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 |
Earned 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 |
Jamco PR original data
From our own October 2026 test of ChatGPT and our client work. Method and full results are in the study linked below.
| Statistic | Source |
|---|---|
| For the question 'Best tech PR agency for enterprise software companies', ChatGPT drew on 15 sources, 11 of them third-party list articles. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study (October 2026) |
| For broad 'best PR agency' questions, ChatGPT's recommendations came almost entirely from third-party round-ups, not agency websites. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study (October 2026) |
| When asked about one agency by name, ChatGPT's verdict rested on review counts and independently verifiable results. | Jamco PR, AI PR agency study (October 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 |
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 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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