29/04/2026
Here's the stat from AEO Conf SF that you shouldn't ignore:
In April 2025, 29% of B2B buyers started research on a chatbot.
By August 2025 it was 50%. Enterprise buyers hit 60%.
The reality is, that's not a trend line you can gradually respond to.
Tim Sanders (G2) framed it as a compression problem. Every era of buyer research gets faster and loses steps. AI is the most aggressive version yet – the exploratory phase that used to give marketers multiple touchpoints is collapsing into a single synthesized answer.
He also shared a useful prioritization distinction:
Money citations = content that drives traffic and pipeline
Background citations = content that builds authority but won't convert as directly