Contact Jason Vargas
The Proof GapAVAS™What Proof Looks LikeHow You Gain ProofAboutResearchContactContact Jason Vargas
312-961-1977jvargas@evidencecommunications.comMunster, Indiana
Commercial Development for Industrial Companies

Nothing Happens Until Something Is Sold.

Buyer behavior has fundamentally changed. Buyers increasingly use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to research and compare suppliers before they ever contact sales. If your company doesn't appear in that research, you may be excluded before you even know you were being considered.

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89%

of B2B buyers have adopted generative AI as a top source of self-guided information across every phase of the buying process.

Source: Forrester, Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2024

More than55%

of the industrial purchase process is complete before vendor contact.

Source: Gardner Business Media, Industrial Buying Influence Survey

Experience Includes
General Motors
Ford
Jaguar
Gore-Tex
Bridgestone
Kimberly-Clark
FabTech-IGM
SAC Wireless (a Nokia company)
Kolcraft
An engineer on a shop floor reviewing machining software on a laptop beside a milling centre
3.4×
how much more often category leaders get mentioned than the company being tested
The Buyer Research Shift

Buyers Decide Before Sales Gets the Call

For more than a century, industrial buyers evaluated proof after engaging a supplier — in meetings, facility visits, trials, and documentation reviews the supplier controlled. That sequence has changed.

Buyers now form opinions before contacting anyone, using AI-generated answers from tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to understand categories, compare options, and decide which suppliers are worth contacting at all.

When real operating evidence doesn't surface in that research, capable suppliers don't lose deals first. They lose consideration first. Revenue impact follows — quietly, decision by decision, with no signal in any dashboard.

Understand the Proof Gap
How Evidence Communications Works

From the Problem, to the Diagnosis, to What Gets Built

Three things to understand, in order. Each one links to the full picture.

The Proof Gap

Why capable companies get missed by buyers who never knew they were being evaluated.

Read the problem

AVAS™, the AI Visibility Assessment System

The diagnostic that shows exactly where your company is invisible to AI-driven buyer research.

See the diagnostic

The Roadmap

How Evidence Communications turns insight into action.

See the process
Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

The Proof Gap is the space between the real capability a company has and what AI systems can actually find, verify, and recommend about that company. Buyers now research suppliers using AI before contacting a sales team. If a company’s proof is not visible in that research, it can be excluded before its sales team ever knows it was considered.
Industrial and manufacturing companies, from steel and metal fabrication to industrial automation and robotics to medical and healthcare equipment to companies backed by private equity and venture capital investors.
A marketing agency usually starts with a campaign or a rebrand. Evidence Communications starts with a diagnostic. AVAS measures whether AI systems already recommend your company before a single piece of content gets built, so every dollar spent afterward works for your company instead of being spent on a guess.
AI visibility is not another layer of marketing. It reflects how clearly your company is positioned across the internet and whether AI systems can find, understand, and recommend it when buyers research suppliers. A company can have strong marketing and still score poorly in AVAS because AVAS tests a different question: whether AI systems actually present your company as a credible option.
No. AI answers change over time, so a score is a snapshot, not a permanent grade, which is why rescans happen on a quarterly basis.
No. In most cases a low score means the proof isn’t published anywhere AI can find it, not that the work itself is weak.
A report shows exactly where a company shows up, where it doesn’t, and why. From there, a company can fix the gap directly, or work with Evidence Communications to build what’s missing.
SEO measures whether a company ranks on a search results page. AVAS measures whether an AI tool actually recommends the company by name when a buyer asks for suppliers, a different kind of visibility, measured a different way.
It means whether an AI tool can find your company, understand what you do, and confidently recommend you when someone asks. It’s different from being well-known, having website traffic, or ranking on Google.
Usually one of four reasons: the work is real but never published anywhere public, the website doesn’t use the same words buyers and AI use to describe it, there’s no outside validation like certifications or directories, or there’s nothing specific enough for an AI tool to check and confirm.
Specific, published proof, a founding date, a project count, a certification, not bigger marketing budgets or more web pages.
Strong performance on one platform does not guarantee strong performance across the others. Each platform may retrieve different sources, weigh the available evidence differently, and recommend different companies.
Cover of The Proof Gap by Jason Vargas: Why Growth Is Getting Harder — How AI Is Deciding Which Suppliers Get Chosen
Evidence for the New Buying Environment

The Proof Gap

Why growth is getting harder, and how AI is deciding which suppliers get chosen. The complete paper explains how the gap forms, why it widens over time, and what leaders must decide to stay visible when buyers choose who to trust.

Download The Proof Gap Research & Resources