GEO Fundamentals
How AI is changing
B2B buying.
B2B buying is restructuring around AI faster than most GTM teams have adjusted for. Discovery is leaving the search box, the shortlist is set before sales is ever contacted, and agent-led purchasing is on the way. Three shifts, and one consequence marketers can't ignore.
GEO Fundamentals · Last updated
For the GTM leader deciding where AI fits in next year's plan.
AI is changing B2B buying by moving discovery off the search box and into assistants, compressing the journey so buyers self-serve most of it before contacting sales, and pointing toward agent-led purchasing. The through-line across all three: being cited by AI is becoming a distribution channel. Resonate Labs measures and wins that channel across the four engines.
Discovery left the search box
Half of B2B software buyers now start vendor research in an AI assistant, not Google.
The journey runs in the dark
Most of the shortlist is set before sales is ever contacted. You're judged where you can't see it.
Citation is the new channel
Being named in AI answers is becoming distribution, not a vanity metric. Budgets are already moving.
Discovery is leaving the search box
For twenty years, B2B discovery began at Google. That starting point is moving. Google searches per US desktop user fell roughly 20% year over year into 2025, according to SparkToro and Datos, and about half of B2B software buyers now say they start their vendor research in an AI chatbot rather than a search engine, per G2.
The careful reading matters here. Google isn't losing its users so much as losing the repeat searches: assistants increasingly resolve a question up front, so buyers run fewer follow-up queries instead of abandoning search altogether. But for a vendor, the effect is the same either way. The first place your buyer forms an impression is shifting from a page of ten links you could work to rank on, to a synthesized answer that either names you or doesn't. Ranking on a page nobody loads is a smaller and smaller win.
Buyers decide more before they talk to you
The second shift is where the decision gets made. B2B buying has been getting more self-serve for years, and AI accelerates it. Buyers evaluate around five vendors and fill most of their shortlist, roughly 3.6 of those spots, before they ever engage a sales rep, according to 6sense. More of the journey now runs in what marketers call the dark funnel: research you can't see, in tools you don't control, largely resolved before a form is filled.
AI assistants are quickly becoming the biggest room in that dark funnel. The practical consequence is that a large share of buying decisions are shaped before your sales team, or even your analytics, registers the buyer at all. The mechanic of how that shortlist forms inside an assistant, and why being left off it is the most expensive kind of invisibility, is the subject of how B2B buyers research vendors with AI. The point for now is structural: the decisive part of the journey has moved upstream, into a conversation you're not in.
Agents are the next buyer
The third shift is still arriving, and it changes the shape of everything else. Buying is moving toward AI agents that don't just inform a person's research but carry it out, comparing options, assembling a shortlist, and eventually transacting. Gartner projects that by 2028, 90% of B2B buying could be mediated by AI agents, a figure it frames as directional and that may prove aggressive.
Whether or not that exact number lands, the direction is clear enough to prepare for, because it changes who you're persuading. An agent doesn't skim your homepage, admire your brand video, or feel reassured by a polished case study. It parses structured, machine-readable content and cites what it can cleanly extract. In an agent-mediated market, the brands that stay in the consideration set are the ones whose content is built to be lifted by a model, not just read by a person. That's a design requirement, and it favors whoever adopts it early.
The consequence: AI citation is a channel
Put the three shifts together and the strategic consequence is simple. Being cited by AI is turning into a distribution channel, the way organic search and paid became channels, rather than a vanity metric to check now and then. The market is already repricing around it. In one 2025 survey, 51% of B2B marketers planned to increase their AI-search investment while only 14% planned to increase traditional SEO, per GrowthUnhinged.
The traffic also behaves well once it arrives. Across several studies, AI-referred visitors convert at a meaningful premium over traditional organic for B2B, on the order of 4 to 10x depending on category, funnel stage, and how it's attributed. So this isn't a channel you invest in purely on faith about the future; the early economics are already favorable. The work of winning it has a name, GEO, and the case for funding it against other priorities is laid out in the business case for GEO. The teams treating AI answers as a channel to win, rather than a curiosity to monitor, are the ones who'll own discovery as it migrates.
Where Resonate Labs fits
The shift is the opportunity, and Resonate Labs is built for the version of B2B buying that's arriving. We measure whether AI engines cite you when buyers ask, across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, and we do the work that changes the answer. A free AI Visibility Snapshot shows where you stand as the channel forms, and the full AI Visibility Crawl scores you across all four engines and hands you the prioritized fixes, so you're acting on the shift instead of reading about it.
None of this requires betting the plan on a 2028 forecast. The buyers researching in assistants, and setting their shortlists there, are doing it now. The point isn't to watch the change happen; it's to be named when it does. Book a call to talk through what winning this channel looks like in your category, or start with the measurement and see where you stand.
Frequently asked questions
How is AI changing B2B buying?
In three structural ways. First, discovery is leaving the search box: about half of B2B software buyers now say they start vendor research in an AI chatbot rather than a search engine (G2), and Google searches per US desktop user fell roughly 20% year over year into 2025 (SparkToro and Datos). Second, buyers self-serve more of the decision before contacting sales, filling most of a roughly five-vendor shortlist before a rep is involved (6sense). Third, buying is moving toward AI agents that research and shortlist on the buyer's behalf. The common thread: being cited by AI is becoming a distribution channel, not a vanity metric.
Is AI really replacing Google for B2B research?
It's displacing part of Google's job, not replacing Google wholesale. The clearest signal is that Google searches per US desktop user fell about 20% year over year into 2025 (SparkToro and Datos), driven less by people leaving Google than by AI answers resolving questions up front, so buyers run fewer follow-up searches. At the same time, about half of B2B software buyers now say they start vendor research in an AI chatbot (G2). The honest framing is that Google's grip on discovery is loosening while assistants take the first, shortlist-shaping question, which is exactly the moment that decides whether you're considered.
What is agentic buying, and should B2B marketers care yet?
Agentic buying is when an AI agent, not just a person using AI, carries out the research: comparing options, building a shortlist, and eventually transacting. Gartner projects that by 2028, 90% of B2B buying could be mediated by AI agents, a figure it frames as directional and that may prove aggressive. Whether or not the exact number holds, the direction is worth preparing for now, because it changes who you're persuading. An agent doesn't skim a homepage or respond to a brand video; it parses structured, machine-readable content and cites what it can extract. Content built to be lifted by a model is how you stay in the set when the buyer is software.
What should B2B marketers do about AI changing the buying journey?
Treat being cited by AI as a channel to win, not a metric to watch. That means measuring whether AI engines name you when buyers ask, across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, then doing the work that changes the answer: content and structure a model can read and quote on the questions your buyers actually ask. The budget signal already points this way, with 51% of B2B marketers planning to increase AI-search investment versus 14% for traditional SEO (GrowthUnhinged), and AI-referred visitors converting at a meaningful premium over organic. The discipline is called GEO; a free AI Visibility Snapshot from Resonate Labs is a fast way to see where you stand.
Next step
Win the channel while it's forming.
Start with a free AI Visibility Snapshot for a no-commitment read on where you stand as B2B discovery moves into AI. The full AI Visibility Crawl scores you across every engine and hands you the plan:
- The questions your buyers ask AI, and whether you're named
- Where you're visible, cited, or absent across the four engines
- What the first 30 days would move