30 stats B2B marketers should know about GEO and AI search (2025)

30 Jun

In 2025, every B2B marketer and tech PR pro is trying to figure out one thing: how to make their brand show up in generative AI search results.

Whether it’s Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, or Perplexity, one thing is clear—this isn’t traditional SEO anymore. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is changing the rules, and visibility now depends on what’s said about your brand off your website.

Below are 30 of the most important stats that B2B marketers and tech PR pros should know about GEO and AI search right now:

B2B buyer behaviour and AI adoption

89% of B2B buyers use generative AI as part of their buying process.
95% anticipate using generative AI to support decision-making in the next year.
90% click through on AI-recommended suggestions.
Over 90% of B2B buyers purchasing solutions over $1 million report positive results from AI-guided research.

AI search vs traditional SEO

Only 12% of ChatGPT results overlap with Google searches.
Backlinks now have minimal impact—around 96% of the time, they’re irrelevant to AI citations.
Brand web mentions show the strongest correlation (0.664) with AI Overview brand visibility.
Backlinks, by comparison, have a correlation of just 0.218.
The top 3 visibility drivers are all off-site: brand web mentions (0.664), brand anchors (0.527), and brand search volume (0.392).
Brands earning the most web mentions appear up to 10x more in AI Overviews than the next quartile.
26% of brands have zero mentions in AI Overviews.

What influences AI search visibility

Over 90% of AI visibility is driven by citations from earned media.

AI scrapers tend to over-index just a few domains—one-third of recommendations often come from just 10 websites.
AI Overviews now appear in 47% of Google search results.
58% of informational search queries trigger AI Overviews.
Thanks to AI Overviews, 60% of searches are now completed without users clicking through to other websites.

The impact on traffic & trust

AI searches have reduced organic web traffic by 15%
28% of US adults don’t trust AI-generated search results.
63% of US adults are underwhelmed or unaware of generated AI search results.

Who’s using generative search (and how)

Generative AI search is most popular among Gen Zs, who perform up to 31% of their searches on AI platforms like ChatGPT.
In 2023, 13 million American adults used AI for search. That number is expected to hit 90 million by 2027.
ChatGPT is the fastest-growing AI search engine, with approximately 10 million mobile app downloads per month since launch.
Google still holds 90% of the search engine market—but it’s facing serious competition from generative platforms.

Marketers and AI adoption

84% of marketers believe in using AI for SEO by aligning web content with users’ search intent.
62% of the time, organisations use AI for data analysis.
60% of businesses use AI to create personalised customer experiences.
56% use AI to develop marketing campaigns.
42% of businesses leverage AI to produce long-form website copy.
35% use AI to build SEO-focused content strategies.
26% of US marketers use AI to optimise content for SEO.

Alex Warren

Associate Director — Heading up marketing at Wildfire, Alex is a champion of B2B creativity, pushing technical brands to be bold and ambitious. Never settling for the obvious, his award-winning work spans comic books, playing cards, school trips, robot revolutions, and even a software-themed funeral.