Industries · B2B software, tech and services
AEO for B2B software, tech and services companies
AEO for a B2B software company means being on the list when a buyer asks ChatGPT, Google's AI or Copilot for the best tools in your category.
Most of that list is decided off your website: roundups, review platforms, comparisons, YouTube and LinkedIn. We find out where you stand, do the work that moves it, and prove it with a monthly scorecard.
For heads of marketing and scale-up founders · Ireland and the UK · Updated 25 October 2026
Why it matters
Why does the AI shortlist matter for B2B software?
Software buyers have moved their research into AI chatbots. The chatbot now shapes who gets the first call.
Buyers check what the AI tells them
63% of B2B buyers used AI during a purchase, and 94% fact-check it. Demos, trials and reviews still decide the deal (TrustRadius, 2026).
Review sites (38%) and AI chatbots (37%) are now level as the top influence on the shortlist. A review-site citation is the most trusted signal inside an AI answer (G2, July 2026).
More people shape the decision
Forrester calls generative AI search the new starting point for B2B buyers. A typical decision involves 13 internal stakeholders and 9 external influencers (Forrester, January 2026).
Each of them can ask an assistant about you. The answer they get should be the same, accurate and current.
Where AI looks
Which surfaces decide what AI says about your product?
Assistants build their answers from sources they trust. For software companies, these are the ones that matter. A normal SEO retainer rarely covers most of them.
G2, Gartner Peer Insights and your category
Five review platforms take 88% of the review-platform citations in Google's AI answers for software, led by Gartner Peer Insights and G2 (SE Ranking, January 2026). Review-site citations also carry the most trust inside an AI answer (G2, July 2026). We set up a review campaign, keep reviews recent, and correct the category you are filed under, because it decides which comparisons you appear in.
The “best [category] tools” lists
This is the best-evidenced lever: 70.8% of B2B software citations go to pages titled "best", "top" or a comparison (Overthink Group, July 2026). And 84% of AI citations come from earned media, while paid placements account for 0.3% (Muck Rack, May 2026). We climb the roundups you already appear in and pitch the publishers of the ones you don't.
Comparisons and alternatives
Buyers ask for “[competitor] alternatives” and “[you] vs [competitor]”. If you don't publish an honest comparison on your own domain, a competitor or a review site answers for you. Put the year in the title and real prices on the page, and publish a public pricing page: when buyers ask what something costs, assistants quote the page that states the price.
A clear identity, the same everywhere
Your homepage should tell a machine what you are, who you serve and where you are, in its first 100 words. We make LinkedIn, Crunchbase, the review sites and your Wikidata item repeat the same facts. Wikidata and site markup are basic hygiene: no study links them to AI citations, so we keep them accurate and stop there.
Long-form YouTube and your LinkedIn company page
YouTube mentions correlate with AI visibility at about 0.74, against about 0.3 for domain rating (Ahrefs, 75,000 brands). And 94% of AI-cited videos are long form (Otterly, March 2026), so we brief two long-form explainers with chapters and your brand in the title. LinkedIn is the third most-cited domain, and company pages take 59% of Perplexity's LinkedIn citations (Semrush, March 2026), so we complete yours and keep your product pages on message.
An answer hub on your main domain
Eight to twelve answer pages in the first 90 days, each opening with the direct answer. Statistics, quotes and sources lifted visibility by up to 40% in a lab study (GEO study), a gain not yet shown in live AI search, so they support the answer and never bury it. And 75% of cited pages were updated within the past year (Seer, July 2026), so we keep them genuinely current.
Measurement
How will you know it's working?
AI visibility doesn't show up in your normal analytics. We combine an established tracker with the free first-party data and your CRM in one monthly scorecard.
We don't build tracking software. We set it up, read it and act on it.
- An established tracker. Peec AI by default, or HubSpot AEO if you already run HubSpot Marketing Hub.
- Search Console's Generative AI report. AI Overviews and AI Mode impressions by page (the two combined, with no clicks), available to every site since 31 August 2026 (Search Engine Journal).
- Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance. Copilot citations and the grounding queries the AI actually searched (Bing).
- GA4's AI Assistant channel. Visits from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and others since 13 May 2026, and whether they convert (Google). Perplexity and Claude are not on Google's list, so we add a custom channel for them.
- Your CRM. A “how did you hear about us?” field with an AI assistant option, so we report AI-influenced pipeline, not just visibility.
- Honest numbers. In SparkToro's tests, the chance of getting the same brand list twice was under 1 in 100 (SparkToro). So we measure share across a fixed panel, every month.
The prompt panel
Which buyer prompts should you win?
Your audit starts with 30 prompts your buyers actually ask, in five groups. Each one is scored 0 to 3 in ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity and Claude.
These are typical examples. Your list is agreed with you and published in every scorecard.
The category shortlist
- “best [category] software for enterprise”
- “top [category] tools in 2026”
- “[category] software for a mid-sized company”
The job to be done
- “how do I [job to be done]”
- “[category] tool that integrates with [platform]”
- “[category] for [regulated industry]”
The category forming now
- “what is [emerging category]”
- “which vendors offer [emerging category]”
The comparison moment
- “[competitor] alternatives”
- “[competitor] vs [your company]”
- “is [competitor] worth it for a team of 50”
What AI says about you
- “what does [your company] do”
- “[your company] reviews”
- “[your company] pricing”
How we score the panel
Presence rate, mean score, zero-score prompts and competitor share of voice, per assistant, with mentions and citations counted separately.
We report visibility as a percentage across many runs, on 4-week rolling averages. Never a single screenshot or an “AI rank”.
The 90-day programme
What does the programme do for a software company?
It follows the plan from your audit, in three overlapping phases. Scorecards at weeks 4, 8 and 12 show what moved. A before-and-after write-up follows at week 13.
Make sure AI can read you
Answer crawlers let in at robots.txt and at the CDN. Your first 100 words say what you are. Bing Webmaster Tools, Search Console's Generative AI report and a complete sitemap, with IndexNow as basic hygiene. Duplicates consolidated, and nothing important left on noindex.
Build the proof AI trusts
Roundup outreach first. G2 and Gartner Peer Insights set-up and a review campaign. Category corrections. A complete LinkedIn company page. Awards and numbers turned into trade-press stories. Two long-form YouTube explainers.
Publish the answers buyers ask for
An answer hub of 8 to 12 pages on your main domain. Honest comparison pages with the year and prices, an alternatives page and a public pricing page. Category-definition content. Real updates on your top pages, not new dates.
We are working with a Waterford-based B2B SaaS company on a 90-day AEO programme, with a public before-and-after case study planned.
FAQ
AEO for B2B software: common questions
What is AEO for a B2B software company?
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the work that gets your company named when buyers ask AI assistants for recommendations in your category. For software, that means a place in the roundups assistants cite, strong review profiles, honest comparison and pricing pages, long-form video, the same facts everywhere and answer content on your own domain. Google's own guidance says AEO “is still SEO” (Google, July 2026). We agree: the foundations are SEO, and we do the parts a normal SEO retainer doesn't cover.
Which AI assistants do software buyers use?
ChatGPT is the most used, by 63% of the software buyers in G2's April 2026 survey (G2). We track ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity and Claude, because each one leans on different sources: 91% of citations appear in only one of ChatGPT, Perplexity or AI Overviews (Growth Memo).
Do G2 and Gartner Peer Insights reviews affect what ChatGPT recommends?
They are one of the strongest signals we know of. In G2's July 2026 research, a review-site citation was the most trusted signal inside an AI answer, and review sites (38%) now edge chatbots (37%) as the top influence on the shortlist (G2). G2 has an interest in that finding, so we treat it as one signal among several and measure the effect on your own prompts. Among review platforms, ChatGPT leans most on Gartner Peer Insights and G2 (Parse, another vendor), so we set up both.
Does this replace our SEO agency?
No. Google's guidance, updated on 10 July 2026, says AEO “is still SEO”, and we agree (Google). We do the parts a normal SEO retainer doesn't: reviews, roundups, PR, entity work and measurement across several assistants. We partner with your SEO agency; we don't replace it.
What won't you sell us?
An llms.txt file, which showed no measurable effect across about 300,000 domains (SE Ranking, via Search Engine Journal). “Schema for AI”, which returned a null result (Ahrefs). Rewriting your copy “for robots”. Wire press releases. Bought mentions.
What happens when we launch a new product?
Each launch is an AEO event with a fixed checklist. Four weeks out, we add launch prompts to the tracker and agree the canonical facts every surface will repeat. Two weeks out, we draft the answer page, a visible question-and-answer block and a comparison. On launch day, we publish, ping IndexNow, update your review platforms, Wikidata and your LinkedIn product page, and pitch the trade press. Two, four and eight weeks later, we check Bing's grounding queries and rerun the launch prompts.
How soon will we see results?
We don't claim any uplift until there is a baseline, and the first four weeks set it. Scorecards follow at weeks 4, 8 and 12, and the before-and-after write-up comes at week 13. Model updates can move numbers overnight, so we judge progress on 4-week rolling averages, not single runs.
How much does AEO cost for a software company?
The AI Visibility Audit is a fixed fee, quoted on a short call: one brand in one market covers 30 buyer prompts, and the extended audit covers multi-brand or Ireland plus UK with 50. It is credited in full against the programme if you sign within 60 days. The 90-day Implementation Programme and the monthly retainer are quoted from what the audit finds, because a single-brand B2B company and a multi-market group are not the same job. Book the audit and we will give you both numbers in writing. The retainer comes in three tiers, by how many buyer questions we track and how much we publish each month. Full details are on the pricing page.
Other industries
Where else do AI shortlists decide the sale?
Building productsAEO for manufacturers and builders' merchants
Technical data AI can read, sites open to the answer bots, and every branch visible.
Online pharmacy, health and beautyAEO for online pharmacies and retailers
Product feeds, buying guides and branch listings, with compliance built in.
AI Visibility Audit · ten working days · credited against the programme
Are you on your buyers' AI shortlist?
A 30-prompt baseline across five assistants, a technical, on-site and off-site review, and a 90-day plan. Credited in full if you go on to the programme within 60 days.