I Asked 3 AI Tools to Pick Vendors. One Result Surprised Me

B2B buyers now ask ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode, and Perplexity which vendors to pick. Each answer names three or four companies. Here's how to get yours on that list. Free one-page scorecard (print it, ten minutes a week): https://jaydipsikdar.com/downloads/ai... The episode I referred to (Part 1): Why Your B2B Marketing Funnel No Longer Works    • Why Your B2B Marketing Funnel No Longer Works   WHAT THIS VIDEO IS ABOUT Your buyers used to type a keyword, get a list of websites, and click around. Now they ask a question and read the answer. Every answer names a few companies, and if yours isn't one of them, then for that buyer you don't exist. In a buying committee of six to ten people, each one asks their own question: the security person asks where the data lives, finance asks what it costs, the person who'll use it asks how long setup takes. So I ran the test myself. I asked ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode, and Perplexity the same question a buyer would ask, three times each, and looked at who got named and where the AI got its information. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN What came back across nine AI answers: only two companies were named every time, and the rest of the list changed almost every run The result that surprised me: one company was named first three times out of three, and one of the sources was its own blog post (I did raise an eyebrow) Where AI tools actually read about your category, and how to find out for your own Five moves, in a loop, to get your company named: say what you are, prove it with a number, answer every role, be where the AI reads, test every week A ten-minute weekly test you can run with the scorecard, and two things to skip (one of them is anyone who guarantees you a citation) WHY IT MATTERS NOW Search became answers, and the shortlist is forming before you're in the room. Close to 60% of US Google searches ended without a click to any website in 2024, and about 68% in early 2026 (SparkToro; different data panels, so not a perfect comparison, but the direction is clear) When Google shows an AI summary, the top result gets about 58% fewer clicks, across 300,000 keywords (Ahrefs) 94% of B2B buying groups had a favorite vendor before they spoke to sales, and bought from that favorite 77% of the time (6sense, close to 4,000 buyers). The shortlist is made somewhere you weren't invited, and more and more, it's made inside an AI answer. For B2B founders, marketing leaders, and anyone who signs off on the marketing budget. I'm Jaydeepp Sikdar. I've spent 20 years in B2B marketing, for some of the world's largest tech companies and for startups. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 I asked 3 AI tools to pick vendors 00:33 Chapter 1: What changed: search became answers 01:44 Chapter 2: Who decides: the buying committee and the early shortlist 02:50 Chapter 3: The test: ChatGPT vs Google AI Mode vs Perplexity 04:36 Chapter 4: Five moves to get named in AI answers 07:33 Chapter 5: What to do this week WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK Download the scorecard and run the test: same question, with your category in it, in all three tools Check three things: are you named, does it describe you right, and which sources did it cite? If you're a founder, start with moves one and two (you know the product, and you own the number nobody else has) If you run marketing, take the scorecard to your next planning meeting and pick the one move you'll fund this quarter SOURCES SparkToro zero-click study, 2024 (Datos panel): https://searchengineland.com/google-s... SparkToro zero-click study, Jan to Apr 2026 (Similarweb panel): https://searchengineland.com/google-z... Ahrefs, "Update: AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58%", Feb 2026: https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-... 6sense, 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report: https://6sense.com/report/buyer-exper... Aggarwal et al., "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" (Princeton, IIT Delhi and others): https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735 My own test, run on 31 Oct 2026 from India (so the answers lean a little Indian). AI answers vary by tool, location and time, so yours will differ. Kestrel is a made-up company, and the example scorecard rows are illustrative. What did the AI say about your company, and did it get you right? Tell me in the comments. I'll read them. CONNECT WITH JAYDEEPP Website: https://jaydipsikdar.com LinkedIn:   / jaydipsikdar   #B2BMarketing #ChatGPT #AISearch #GenerativeEngineOptimization #GEO #B2BSales #StartupMarketing #MarketingStrategy