... surveyed 3,000 B2B buyers who used AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) in their last vendor selection process. The goal was simple: find out exactly what they asked and what actually influenced their shortlist. The results reveal a massive gap between how companies market themselves and how buyers actually discover them through AI. Here is what we learned. 1. Buyers Don t Ask Who Is the Best? Only 12% of buyers used generic category queries like best ... ... enough. Being first in the answer drives 3x more engagement than being second. Related: What Is AI Share of Voice? 3. Structured Content Drove Citations 4.2x More Than Narrative Content Buyers were asked what kind of content most influenced

... project management tool for remote design teams. Here's exactly how we work." Feature lists Problem-solution paragraphs Vague benefits Specific outcomes Lesson #2: AI Loves Comparisons Even If You Lose This one hurt. I avoided mentioning competitors. Why give them free airtime? Wrong move. Every AI answer about your category includes comparisons. Always. If you don't provide the comparison, AI finds someone who does and that someone might be your competitor

... marketing problem. They think: "Let the SEO team handle it." Here's why that's wrong: Your product is being evaluated by AI every single day. When potential users ask: "What's the best tool for [your category]?" "Alternatives to [competitor

... more creative deals Someone without those words keeps making the same offer in different packages 3. How you evaluate trade-offs Rich vocabulary = you can hold multiple competing values simultaneously Limited vocabulary = you collapse complexity into binary thinking Pragmatism vs idealism. Short-term vs

... brands are promoted has always been undergoing some kind of "evolution". Celebrity endorsement Influencer marketing UGC creator videos For the last 3 years, brands have been using UGC content because it's supposedly "more authentic", and more "natural." But since UGC has been influenced