Nearly Three-Quarters of B2B Tech Marketers Say AI Is Misrepresenting Their Brand, According to New Corporate Ink Research

Study finds only 34% of marketers have a defined AI visibility strategy

Boston – May 27, 2026 – Eighty-eight percent of CMOs and VP-level marketers are being asked by leadership or the board about what they’re doing to optimize for AI visibility, according to new research released today by Corporate Ink. Yet only 34% of all B2B tech marketers surveyed say they have a defined strategy and are highly prepared to influence how GenAI engines represent and recommend their brand.

Additionally, 72% of marketers have seen AI describe their company, category, or value proposition in ways that are inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete and 29% of those marketers aren’t addressing it.

Corporate Ink’s research shows most marketers don’t know where to focus strategically and are overlooking key factors for AI visibility success:

• Less than half (43%) know the specific buyer-centric prompts they want to show up for
• Only 26% know which media outlets AI engines crawl in their market
• Just 17% know which third-party credibility sources LLMs trust in their market

“This data has a clear through-line: the marketers winning in AI visibility have done the intelligence work first,” said Greg Hakim, CEO of Corporate Ink, a top B2B tech PR agency. “They know which outlets the engines crawl, which credibility sources LLMs trust, and which prompts their buyers are actually using. That knowledge shapes everything downstream. The organizations skipping that diagnostic step are building a foundation that will never hold.”

The GEO and AI Visibility 2026 Report is based on a survey of 150 B2B tech marketing professionals (CMOs, VP/SVPs, directors, and managers) across the U.S. Key findings include:

• GEO expertise is lagging. Marketers cite limited internal GEO knowledge and expertise (51%) as their top obstacle in improving AI visibility, followed by a lack of coordination or knowledge sharing across content, PR, and web teams (39%).
• Measurement is a big gap. Only 29% of marketers are actively measuring AI visibility and just 18% know where competitors are outranking them and why.
• GEO has an ownership perception problem. AI visibility is built on brand and credibility but 47% of marketers say digital marketing and SEO should own GEO. Only 17% said PR and communications and 11% said the content team.
• Most PR agencies aren’t delivering on GEO. Only 37% of marketers say their PR agency is prioritizing AI visibility and actively integrating GEO into their strategy. Forty-five percent say their agency has raised the topic and is trying, but doesn’t seem to have the expertise to make a difference.

Pipeline Leaders: What Separates Top Marketers from the Pack

Forty percent of marketers say their brand’s visibility in AI-driven search and LLMs has increased the qualified inbound pipeline by 5-10% in the past year. Nineteen percent say pipeline has increased by more than 10%.

Among marketers reporting pipeline growth from AI visibility, 55% know which channels have the highest influence over LLMs in their market, compared to just 15% of those reporting no or declining pipeline impact. Thirty-eight percent of companies seeing pipeline growth know which media outlets AI engines crawl, compared to 13% of those not seeing pipeline results.

“GEO isn’t a technical problem. It’s a brand problem with a pipeline consequence,” said Hakim. “The marketers driving real pipeline aren’t winning because they out-optimized anyone. They’re winning because AI engines trust their brand.”

Access the full report to dive deeper into the state of AI visibility and GEO.

About Corporate Ink

Corporate Ink is a specialist B2B tech PR and generative engine optimization (GEO) agency that shortens the path to success for B2B tech companies. We help B2B tech and SaaS leaders across the globe build brand awareness, increase sales demand, and accelerate growth. 

Our buyer-centric approach to PR goes beyond traditional ‘air cover’ to generate stories that reach your target personas and influence sales cycles. As a specialist agency, we bring deep domain expertise across B2B tech markets, including AI and emerging tech, cybersecurity, supply chain and procurement, fintech, risk management, workforce management, ESG and sustainability, manufacturing and robotics, and more.

Media Contact
Abigail Holmes
Vice President
cimarketing@corporateink.com