AI Search Checklist: Five Things to Change Now

Summary: Buyers now research inside AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and Google’s AI Overviews. To be named in those answers, map the questions your buyers ask, make your best pages easy to quote, earn mentions on other sites, track whether AI cites you, and brief your SEO or agency on all four.

This checklist accompanies Brent Kobayashi’s masterclass Found, Cited, Chosen: Your Buyers Ask AI First. Does It Name You? at AMA Futures 2026: Forge (Toronto, November 5, 2026). Every statistic from the session is linked in the sources at the bottom of this page.

Why this matters now

51% of B2B software buyers now start research in an AI chatbot more often than in Google, up from 29% a year earlier (G2, Mar 2026).
92% of B2B buyers say AI shaped their vendor shortlist (Semrush, Jul 2026).
82% of B2B tech queries now show a Google AI Overview, up from 36% a year earlier (BrightEdge via SEJ, Mar 2026).
Only 38% of AI Overview citations come from Google’s top 10 results, down from 76% in July 2025 (Ahrefs, Mar 2026).
Teams that fully integrated SEO and AI search were more than twice as likely to see more traffic or leads from AI: 81% vs 36% (Semrush, Jun 2026).

1. Map buyer questions, not keywords

Write down 10–20 real questions your buyer asks, in their words. Cover every stage of the journey, including questions they’d ask an AI assistant in the middle of a task.

Awareness: “Why is [problem] happening?” “How do I know if [problem] is serious?”
Consideration: “What are the options for [problem]?” “How does [solution type] work?” “What should I look for in a [provider]?”
Evaluation: “Best [provider] for [buyer] in [city].” “[You] vs [competitor].” “Alternatives to [competitor].”
Decision: “Can I trust [you]?” “How much does [service] cost?”

2. Make your best pages answerable

Put a 40–60 word direct answer at the top of the page.
Use question-style headings and add an FAQ section.
Write page titles that match the question being asked.
Name credentialed authors.

Check the technical basics. If AI can’t read the page, it can’t cite it.

AI bot access: A blocked search bot can’t cite you. Allow OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot in robots.txt and in your CDN or firewall settings (OpenAI).
Server-side rendering: None of the major AI crawlers run JavaScript. Text that only loads by script is invisible to ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity (Vercel, Dec 2024).
Site performance: Pages that render in under 0.4 seconds averaged 3x the ChatGPT citations of pages slower than 1.1 seconds (SE Ranking via SEJ, Nov 2025).
Accessibility: AI agents read the same page structure screen readers use. Labelled buttons, forms and headings let them understand and use your site (Google web.dev, Apr 2026).
Schema markup: It helps Google and Bing understand your business, helps accurate AI retrieval, and is important for AI e-commerce. Note: it is less important for citations. Adding it to 1,885 already-cited pages barely moved AI citations (Ahrefs, May 2026).

3. Earn mentions, not just links

PR: placements, bylines and expert quotes in trade media.
Reviews: ask for them. Google, Clutch.co for B2B services, G2 or Capterra for software.
Community: Reddit, LinkedIn and industry forums where buyers ask each other.
Partners and associations: member directories, sponsor pages and event listings.
Podcasts and webinars: publish the transcripts.

4. Measure citations, not just clicks

Run a monthly prompt audit. Treat it as directional: AI answers change from run to run, so watch the trend, not a single answer.

Pick 10–20 buyer questions from your list in step 1.
Run each one in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Mode.
Log it: were you named? Which competitors? Which sources? Was it accurate?
Repeat with the same questions every month.

Also: give AI referrals (chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com) their own channel in GA4, track conversions rather than raw sessions, and filter bot traffic. Google Search Console counts AI Overview and AI Mode clicks inside its normal “Web” totals (Google Search Central).

5. Brief your SEO or agency differently

Ask them these five questions this month:

Which buyer questions are we tracking, at each stage of the journey?
Where are we cited today, and where are competitors cited instead?
Which of our key pages open with a direct answer?
What’s our plan to earn mentions, not just links?
How will you report AI visibility alongside rankings?

AI visibility tools, by company size

Starting prices as listed in July 2026 (Writesonic, Jul 2026). Prices change, so check before you buy.

Team of one: start with a spreadsheet prompt audit and a GA4 AI channel. Tools: HubSpot AEO free tier (25 prompts), Otterly.AI ($29/mo).
Small business: weekly tracking on 20–50 prompts. Tools: Peec AI ($95/mo), SE Visible ($99/mo), HubSpot AEO ($50/mo).
Mid-market: add it to your existing SEO platform. Tools: Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit ($99/mo), Profound ($99/mo), Ahrefs Brand Radar ($199/mo per AI index).
Enterprise: governance across brands and markets. Tools: Conductor (custom), Scrunch AI ($250/mo+), Profound enterprise, BrandRank.AI.

If you’re a team of one: one hour a week

Week 1: write your list of 10–20 buyer questions.
Week 2: rewrite your top three pages with a direct answer at the top. Give your title and meta description more attention than you used to.
Week 3: pitch one mention: a trade publication, a podcast, a partner page, or three review requests.
Week 4: run the prompt audit. Then repeat the cycle.

Making the case internally

Ask for a named budget line.
Start small: your top 20 questions and top 10 pages.
Run an analytics audit: are you measuring the right thing?
Report monthly on citations, AI referrals and conversions.
Review in 90 days, then decide whether to scale.
Frame it as protecting demand you already have.

Two numbers help: teams that fully integrated SEO and AI search were far more likely to see more traffic or leads from AI (81% vs 36%, Semrush, Jun 2026), and AI search is forecast to grow from 0.7% of US search ad spend in 2025 to 13.6% in 2029 (eMarketer, 2025).

Frequently asked questions

What is AI search?

AI search is when a tool like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews answers a question directly, using sources it finds on the web. Instead of a list of links, the buyer gets one answer, often naming specific companies and citing the pages it used.

Do Google rankings still matter for AI search?

Yes, but less than they did. AI tools run several hidden searches for each question and pick the pages that are easiest to quote. Only 38% of AI Overview citations now come from Google’s top 10, and about 8% of links cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot rank in Google’s top 10 for the same question (Ahrefs, 2026; Ahrefs, 2025).

Why do mentions matter more than backlinks?

Across 75,000 brands, how often a brand is mentioned on the web tracked much more closely with being named in Google’s AI Overviews than backlinks did (a correlation of 0.664 vs 0.218). AI tools read what other people say about you, much like a researcher asking around (Ahrefs, May 2025).

How do I know if AI is recommending my company?

Ask it. Run your buyers’ real questions in the main AI tools every month and record whether you’re named, who is named instead, and which sources are cited. Paid tools can automate this, from about $29 a month for small businesses to custom enterprise pricing (Writesonic, Jul 2026).

Sources

Keep in mind, most AI search research comes from companies that sell SEO, PR or AI tools – validate with your own observations & thinking.