41% of buyers start with search, 40% start with AI. Make sure you are not abandoning either one.

Yesterday, I got to pop out of the office and head downtown Austin to The B2B Collective, a one day conference and knowledge sharing event hosted by Digitalzone. They shared a lot of their own research survey, but one of the stats seems especially important to share: 41% of buyers start vendor research with search engines, and 40% start with AI tools. After six years working with B2B brands, my question is simple: if buyers use both, why would you plan for only one?

What the data says

Digitalzone shared research showing that buyers start with search engines and AI tools at nearly the same rate. Here is what they shared, next to one independent study.  

The two surveys they shared, use different samples and define "start" differently, so read them as two views of the same shift, not one number. Source data from Digitalzone is linked here. 

Buyers are adding tools, not swapping them

Digitalzone's CEO described his own habit in the opening session: "If I have to search about a product or a business or something, I go [to] ChatGPT or I ask Claude, but I cross-check on Google as well because there is so much out there. And every platform gives me a different value or a different signal."

His conclusion: "We are not swapping any technology. We are actually increasing the number of cases we are looking at or researching."

Just a note here, that this is one person's habit, not a study, but it matches the survey. Buyers who use AI to compare options and validate claims are still starting with search at nearly the same rate. For the B2B brands I work with, that means a buyer may hear one version of your story from an AI tool and check it against what search shows. Both need to say the same thing about you.

Each one matters, for different reasons

Here is how I think about it. Traditional search and AI assistants bring buyers to you in different ways, so each has its own impact.

Traditional SEO still matters. In Digitalzone's survey, 41% of buyers start with search engines. Google's guidance also says "The best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI features in Google Search." A page still has to be indexed and eligible to show in AI overviews and Google AI mode, and Google notes that inclusion is not guaranteed.

AEO matters because AI assistants work differently. In the same survey, 40% of buyers start with AI tools. In an Ahrefs study of 15,000 long-tail prompts, about 12% of the links cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity also appeared in Google's top 10 for the same prompt. Perplexity was highest at 28.6%, and the others were around 8%. The authors' conclusion is that ranking well helps, "but not necessarily for the queries you might assume." This was a vendor study from August 2025 on long-tail prompts, and these products change quickly, so make sure you're treating it as a snapshot.

Put together: SEO and AEO are not the same job, and neither replaces the other. Each one affects whether and how a buyer finds and sees you.

What happens when you plan for only one

The keynote at the same event made the point about narratives. "Search is dead" was a popular headline, and the speaker's reality check was: "The reality is somewhere in the middle, but that's not what we hear." Planning for only one side leaves a gap.

• • Only SEO. You can miss buyers who start with AI tools (40% in Digitalzone's survey), and G2 found 69% of B2B software buyers chose a different vendor than planned after AI input.
  • Only AEO. You give up the 41% who start with search engines, and the SEO best practices Google says still apply to its own AI features.
  • Two separate plans. SEO and AEO can end up with different priorities, different content, and reports that never meet, so nobody sees the whole buyer journey. I see it all the time: tons of information, and hardly any of it talks to each other. 

Most brands are just getting started with AEO, and that is okay

In my experience, most brands are just getting started with their AEO strategy, and a lot of the companies we work with at (un)Common Logic only got serious about it this year. That is a real need, and a good place to begin. But starting AEO is different from swapping out SEO. The two work together, and the value comes from understanding how.

It also helps to understand how your buying committee does its research. Forrester puts a typical B2B purchase at 13 internal stakeholders and 9 external influencers, and Digitalzone's CEO pointed out that influencers, decision makers, and researchers each play an important role. Each person may start in a different place: search, an AI tool, or both. If you drop one side, you may lose the people who start there.

What I would look for for SEO or AEO Support

I would look for a team that understands the impact of both, and has a strategy for both.

1. They can explain what traditional SEO does for you, what AEO does for you, and why both matter.
2. They have one strategy that covers both, with priorities set together.
3. They know where your buyers start: search, AI tools, or both.
4. They report on both in one place, tied to your goals.
5. They explain the why behind each recommendation.

That is how we approach it at (un)Common Logic: traditional SEO and AEO are both important, we understand the impact of each, and we build a strategy for both.