain leaders were increasing technology investment and 19% planned to spend over $10 million; [Gartner](https://www.supplychain247.com/article/gartner-supply-chain-chiefs-unclear-ai-investment-returns) found AI now takes 67% of supply chain digital investment.
3. Single deals are big: [Kinaxis](https://www.kinaxis.com/en/node/8861) reported over 100 software deals above $1 million in total contract value in 2025, on annual recurring revenue of $433 million.
4. Buyers already name AI features as a top reason to buy: in [Futurum’s survey](https://futurumgroup.com/press-release/supply-chain-software-dominated-by-oracle-sap-and-blue-yonder/) of 411 decision-makers, generative AI capabilities ranked second among purchase drivers for supply chain software, at 13.2%.
5. The market is concentrated, which makes the longlist hard to join: 53.8% of the same respondents named Oracle SCM Cloud among their supply chain vendors, and SAP’s products combined reached 57.2%.

## Who signs for supply chain software, and how large is a contract?

A cross-functional team led by supply chain executives buys it, in multi-year contracts that often run to seven figures.

The buyers are senior. In the [MHI and Deloitte survey](https://www.intelligentcio.com/north-america/2025/03/20/new-mhi-and-deloitte-report-focuses-on-orchestrating-end-to-end-digital-supply-chain/) of over 700 manufacturing and supply chain leaders, 83% held executive-level positions. Their spending intentions are serious: 55% were increasing investment in supply chain technology and innovation, 60% planned to invest over $1 million, and 19% over $10 million.

The money is moving toward AI. [Gartner](https://www.supplychain247.com/article/gartner-supply-chain-chiefs-unclear-ai-investment-returns), surveying 394 supply chain professionals at companies with at least $250 million in revenue, found AI now accounts for 67% of supply chain digital investment. Yet 55% of supply chain chiefs were unclear about the returns. Buyers are spending heavily and want proof, a combination that rewards vendors whose results are easy to verify. Legal AI buyers likewise want proof before they commit, in their case of accuracy and confidentiality, as [our guide to legal software](https://underneath.agency/resources/legal-software-ai-search) shows.

Vendor earnings releases show how much a single supply chain customer can bring in. [Kinaxis](https://www.kinaxis.com/en/node/8861), a supply chain planning vendor, reported annual recurring revenue up 20% to $433 million at the end of 2025. Its finance chief said it saw “over 100 software deals above $1 million in total software contract value and more than 20 deals above $1 million in average annual software contract value.” Private competitors grow fast too: [o9 Solutions](https://o9solutions.com/news/o9-gains-a-strong-start-to-2025-with-continued-growth-in-new-customer-acquisition) reported 60% year-over-year growth in new clients in the first quarter of 2025.

The category is also crowded at the top. [Futurum’s 2025 survey](https://futurumgroup.com/press-release/supply-chain-software-dominated-by-oracle-sap-and-blue-yonder/) of 411 IT decision-makers found:

| Vendor named as a current supply chain software supplier | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| SAP (Ariba and S/4HANA Cloud combined) | 57.2% |
| Oracle SCM Cloud | 53.8% |
| Blue Yonder | 22.1% |
| IBM Sterling Supply Chain Intelligence Suite | 20.4% |

For a specialist in planning, visibility, network design or risk, that means most buyers already own a large suite. The specialist has to earn a place on the list before anyone compares features.

## At what point do supply chain buyers meet AI answers?

At the research stage that builds the longlist, though no public study isolates supply chain buyers’ use of AI assistants.

The formal process is well documented. Selection guides, such as [ToolsGroup’s summary of Gartner’s advice](https://www.toolsgroup.com/blog/how-to-select-supply-chain-planning-software/), tell teams to “identify a longlist of vendors (up to 10) to approach with the RFI” before any demos. Gartner itself sells clients tools to [build a vendor shortlist](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/7399530) for network design software and to [identify planning vendor candidates](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/6321347), noting that selection “can prove time-consuming and overwhelming.” A vendor that is not on that longlist never receives the RFI.

What changed is how the longlist gets built. [Forrester’s 2026 study of business buying](https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-2026-the-state-of-business-buying/) calls generative AI searches “the starting point for B2B buyers.” A typical purchase involves 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers, and procurement staff are decision-makers in 53% of buying cycles. Each of them may run their own research. Selling to those professional buyers is its own challenge, covered in [how procurement software reaches RFP-savvy buyers](https://underneath.agency/resources/procurement-software-ai-search).

Software buyers in general now lean on AI assistants. Of 1,076 software buyers that the review platform [G2](https://company.g2.com/news/g2-research-the-answer-economy) surveyed in March 2026, 51% now open a vendor search in an AI chatbot more often than in Google. Treat that with care: G2 earns money selling visibility to vendors, and its respondents bought every kind of software, not planning or logistics tools specifically.

Even a planner who never opens a chatbot meets AI answers on Google. When we checked [1,248 US searches](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-overviews-frequency-study), an AI Overview, Google’s AI summary above the results, appeared for 96.0% of B2B software and technology keywords, more than in any of the eight industries we tracked.

## Which questions do supply chain buyers ask AI assistants?

Questions about categories, fit with existing systems, alternatives to a suite, and proof of results. We wrote the prompts in this table ourselves to show the pattern; none was recorded from a real supply chain buyer.

| Buying stage | Illustrative prompt |
|---|---|
| Category | “What are the leading supply chain planning platforms for a mid-sized consumer goods manufacturer?” |
| Fit with the suite | “Which demand planning tools work well alongside SAP S/4HANA?” |
| Alternatives | “What are the alternatives to Blue Yonder for retail replenishment?” |
| Comparison | “Kinaxis or o9 for a semiconductor company with long lead times?” |
| Risk and compliance | “Which supplier risk monitoring tools help with forced-labor and due-diligence rules?” |
| Proof | “Which supply chain visibility vendors have published customer results in automotive?” |
| AI capability | “Which planning vendors have AI agents in production, not just on the roadmap?” |

A buyer’s single question about planning tools rarely stays single. Google’s documentation says AI Overviews and AI Mode [may use a “query fan-out” technique](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features), splitting it into related searches across subtopics. OpenAI’s help pages describe [ChatGPT search](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897-chatgpt-search) turning the buyer’s wording into one or more targeted queries for its search partners.

We have watched what those hidden searches target. Across the 80 buyer questions in [our hidden-searches study](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-hidden-searches-study), spanning eight industries, 43.8% of ChatGPT’s answers involved a search for a specific named publication, ranking or award. In supply chain, we infer, those named sources would include analyst evaluations, trade press rankings and peer-review sites.

## How does an AI answer become a signed supply chain contract?

Through the longlist: an AI answer reaches the team before the RFI, and the RFI leads to contracts.

Our reading of the evidence gives a five-step chain from question to contract:

1. A supply chain director, planner or IT architect asks an assistant a category, fit or alternatives question months before a budget is approved.
2. The answer names a handful of vendors and links sources such as analyst notes, trade articles and reviews.
3. The team checks those names with peers, consultants and analysts.
4. Up to 10 vendors receive an RFI; a few get scripted demos; one wins.
5. The winner signs a multi-year contract that expands across sites and modules.

The early list matters because buyers rarely stray far from it. [Gartner Digital Markets](https://cdn-static.bizzabo.com/bizzabo.file.upload/yVkIqwmWRDKbEhqeE3aQ_Gartner-Digital-Markets_2025-Report_Making-The-List.pdf), surveying 3,500 software buyers across industries, found an average of 4.4 options on a buyer’s initial informal list, and called it “the list that 81% of buyers end up making a purchase from most or all of the time.”

Proof matters more in large deals. Forrester found 78% of buyers making purchases of $10 million or more run a trial first. For a planning or visibility platform, that usually means a pilot on real data, which only shortlisted vendors are offered.

The revenue will not show up as a click. A buyer who met you in an AI answer may reach you months later through a systems integrator, a consultant or an analyst inquiry. Our guide to [what lost clicks mean for pipeline](https://underneath.agency/resources/ai-answers-pipeline-revenue) covers how to trace that slow, indirect route back to revenue. Consultancies that advise those buyers face their own longlist, covered in [how supply chain consultancies get shortlisted](https://underneath.agency/resources/supply-chain-consulting-firms-ai-search).

## Why does an assistant name one supply chain vendor and skip another?

Nobody outside the platforms knows the rules; research points to third-party sources, and supply chain buyers demand checkable results.

**What Google and OpenAI say.** Both state that their AI answers search the web and cite what they find. Neither explains how a planning or logistics vendor gets picked for a recommendation.

**What researchers have measured.** When [Chen and colleagues](https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08919) tested US software questions, 72.7% of the sources AI search relied on were earned media, meaning independent reviews and publications; Google’s figure was 45.4%, with more weight on vendors’ own sites. Knowing a product is not the same as recommending it: in a study of 112 startups, [Sharma](https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00912) found ChatGPT recognized products asked about by name 99.4% of the time but surfaced them in only 3.32% of category questions. That version of ChatGPT answered without web search, so treat it as a warning, not a forecast.

**What supply chain buyers weigh.** Futurum ranked the top purchase drivers for supply chain software as features and functionality (18.7%), generative AI capabilities (13.2%) and cost and pricing model (8.9%). Its research director added that buyers want software that can “interface with other disparate data and systems.” Integration proof, AI capability and total cost are the facts a buyer will check.

**Our inference.** The evidence a supply chain team uses to verify a vendor is mostly public: analyst evaluations, customer case studies with numbers, integration partner listings, conference talks and trade coverage. An assistant can reach and quote every one of those supply chain pages too. So a planning or visibility vendor with public, specific and consistent proof probably serves both the human evaluator and the assistant better. That remains our expectation, not a tested finding for supply chain software.

## What does a supply chain vendor lose by being absent from AI answers?

Mostly lost evaluations rather than lost clicks, though no study has measured the cost directly.

- **The suites start ahead.** With Oracle and SAP named by more than half of buyers, a specialist missing from AI answers leaves the buyer’s default, the suite they already own, unchallenged. That is our inference from the survey data.
- **Missed cycles are long cycles.** Contracts run for years and renew. A vendor left off one longlist may wait until the next replacement cycle, we infer.
- **AI claims are now table stakes.** Gartner forecasts supply chain software with agentic AI capabilities growing from less than $2 billion in 2025 to [$53 billion in spend by 2030](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-04-07-gartner-forecasts-supply-chain-management-software-with-agentic-ai-will-grow-to-53-billion-in-spend-by-2030). If AI answers describe your product as lacking AI features you do have, you lose on the second-ranked purchase driver.
- **Being named is hit or miss.** Across five runs of the same question in [our consistency study](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-recommendation-consistency-study), just 25.2% of the brands ChatGPT named showed up every time. A planning vendor that appears on only some runs drops out of some RFIs without ever learning they existed.

## What does GEO involve for a supply chain vendor?

It puts your supply chain results where assistants can find, read and repeat them, with no guaranteed recommendation.

Generative engine optimization (GEO) means working to be described accurately when AI assistants answer questions about supply chain software. For a planning, visibility or logistics vendor it comes down to six pieces of work:

1. **One clear identity.** Say what you plan, track or optimize, for which industries, and which systems you sit beside, in the same words on your site, partner pages, analyst briefings and company databases. Where assistants already describe you wrongly, our guide on [correcting brand information in AI answers](https://underneath.agency/resources/fix-wrong-brand-information-in-ai-answers) explains the repair.
2. **Numbers buyers can check.** Publish customer results with named metrics, such as forecast accuracy, inventory reduction or service level, on plain web pages rather than gated PDFs.
3. **Independent coverage.** Brief analysts, speak at industry events and earn trade press coverage. Assistants often look up exactly these outlets by name, and our piece on [building authority for AI search](https://underneath.agency/resources/how-brands-build-authority-for-ai-search) covers how vendors earn them.
4. **Integration and partner pages.** Document how you connect to SAP, Oracle and the major warehouse and transport systems. Buyers ask fit questions first, and systems integrators often shape the longlist.
5. **Honest comparison content.** Explain when a specialist beats the suite and when it does not. Third-party ranked lists still matter more, as we show in [which pages to target](https://underneath.agency/resources/best-of-lists-ai-recommendations).
6. **Repeated checks on every assistant.** Put each longlist question to ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Claude more than once, since a single run misleads. B2B software answers vary less than most: in [our four-assistant study](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-assistants-brand-agreement-study), B2B software had the highest overlap between assistants, 0.543 on a scale from 0 to 1, but that is still far from full agreement.

How the same forces play out across software in general is covered in [how B2B SaaS companies earn revenue from AI search](https://underneath.agency/resources/b2b-saas-revenue-from-ai-search).

## What is still unknown about AI search in supply chain software buying?

The biggest gap: nobody has measured whether appearing in AI answers lifts a supply chain vendor’s sales.

- **No study of supply chain buyers’ AI use.** The surveys on AI in buying cover software buyers in general. None isolates supply chain or operations leaders.
- **Interested sources.** G2 sells review visibility; Kinaxis and o9 report their own results; Futurum’s top-line findings come from a press release.
- **Nobody has tied it to closed deals.** [Martinez](https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.14035) went through 45 studies of AI search optimization, and found the work on traffic and conversions the least supported of the lot. Our article [does AI visibility drive business results](https://underneath.agency/resources/does-ai-visibility-drive-business-results) weighs what is known.
- **Vendor choice is a black box.** Only the platforms know how an assistant settles on which planning or logistics vendors to name, and the list shifts from run to run.

## How can a supply chain vendor tell whether it makes the AI-built longlist?

Put your buyers’ pre-RFI questions to assistants repeatedly, and note which vendors are named and from which sources.

Write down what a planning, procurement or logistics leader would ask before sending an RFI: category, fit with the suite they own, alternatives, compliance and proof. Ask each of them in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI results on several different days, since one supply chain answer can differ from the next. Note who is named, which sources are cited, and how your AI features, integrations and customer results come across. Where you are missing, the cause is usually too little analyst, trade or customer proof published by others about you.

We can [review your place on AI-built RFI longlists](https://underneath.agency/contact) with you: which answers include you, which leave you off, and which gaps in your public proof are most likely costing you evaluations and seven-figure deals. For how that proof gets built, from checkable customer results to integration pages and analyst briefings, see our [generative engine optimization service](https://underneath.agency/services/generative-engine-optimization).

## Frequently asked questions

### Do supply chain executives use ChatGPT to find software vendors?

No survey isolates them. Across all software, 51% of buyers in G2’s 2026 poll began research with AI chatbots more often than Google.

### Will a Gartner Magic Quadrant spot get a supply chain vendor named in AI answers?

Plausibly, but untested. ChatGPT searched for a named publication, ranking or award in 43.8% of answers in our study, and analyst reports are such sources.

### Can a specialist vendor compete with SAP and Oracle in AI answers?

It can be named for specific questions, but recognition is not recommendation: one study found ChatGPT surfaced startups in only 3.32% of category questions.

### Should we ungate our customer case studies?

For the results buyers verify, generally yes. AI search drew 72.7% of sources for US software questions from independent pages, so publish proof others can cite.

### How long until GEO work shows up in supply chain deals?

Expect quarters, not weeks. Large supply chain deals pass through RFIs, demos and pilots, and 78% of $10 million-plus buyers run a trial first.

## Sources

- Gartner (2025-06-30), [Market Share Analysis: Supply Chain Management Software, Worldwide, 2024](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/6666034)
- Gartner, via Supply Chain 24/7 (2026-08-05), [Gartner: 55% of Supply Chain Leaders Unclear on AI Returns](https://www.supplychain247.com/article/gartner-supply-chain-chiefs-unclear-ai-investment-returns)
- Gartner (2026-04-07), [Gartner Forecasts Supply Chain Management Software with Agentic AI Will Grow to $53 Billion in Spend by 2030](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-04-07-gartner-forecasts-supply-chain-management-software-with-agentic-ai-will-grow-to-53-billion-in-spend-by-2030)
- Gartner (2026-02-16), [Tool: Supply Chain Network Design Vendor Shortlist Builder](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/7399530)
- Gartner (2025-04-03), [Tool: Identify Supply Chain Planning Solution Vendor Candidates](https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/6321347)
- MHI (2025-06-09), [Digital Investments Cover End-to-End Supply Chains](https://www.mhisolutionsmag.com/index.php/2025/06/09/digital-investments-cover-end_to_end-supply-chains/)
- MHI and Deloitte, via Intelligent CIO (2025-03-20), [New MHI and Deloitte report focuses on orchestrating end-to-end digital supply chain solutions](https://www.intelligentcio.com/north-america/2025/03/20/new-mhi-and-deloitte-report-focuses-on-orchestrating-end-to-end-digital-supply-chain/)
- Futurum Group (2026-01-23), [Supply Chain Software Dominated by Oracle, SAP, and Blue Yonder](https://futurumgroup.com/press-release/supply-chain-software-dominated-by-oracle-sap-and-blue-yonder/)
- Kinaxis (2026-03-04), [Kinaxis Inc. Reports Record Fourth Quarter 2025 Results](https://www.kinaxis.com/en/node/8861)
- o9 Solutions (2025-04-09), [o9 Gains a Strong Start to 2025 with Continued Growth in New Customer Acquisition](https://o9solutions.com/news/o9-gains-a-strong-start-to-2025-with-continued-growth-in-new-customer-acquisition)
- ToolsGroup (2021-06-02), [How to select supply chain planning software](https://www.toolsgroup.com/blog/how-to-select-supply-chain-planning-software/)
- Gartner Digital Markets (2025), [Making the List](https://cdn-static.bizzabo.com/bizzabo.file.upload/yVkIqwmWRDKbEhqeE3aQ_Gartner-Digital-Markets_2025-Report_Making-The-List.pdf)
- Forrester (2026-01-21), [Forrester’s 2026 Buyer Insights: GenAI Is Upending B2B Buying](https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-2026-the-state-of-business-buying/)
- G2, Tim Sanders (2026-04-15), [In the Answer Economy, Don’t Win the Click — Win the Answer](https://company.g2.com/news/g2-research-the-answer-economy)
- Google Search Central (2025), [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)
- OpenAI Help Center (2025), [ChatGPT search](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897-chatgpt-search)
- Chen, Wang, Chen and Koudas (2025), [Generative Engine Optimization: How to Dominate AI Search](https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08919), arXiv:2509.08919.
- Sharma (2025), [The Discovery Gap: How Product Hunt Startups Vanish in LLM Organic Discovery Queries](https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00912), arXiv:2601.00912.
- Martinez (2026), [Optimizing Visibility in Generative Engines: A Critical Survey of Generative Engine Optimization (2023-2026)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.14035), arXiv:2607.14035.
- Underneath (2026), [When does Google show an AI Overview? 1,248 US searches](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-overviews-frequency-study)
- Underneath (2026), [The hidden searches AI assistants run before they answer](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-hidden-searches-study)
- Underneath (2026), [Do ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude agree on brands?](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-assistants-brand-agreement-study)
- Underneath (2026), [Ask an AI the same question 5 times: do the brands change?](https://underneath.agency/research/ai-recommendation-consistency-study)

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