G2 Crowd Inc.
04/03/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/03/2026 07:59
New Categories Introduced to G2 in March 2026
AI is reshaping how enterprises build, buy, and interact with software - and G2's category taxonomy is evolving right alongside it. This month's new additions reflect two major forces at play: the continued maturation of AI infrastructure and deployment, and the growing demand for purpose-built software in specialized industries.
Across 14 new categories, G2's analysts have identified where buyer needs have outpaced the existing taxonomy - and created the spaces to meet them. Whether you're a buyer trying to find the right solution or a vendor looking to understand where your product fits, here's what's new on G2 - and why it matters.
1. Conversational Interface Agents
About this category: Conversational interface agentsare agentic platforms that serve as the interaction layer between users and enterprise systems. Rather than requiring users to navigate multiple tools or know where information lives, these agents understand intent, take action, and surface answers all through natural conversation. They are deployed across internal operations, customer-facing workflows, and cross-functional use cases, integrating with the systems, data, and processes an organization already relies on.
Unlike chatbots, which handle scripted exchanges, or backend orchestration frameworks, which coordinate system-to-system logic, conversational interface agents occupy a distinct position: They are the front door to how work gets done.
The user of a conversational interface agent is not building or configuring one - they are interacting with one, or deploying one as the interface through which their organization engages with enterprise systems. These products are evaluated on the quality, naturalness, and reliability of the conversational experience across internal and external workflows, not on construction depth or configurability.
Why it was introduced: "The shift to agentic AI is redefining how users interact with enterprise software. As organizations move past the building phase and begin deploying agents that employees and customers engage with daily, a clear taxonomy opportunity emerges. G2 created the Conversational Interface Agents category to reflect where the market actually is: Enterprises are no longer just asking what can be built - they are asking what they are deploying and how people interact with it. That is a different product, a different buyer, and a different evaluation journey.
This category sits within a deliberate agentic taxonomy on G2. AI Agent Builders are defined by construction and configuration depth - the primary user is someone building and orchestrating agents within their data and process architecture. Conversational Interface Agents are defined by deployment and interaction at scale. AI Agents for Customer Support represents a specific vertical application of that interaction layer, scoped to external-facing customer service use cases. Conversational Interface Agents is broader, covering internal-facing workflows, multi-department deployment, and the full range of interaction-layer use cases across the enterprise."
- Bijou Barry, AI Principal Analyst
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
2. AI Gateways
About this category: The AI Gatewayscategory represents the emerging middleware layer between enterprise applications and the large language models (LLM) they depend on. Rather than hardcoding provider-specific API keys and routing logic into every application, development teams use an AI gateway to centralize and standardize how their organization connects to AI models.
Why it was introduced: "As enterprises scale from AI experimentation to production, managing direct integrations with multiple LLM providers becomes a significant infrastructure challenge. Teams need a way to route requests across models, control costs, and maintain observability without rebuilding that logic in every application.
G2 recognizes AI Gateways as a new category of software purpose-built to solve these problems. These solutions act as a centralized control plane that handles multi-model routing and failover, semantic caching, API key management, and FinOps tracking for AI workloads. This space includes both standalone gateway products and gateway capabilities embedded within existing integration management platforms from vendors such as Kong, WSO2, and Microsoft."
- Adam Crivello, Market Research Principal, Software Development
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
3. AI Search Visibility Optimization Tools
About this category: AI search visibility optimization toolshelp organizations ensure their brand, products, and content are accurately represented and surfaced within AI-generated search responses. These tools are designed to optimize content for semantic retrieval, entity recognition, and inclusion in outputs from LLMs and generative search engines, helping organizations remain discoverable as buyers shift from traditional link-based search to AI-driven answers.
Why it was introduced: "Visibility used to mean ranking on page one. It now means being cited in an answer. That shift has created an entirely new set of challenges for marketing, SEO, and content teams - and an entirely new set of tools to address them. G2 created the AI Search Visibility Optimization category to recognize the platforms helping organizations stay discoverable as search moves from links to generated responses. If your content isn't being retrieved and cited by AI, it effectively doesn't exist for a growing share of your audience.
What makes this category particularly powerful for buyers is that the best platforms don't just optimize for generative engine rankings - they surface real-time intelligence about how and where products are being discovered. As AI becomes the primary interface between buyers and purchasing decisions, these tools give organizations live insight into how their brand is represented in the moments that matter most: When a potential customer asks an AI system what to buy, who to trust, and what to consider. That's not a reporting capability. It's a competitive intelligence layer."
- Bijou Barry, AI Principal Analyst
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
4. AI Patient Engagement & Operations
About this category: AI patient engagement & operations softwareuses artificial intelligence (AI) to improve patient communications while improving administrative and operational workflows across healthcare organizations. These solutions connect providers and patients while automating operational capability through intelligent scheduling, intake automation, documentation support, and staff coordination.
Why it was introduced: "The patient engagement space is one of the top areas in which healthcare is utilizing AI. Healthcare organizations want to use AI, but do not want to risk patient safety and security. Patient engagement and operations provide healthcare with a low-risk area to incorporate AI. Healthcare providers, health systems, outpatient clinics, call centers, digital health platforms, and payers use this software to reduce administrative burdens, improve the patient experience, and streamline care delivery."
- Emma Stein, Sr. Research Analyst on Healthcare and Education
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
5. Collaborative Research Writing Tools
About this category: Collaborative research writing toolsare software platforms that research teams use to collaborate on scholarly papers, scientific reports, and other publication-driven materials in real-time. Supporting structured formats such as LaTeX or Markdown, as well as WYSIWYG editors, they typically include features like citation management, version control, and publication-ready exports. Modern tools also incorporate AI assistance in the drafting, coding, and research processes.
Why it was introduced: "While there are existing G2 categories addressing the need for collaborative writing tools, these categories fall short of highlighting software dedicated to research workflows. The Collaborative Research Writing Tools category bridges this gap, making the structure and features required for complex academic writing more accessible to users."
- Nana Serwah Nkrahene, G2 Market Research Analyst for Collaboration and Productivity Software
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
6. AI Search & Retrieval Infrastructure
About this category: AI search & retrieval infrastructure platformsprovide the core technology that powers semantic search, hybrid search (keyword + vector), and AI-driven retrieval systems. These platforms enable organizations to ingest, index, and query structured and unstructured data at scale while supporting vector embeddings, relevance tuning, and real-time updates. They form the backbone of modern AI applications, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI agents, recommendation engines, and intelligent enterprise search.
Why it was introduced: "G2 introduced the AI Search & Retrieval Infrastructure category to recognize the critical role modern search systems play in the age of generative AI. As organizations adopt vector embeddings, hybrid search, and RAG, the search layer is no longer just a supporting feature - it is a core part of AI infrastructure. Platforms like Elasticsearch, Pinecone, Vespa, and Weaviate are leading this shift by providing scalable, production-ready technology that supports reliable, high-performing AI applications."
- Shalaka Joshi, G2 Senior Research Analyst for Cloud Infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence, and Web Hosting
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
7. AI Virtual Staging
About this category: AI virtual staging softwareenables real estate professionals, designers, and marketers to digitally furnish and transform empty or outdated spaces using artificial intelligence. These platforms act as creative hubs for generating photorealistic interiors, customizing styles, and visualizing layouts, helping buyers and stakeholders better understand a property's potential without the need for physical staging.
Why it was introduced: "As the real estate market becomes increasingly digital-first, AI Virtual Staging Software has gained traction for its ability to enhance property presentation quickly and cost-effectively. From residential listings to commercial spaces, these tools help agents attract more interest, reduce time on market, and deliver immersive experiences that resonate with modern buyers, while eliminating the logistical challenges of traditional staging".
- Chitransha Joshi, G2 Associate Research Analyst for Vertical Industry
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
8. AI Software Development Kits (SDK)
About this category: AI software development kits (SDK)are pre-built libraries, APIs, and developer tooling that enable engineering teams to integrate artificial intelligence capabilities directly into software products and applications. These tools reduce implementation complexity by providing standardized frameworks, pre-trained model access, and environment-agnostic integration patterns, allowing development teams to ship AI features faster and more consistently across their stack.
Why it was introduced: "Every AI-powered product runs on something. As organizations move from experimenting with AI to embedding it across their software stack, the developer tooling underneath that work becomes critical infrastructure. But AI capabilities don't embed themselves - behind every AI-native product is a development team that needs structured tooling to integrate models, manage outputs, and ship reliably at scale.
AI SDKs are the libraries, frameworks, and development kits that give engineering teams pre-built interfaces to AI models and services, reducing implementation complexity, enforcing consistent integration patterns, and accelerating time-to-market across environments. G2 created this category to recognize the capability layer that sits between AI models and the products organizations ship. These are not the models, and they are not the applications - they are the structured development infrastructure that connects the two. As AI becomes a foundational expectation across enterprise software, that layer becomes a category in its own right."
- Bijou Barry, AI Principal Analyst
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
9. AI Search and Discovery Platforms
About this category: AI search and discovery platformshelp organizations access and navigate information across multiple systems through a unified search experience. These platforms connect data from different sources and allow users to search in a more intuitive, intent-driven way. By going beyond keyword-based search, they surface results that are more relevant and easier to understand, helping users find what they need without switching between tools.
Why it was introduced: "Organizations today operate with no shortage of information, spread across systems such as collaboration tools, knowledge bases, CRM platforms, and internal documentation repositories. The constraint is shifting to usability. At the point of search, results often lack clarity or relevance, making information harder to interpret and apply. As information and workflows are spread across these systems, this gap becomes harder to ignore.
AI search and discovery software is emerging in response to this shift, focusing on improving how information is accessed and understood. This category recognizes a move toward platforms that help users make sense of existing knowledge and apply it more effectively in their day-to-day work."
- Hardik Jain, Market Research Analyst, Software Development
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
10. Higher Education Student Information Systems (SIS)
About this category: Higher education student information systems (SIS)help colleges, universities, and vocational institutions manage everything related to a student's academic journey. These platforms serve as a central hub for storing and managing student records, tracking enrollment and grades, managing financial aid and tuition, scheduling classes, and supporting academic advising.
Why it was introduced: "While K-12 and higher education SIS platforms often have some functionality in common, the needs of higher education institutions are significantly more complex. Higher education SIS must support varied academic calendars, flexible course structures, credit hour tracking, program and major or minor management, transfer credit evaluation, and degree audit tools."
- Emma Stein, Sr. Research Analyst on Healthcare and Education
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
11. Stakeholder Relationship Management
About this category: Stakeholder relationship management (SRM) softwareenables organizations to identify, map, manage, and engage with internal and external stakeholders across initiatives, projects, compliance programs, and strategic operations. These solutions centralize stakeholder data, track interactions, and provide visibility into stakeholder influence, sentiment, and engagement history to support more informed decision-making and stronger relationship outcomes.
Why it was introduced: "Organizations today manage increasingly complex networks of stakeholders from investors and board members to partners and regulators. Stakeholder relationship management software helps teams centralize engagement, coordinate communication, and build long-term trust with these critical relationships. By launching this category, G2 is helping bring visibility to a growing market and making it easier for buyers to discover purpose-built solutions designed for stakeholder engagement."
- Subhransu Sahu, Sr. Market Research Analyst, ERP, and E-commerce
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
12. Enterprise Kubernetes Management Software
About this category: Enterprise Kubernetes management softwarehelps organizations centrally deploy, operate, secure, and govern Kubernetes clusters across on-premises, cloud, hybrid, and edge environments. These platforms give platform engineering, DevOps, and SRE teams a unified control plane for multi-cluster lifecycle management, policy enforcement, access control, and standardized operations at scale.
Why it was introduced: "Enterprise Kubernetes management has matured into a distinct buyer need, separate from general container management and container orchestration tools. We introduced this category to improve buyer visibility and product discovery by grouping together platforms built for centralized, multi-cluster Kubernetes management, while reducing confusion from misrepresented products that do not primarily serve this use case."
- Sohan Pal, G2 Market Research Analyst, Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology Software
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
13. Restaurant Marketing
About this category: Restaurant marketing softwarehelps restaurant owners and operators attract, engage, and retain guests by bringing key marketing activities into one platform. From running campaigns and managing promotions to communicating with customers and tracking performance, this software makes it easier to handle marketing without juggling multiple tools or relying on outside agencies.
Why it was introduced: Nowadays, running a restaurant isn't just about great food - it's also about staying visible, connecting with customers, and giving them reasons to come back. With increasing competition and more diners engaging online, marketing has become a core part of day-to-day operations. G2's Restaurant Marketing Software category helps restaurant owners find software designed to simplify marketing, strengthen customer relationships, and drive repeat business.
- Neya Kumaresan,Market Research Analyst, LegalTech, FinTech, and Hospitality Tech
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
14. Dealer Management Systems
About this category: Dealer management systems (DMS)help dealerships manage core business operations - including sales, service, parts, inventory, and accounting - within a single, integrated platform. These systems support dealerships across industries such as automotive, heavy equipment, agriculture, commercial vehicles, marine, RV, and powersports. Unlike general ERP or CRM systems, Dealer Management Systems are purpose-built for dealership environments, offering specialized tools for inventory, service operations, and multi-department coordination.
Why it was introduced: "This category was introduced to help buyers identify software designed specifically for dealership operations - distinct from general ERP, CRM, or inventory management systems.
While some broader platforms offer overlapping features, this category highlights solutions built to support dealership-specific workflows, financial management, and operational complexity, enabling more accurate discovery and comparison of vendors."
- Sanjana V. Prasad, Associate Market Research Analyst
The top three products in this category, ranked by popularity at the time of launch, are:
There's always something new on G2!
On average, G2's Market Research team adds 5-10 new categories per month, so we encourage you to review our research agendaand utilize the all-new G2.ai to leave a voice review on the software you recommend!
Come back next month to see additional new categories on G2! And, check out the new categories that went live last month.
Emily Malis Greathouse
Emily is Director, Market Research at G2. She earned her Bachelor of Science in business administration and Master's of Business Administration degree with a concentration in marketing and business analytics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She's worked in various industries, including media consulting, information technology, employee wellness, and finance and accounting. She enjoys coaching and volunteering for Girls on the Run, attending concerts and music festivals, running half marathons, and hiking.
G2 Crowd Inc. published this content on April 03, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on April 03, 2026 at 13:59 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]