Marketing Leaders in B2B technology say the ground beneath brand visibility has rapidly shifted with AI driven search and zero click buying increasingly dictating what buyers encounter prior to ever visiting a brand website. The research records falling visitors to websites, declining LinkedIn engagement, and media attention stretched thin, according to a research report released by B2B communications agency 3Thinkrs.
Such an environment has increased the pressure on marketing teams, with the study saying 62% of chief marketing officers feel they don’t have the skills, budget or resources to keep up with rivals that are moving faster while 35% are concerned that competitors are getting a head start as generative AI evolves search behaviour.
Securing brand memory is more difficult as well; we find that in the survey 6 in 10 CMOs rate their performance on brand recall as below average, an issue of increasing importance because names that buyers recognize quickly, repeatedly, will be rewarded by AI search tools.
Ruth Jones, CEO, 3Thinkrs said: “AI has disrupted the economics of brand influence and discovery for tech companies, providing marketers with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain even more influence, right as their underlying competitors are losing theirs. This will be both a challenge and an opportunity for brands, as those who create a unique brand story, adapt tactics for the new algorithm, and modify content types will capture the spark.
With web pages and LinkedIn reach bringing lower returns, as reported by 3Thinkrs, many marketing leaders have started to rethink how influence gets measured (and defended and maintained) – traditional markers no longer do the trick. The Different Paths Taken By A Startup And A Billion Dollar Company.
Research from 3Thinkrs compared 200 CMOs from venture-backed startups with 200 CMOs from billion-dollar technology companies and revealed two reactive beats in response to the same pressure, driven by scale, speed, and internal architecture.
Startups are quicker to respond to new visibility signals: 39% track share of AI voice, against only 26% at billion-dollar firms; they also work harder to build relationships with journalists at newer publications (22% versus 11%)
According to Stephanie Robotham, a Value Accelerator Operating Advisor at Goldman Sachs Asset Management: “AI has given venture-backed start-ups a strategic edge. It enables them to gain visibility rapidly through the design of marketing and communications for people and machines alike. The challenge is recognizing these new levers of influence so that they can secure levels of trust and relevance faster than their competition.”
On the other side of the balance sheet, owned media are driven by scale: 37% of billion-dollar CMOs invest in broadcasting , webinars, and podcasts, compared to 26% of venture-backed businesses, and brand-owned platform usage is 27% compared to 20%.
The report itself reveals that both camps are hampered internally: 61% of CMOs admit they either do not or only moderately do a great job of maintaining a single brand story, and half say internal teams struggle to replicate the same message across public-facing channels.
Even preparation for potential reputation threats leads to a drop in confidence, with only 16% of CMOs saying they have a crisis response ready if the moment arises, according to a survey by 3Thinkrs.
The Now Quotient: What Gets You Attention, Growth, and Visibility, Now?
As traditional search performance falls, marketing for generative engine optimisation is now top of the agenda. 61% of CMOs have already altered activity, with this pressure felt acutely at venture-backed firms (56%) compared to 29% at the billion-dollar company organic search performance maturity level.
Reporting to chief executives has been adapted accordingly, with the share of AI voice now topping the visibility measure shown to CEOs at 33%, ahead of the share of traditionally searched-for voice at 21% and the share of media voice at 19%, 3Thinkers revealed.
In the growth tactics ranking, credibility is preferred over tools: 4 of 10 CMOs and CDOs select thought leadership, 38% go for strategic partnerships, and 33% say AI integration within products and messaging will underpin growth.
As regards media choices, shorter attention spans prevail with CMOs most likely to turn to C-suite focused newsletters like Fortune CEO Daily or Forbes CMO (38%), than to digital first national business titles (29%), while just 12% based their decision on a publication’s links with large language models.
According to data referenced by 3Thinkrs, company page visibility plunged from 2.1% to 1.6% of user feeds between February and October 2025 though LinkedIn’s still under similar pressure, with 60% of start ups and 48% of billion dollar firms increasing focus on higher interacting video and carousel formats.
Execution is not where it should be relative to planning, with 46% of CMOs saying joint goal-setting between marketing, PR, and sales is functioning well. In comparison, only 24% say PR content feeds sales teams effectively, and 59% say they find it challenging to directly link marketing activity to sales data, even as many are preparing for change in 2026.
Samanyou Garg, CEO, Writesonic said, “B2B tech brands should start focusing on three key metrics related to AI Search performance — AI visibility score — how often your brand is being recommended, citation share — how often your content has been referenced as a source and share of voice — how often you are coming up compared to your competitors in answers given by AI. Source
