AI search is changing how B2B buyers discover, evaluate, and trust brands. As platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini increasingly answer questions directly, marketers face a new challenge: optimizing not just for rankings, but for how AI understands, cites, and recommends their B2B brand.
In this episode of Beyond B2B Marketing, host Lee Odden talks with Trevor Pyle, Head of Marketing at Profound, about what B2B marketers need to know to improve AI search visibility and influence AI-generated brand perception.
Drawing on Profound's analysis of more than 10 billion AI citations, Trevor explains why visibility is only the beginning. AI systems don't just retrieve information. They interpret it, summarize it, compare brands, and often form opinions that shape buyer decisions before someone ever visits your website.
Key Takeaways from this conversation:
- How AI search is changing B2B discovery and the buyer journey
- Why visibility, accuracy, and sentiment all matter in AI-generated answers
- The role of original research, first-party data, and expert content in AI search optimization
- Why influencer and third-party content can improve AI visibility
- Whether marketers should focus on SEO, AEO, GEO, or AI Search Optimization
- How to optimize content for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and Gemini
- The emergence of the "Marketing Engineer" and how AI is changing marketing roles
- Practical steps every B2B marketing organization can take to improve AI search performance
Whether you're responsible for SEO, content marketing, demand generation, thought leadership, or digital strategy for your B2B company, this episode provides actionable insights for helping your brand become the best answer wherever buyers turn to AI for information.
Be sure to subscribe to the Beyond B2B Marketing podcast for conversations with leading marketers, creators, analysts, and entrepreneurs exploring how brands can build visibility, trust, and influence in an increasingly fragmented and AI-powered world.
Learn more about how to become a Best Answer Brand with integrated influence, AEO/SEO, experiential content and unified analytics solutions from TopRank Marketing.
