Something significant is happening in the way B2B buyers find and evaluate the brands they buy from. The customer journey has fundamentally shifted from a simple ‘search, click and visit’ process to one of AI discovery, Google validation, then website connection. Brands that aren’t present at that first stage aren’t just losing ground – they risk being absent altogether.
This was the central theme of our recent seminar on AI visibility, where senior B2B marketers and comms leaders came together to get to grips with a seismic shift in modern marketing. Demand was high as our very own Ros Rowlatt and Jo Wilmot shared their insights. Along with Semrush’s Gerald Murphy and Censuswide’s Lucy Stewart and Robin Smith, our speakers revealed where brands currently stand and what they need to do to boost their AI visibility.
The stakes are real
94% of B2B buyers now use generative AI at least once during the purchasing process1. AI-referred traffic converts at three to six times the rate of traditional search. And brands with the strongest media presence are 80% more likely to be recommended by AI2.
For most B2B brands, the immediate risk isn’t negative perception but invisibility. Unlike consumer brands, many B2B businesses aren’t household names. If AI systems aren’t surfacing them in response to relevant queries, they simply don’t exist in the buyer’s consideration set. For brands that do have awareness, the risks shift: inconsistent or thin signals can lead to misrepresentation, a sense that you’re not authoritative enough to be cited, or hallucinatory responses.
Either way, the message is the same. If you’re not actively managing your AI visibility, you are relinquishing control of a critical channel for your brand.
AI systems are reputation engines
Understanding why this matters starts with understanding how AI search works.
Classic search was straightforward: crawl, index, serve. Visibility came down to keywords, technical health and links. AI search is fundamentally different. The user journey is now prompt, response, decision. The mechanisms behind it involve training data, query fan-out, chunk-level retrieval and synthesis.
The jargon is new, yet the implications are very real. AI systems don’t just answer questions. They synthesise signals from across your entire digital footprint, including your website, press coverage, industry databases, social media, trade bodies, reviews and crowdsourced content. They are, in effect, reputation engines that draw on everything.
This has significant implications for how brands manage their communications. The familiar media mix – paid, earned, shared, owned – no longer captures the full picture. The digital media landscape now encompasses 14 distinct media types, including crowdsourced platforms like Wikipedia and Trustpilot, AI-generated content and even hostile reappropriation of your brand (think brand-jacking, negative memes or parody accounts that AI systems can pick up and amplify). Every signal counts.
Becoming visible: where to start
The good news is that brands with strong existing SEO foundations are well placed. But GEO (generative engine optimisation) goes further than traditional SEO. Where SEO measures rankings, GEO looks at citations and recommendations. The question is not “do we rank?” it’s “what is AI saying about us, and to whom?”
There are four core principles that should guide any brand’s approach:
Visibility. Ensure you’re present and accurately represented across the platforms and publications that AI systems crawl. This includes owned channels, earned media and third-party sources.
Consistency. AI is an inference machine. Inconsistent signals across your website, recruitment pages, ESG content, social media and press coverage create confusion and risk hallucination. Every part of your digital footprint tells a story.
Relationships. Invest in earning relationships with journalists, employees and industry advocates. For the purposes of AI visibility, these relationships generate further signals that AI synthesises.
Credibility. AI systems prioritise authoritative, trustworthy sources. FAQs, explanatory content, journalistic writing, proprietary data and expert citations all strengthen your credibility signals. Third-party endorsements like press coverage, industry body membership and analyst references matter more than ever.
From insight to action
Knowing the principles is one thing. Knowing where to start is another.
The audit is the critical first step. A GEO audit tracks how your brand is appearing across AI platforms, identifies which competitors are dominating the conversation and surfaces the sources shaping your sector’s narrative. It reveals quick wins and informs longer-term strategy across content, PR and technical optimisation.
From there, it’s about building consistent, credible signals over time through earned media, owned content, technical website optimisation and a joined-up approach across PR, GEO and SEO.
This isn’t a one-and-done exercise. AI search is fast-moving and best practice is evolving. The brands that treat GEO as an ongoing discipline will be the ones that build lasting visibility.
1. Forrester
2. Hard Numbers/Onclusive 2025
