B2B Tech PR and AI Search Statistics (2026)
The numbers behind how B2B buyers, journalists and AI assistants decide who to trust, with a direct source next to every figure. Free to cite: please link to this page.
Short answer: half of B2B software buyers now start their research in an AI chatbot, AI answers are built overwhelmingly from earned media rather than ads, and most buyers have picked a favourite vendor before they ever talk to sales. Every statistic below links to its original source.
AI search is now part of how buyers research vendors
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| 51% of B2B software buyers now start their research in an AI chatbot rather than a search engine, up from 29% a year earlier. | G2, The Answer Economy (2026), survey of 1,076 buyers |
| 69% of buyers chose a different vendor than they first planned because of AI chatbot guidance. | G2, The Answer Economy (2026) |
| 85% of buyers think more highly of a vendor when an AI chatbot includes it in a recommendation. | G2, The Answer Economy (2026) |
| ChatGPT reached 800 million weekly active users in October 2025. | OpenAI, announced at DevDay, October 6, 2025 |
| Google's AI Overviews reached more than 2 billion monthly users in July 2025. | Alphabet Q2 2025 earnings call |
| Gartner predicted traditional search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026 as AI chatbots act as substitute answer engines. | Gartner press release, February 19, 2024 |
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Get my free articleEarned media is what AI answers are built from
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| 84% of links cited by AI tools come from earned media; paid and advertorial content made up just 0.3%. | Muck Rack, What Is AI Reading? (May 2026), 25M+ links analysed |
| Journalism accounts for 27% of all links cited by AI tools, stable across three editions of the study. | Muck Rack, What Is AI Reading? (May 2026) |
| In the 2025 edition, 95% of AI citations came from non-paid media and 89% from earned media. | Muck Rack, What Is AI Reading? (2025), 1M+ links analysed |
| ChatGPT cites sources in 96% of its responses; Gemini in 82%; Claude in 55%. | Muck Rack, What Is AI Reading? (May 2026) |
| When Google shows an AI summary, users click a traditional result in 8% of visits, versus 15% without one, and click a cited source inside the summary in just 1%. | Pew Research Center (July 2025), 68,879 searches by 900 U.S. adults |
Who journalists listen to
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| 72% of journalists say press releases are the most useful resource PR teams can offer. | Cision, 2025 State of the Media Report |
| 86% of journalists say they will immediately reject a pitch that isn't aligned with their beat or audience. | Cision, 2025 State of the Media Report |
| 66% of journalists rely on PR for story ideas. | Cision, 2026 State of the Media Report, nearly 2,000 journalists |
| 82% of journalists now use AI tools in their work. | Muck Rack, State of Journalism 2026 |
How B2B buyers decide before they talk to you
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| 81% of B2B buyers' first vendor contact was with the vendor they ultimately chose, and buyers are about 70% through their process before engaging sellers. | 6sense, 2024 Buyer Experience Report |
| 95% of 'hidden buyers' say compelling thought leadership makes them more open to sales and marketing outreach. | Edelman–LinkedIn, 2025 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 1,934 executives |
| 53% of B2B decision-makers say that when a company's thought leadership is strong, brand recognition matters less. | Edelman–LinkedIn, 2025 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report |
| 96.55% of pages in Ahrefs' index get no organic traffic from Google, mostly because nobody links to them. | Ahrefs, search traffic study (2023), ~14 billion pages |
| Only 2 of 250 B2B tech homepages reviewed name the cost of inaction, the reason a buyer should act now rather than later. | PitchKitchen, The State of B2B Homepage Messaging 2026 (250 homepages across fintech, healthtech, SaaS, AI and cybersecurity) |
Jamco PR original data: what AI tools cite for B2B questions
From our October 2026 study: 15 real B2B buying questions (PR agencies, cybersecurity software and CRM software) asked in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, with every cited source logged. Method and full results are in the study linked below.
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| Across 60 AI answers to 15 B2B buying questions, the four tools cited 552 sources. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study (October 2026) |
| For broad 'best X' questions, about half of all cited sources were third-party list articles. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study (October 2026) |
| For 'X vs Y' questions, about 61% of cited sources were list and comparison articles. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study (October 2026) |
| For very specific questions (a named guarantee, integration or region), about 77% of sources were the vendor's own pages answering that exact question. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study (October 2026) |
| Questions about one company by name were answered mainly from review sites and independent reviews. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study (October 2026) |
| Perplexity relied on list articles the most, Gemini leaned on reviews, and Google AI Overviews was the only tool that used Reddit and YouTube to a meaningful degree. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study (October 2026) |
| After publishing pages that answer specific buyer questions, Jamco PR went from being named in 3 to 7 of 16 AI answers in four days, and 8 of 16 a week later (October 16 to 23, 2026). | Jamco PR, AI recheck (October 2026) |
| Of the 119 "best X" and "X vs Y" articles Perplexity and Google AI Overviews cited across IT services, payments and HR software, 60% were published by a company selling in that same category. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study, round 3 (October 23, 2026) |
| Across six B2B categories and 120 AI answers, specific questions were answered from vendors' own pages 74–77% of the time. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study, rounds 2 and 3 (October 2026) |
| Questions about one company by name drew more review and directory sites (24%) than any other question type. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study, round 3 (October 23, 2026) |
| 96% placement success rate across 50+ clients; first placements can go live in as little as 24 hours, most within 14 days. | Jamco PR client data |
Backlinks and search rankings
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| The #1 result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions 2 to 10. | Backlinko, search engine ranking study, 11.8 million Google results (last updated April 2025) |
| The #1 result has about 3x more referring domains than positions 2 to 10. | Backlinko, search engine ranking study |
| Coverage on established publications is one of the main ways B2B companies earn links and AI citations at the same time: earned media makes up 84% of links AI tools cite. | Muck Rack, What Is AI Reading? (May 2026) |
How to cite this page
You're welcome to use any statistic here. Please cite the original source listed next to it, and link to this page (jamcopr.com/pr-statistics) as the place you found it. We review the sources and add new data regularly.
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Frequently asked questions
What do AI tools cite when B2B buyers ask for recommendations?
It depends on the question. In Jamco PR's October 2026 study of 552 sources, about half of the sources for 'best X' questions were third-party list articles, about 61% for 'X vs Y' questions were list and comparison articles, and about 77% for very specific questions were the vendor's own pages.
What share of B2B buyers use AI chatbots to research vendors?
51% of B2B software buyers now start their research in an AI chatbot rather than a search engine, according to G2's 2026 research, up from 29% a year earlier.
What sources do AI tools like ChatGPT cite?
Mostly earned media. Muck Rack's May 2026 analysis of 25M+ cited links found 84% came from earned media, with paid and advertorial content at just 0.3%. Journalism alone accounted for 27%.
Do journalists still use press releases?
Yes. In Cision's 2025 State of the Media Report, 72% of journalists said press releases are the most useful resource PR teams can offer, and 66% rely on PR for story ideas (Cision, 2026).
Can I use these statistics in my article?
Yes. Cite the original source next to each figure and link to jamcopr.com/pr-statistics as where you found it.
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