Why AEO is a Huge B2B Opportunity

by Benj Miller | Sep 10, 2025

Most shifts in marketing feel like threats: new tech, new platforms, new algorithms. This one is different.

For B2B companies, AEO, Answer Engine Optimization, isn’t about defending what you already have. It’s a window to leapfrog the competition. Here’s why:

1. If inbound drives your business, you can’t afford to ignore this.

Companies that already rely on organic search for pipeline know the stakes. Lose visibility in AI answers, and you lose discovery at the very top of the funnel. Protecting that visibility is protecting growth.

2. If you move early, you can win the short-term race.

AI search is still young. Most competitors aren’t optimizing yet. That means early adopters get disproportionate visibility, think first page of Google back in 2005.

And unlike traditional SEO, which often takes 3-6+ months to shift rankings, AEO efforts can show results in weeks. When your page uses schema markup, Q&A formatting, or clear definitions, AI platforms like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google AI Overviews can pick it up and cite it almost immediately.

That speed changes the game. Early moves don’t get seen sooner; they get cited sooner. And in AI, being cited is the visibility that builds credibility.

3. Visibility here compounds.

LLMs are trained on what they can find and cite. The more often your brand is mentioned, the more likely it is to keep being mentioned. Small, scrappy moves can snowball into authority faster than the traditional SEO grind.

And here’s what most people miss: visibility in AI answers isn’t only about clicks. Being cited builds a new type of credibility. Even when someone doesn’t land on your site, your brand is showing up in the answer they trust. That visibility strengthens your reputation long before a form fill.

So no, AEO isn’t just a defensive play. For the right B2B company, it’s a growth lever hiding in plain sight.

If you enjoyed this post, this content is part of a digital white paper on AI and the Search Landscape. You can view the full white paper here.