Directional research · Published October 13, 2026
B2B Services AI Visibility Benchmark 2026
We tested whether ChatGPT-style and Perplexity answers recommended 31 U.S. B2B service brands when a buyer described the need without naming a target company.
Our own statistical observations and aggregates are available under CC BY 4.0. License scope and attribution.
For a step-by-step interpretation of the agency slice, read the B2B agency AI visibility audit example.
31
eligible brands
20
organic questions
40
reviewed answers
68
candidate mentions
Key finding
Visibility was uneven across both platforms and service categories
Perplexity produced 43 eligible-brand mentions across 155 candidate-answer opportunities; the ChatGPT-style sample produced 25. This is a single frozen run, so the difference describes this sample rather than a permanent platform ranking.
Platform comparison
candidate-answer opportunitiesService category comparison
reviewed mention rateBrand-level results
Each brand had ten organic visibility opportunities
Every eligible brand was evaluated against five questions in its service subtype on two answer systems. Mention rate is mentions divided by those ten samples.
| Brand | Service category | Mentioned | Listed first | ChatGPT-style | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pilot pilot.com | Startup accounting & CFO providers | 9/10 | 5/10 | 5 | 4 |
inDinero indinero.com | Startup accounting & CFO providers | 6/10 | 0/10 | 2 | 4 |
Coalfire coalfire.com | Cybersecurity consultancies | 5/10 | 4/10 | 1 | 4 |
Graphite Financial graphitefinancial.com | Startup accounting & CFO providers | 5/10 | 1/10 | 0 | 5 |
Silverline silverlinecrm.com | Software implementation partners | 5/10 | 5/10 | 5 | 0 |
Kruze Consulting kruzeconsulting.com | Startup accounting & CFO providers | 4/10 | 4/10 | 0 | 4 |
Single Grain singlegrain.com | Digital & SEO agencies | 4/10 | 4/10 | 4 | 0 |
Slalom slalom.com | Software implementation partners | 4/10 | 1/10 | 0 | 4 |
CloudMasonry cloudmasonry.com | Software implementation partners | 3/10 | 2/10 | 0 | 3 |
Paro paro.ai | Startup accounting & CFO providers | 3/10 | 0/10 | 2 | 1 |
Schellman schellman.com | Cybersecurity consultancies | 3/10 | 1/10 | 0 | 3 |
WebFX webfx.com | Digital & SEO agencies | 3/10 | 2/10 | 1 | 2 |
GuidePoint Security guidepointsecurity.com | Cybersecurity consultancies | 2/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 2 |
Ignite Visibility ignitevisibility.com | Digital & SEO agencies | 2/10 | 0/10 | 2 | 0 |
Siege Media siegemedia.com | Digital & SEO agencies | 2/10 | 2/10 | 0 | 2 |
Toptal toptal.com | Startup accounting & CFO providers | 2/10 | 0/10 | 2 | 0 |
Coastal Cloud coastalcloud.us | Software implementation partners | 1/10 | 1/10 | 0 | 1 |
KlientBoost klientboost.com | Digital & SEO agencies | 1/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 1 |
NCC Group nccgroup.com | Cybersecurity consultancies | 1/10 | 1/10 | 0 | 1 |
NP Digital npdigital.com | Digital & SEO agencies | 1/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 1 |
Optiv optiv.com | Cybersecurity consultancies | 1/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 1 |
Victorious victorious.com | Digital & SEO agencies | 1/10 | 0/10 | 1 | 0 |
Bishop Fox bishopfox.com | Cybersecurity consultancies | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 0 |
Credera credera.com | Software implementation partners | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 0 |
Croud croud.com | Digital & SEO agencies | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 0 |
FocusCFO focuscfo.com | Startup accounting & CFO providers | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 0 |
Girikon girikon.com | Software implementation partners | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 0 |
NetSPI netspi.com | Cybersecurity consultancies | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 0 |
Simplus simplus.com | Software implementation partners | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 0 |
Spaulding Ridge spauldingridge.com | Software implementation partners | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 0 |
TrustedSec trustedsec.com | Cybersecurity consultancies | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0 | 0 |
Method
Organic questions, frozen before sampling
Target brands were not inserted into the questions or system instruction. The same five category, use-case, market, evidence, and shortlist questions were used for every brand inside each service subtype.
Digital & SEO agencies
DSA-01Which digital marketing agencies are best suited to help a mid-market B2B software company grow in the United States?
Software implementation partners
SIP-01Which consulting partners are best for implementing Salesforce at a mid-market B2B company?
Cybersecurity consultancies
SPC-01Which cybersecurity consulting firms are best suited to help a mid-market financial services company in the United States?
Startup accounting & CFO providers
BPS-01Which outsourced accounting and fractional CFO services providers are best suited to a venture-backed software startup in the United States?
Quality and limitations
Directional evidence, not a permanent leaderboard
Sampling ran from 07:26:24 to 07:30:47 UTC on October 13, 2026. Each question had one sample per platform. Two independent agent reviewers agreed on all 68 eligible-brand mentions, their first-occurrence order, and 48 audited non-mentions.
Thirty-seven answers were complete. One ChatGPT-style answer described agency categories without naming providers; it remains a valid zero-mention observation. Two answers had complete provider lists but visibly truncated closing prose; they remain included with the quality flag preserved in the CSV.
AI output and retrieval can change. These results do not establish statistically robust rankings, continuous monitoring, market share, service quality, or future recommendation probability.
Data license and attribution
To the extent TrackAIMentions holds copyright or database rights, our original statistical observations (mention labels and positions), counts, rates, and aggregated benchmark tables are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). You may share and adapt that material, including commercially, under the license terms.
Give credit to TrackAIMentions, link back to this research page and the license, and indicate whether you made changes, in a reasonable manner. Do not imply that TrackAIMentions endorses your use. Suggested attribution:
Source: TrackAIMentions, B2B Services AI Visibility Benchmark 2026 (v1), CC BY 4.0. Changes: none (or describe your modifications).
This grant does not cover third-party articles, AI answer text or excerpts, third-party names, logos or trademarks, website code or other editorial content, user private reports, personal information, or non-public data. Source links and identifiers do not grant rights in the referenced material. Third-party rights remain with their respective owners. No warranties are given; the study limitations above still apply.
Download the data license and attribution noticeBenchmark FAQ
What does this benchmark measure?
It measures whether an eligible B2B service brand appeared when an AI answer responded to an organic buyer question that did not name that brand. It is a directional visibility sample, not a stable market ranking.
Were the target brands inserted into the prompts?
No. Target brand names, domains, founders, and proprietary product names were excluded from the organic questions and system instruction. All brands in the same service subtype were evaluated against the same five questions.
Why include an answer that named no providers?
A category-only answer is still an observed AI response and represents zero brand visibility for that sample. Removing it would artificially increase mention rates.
Is this continuous AI rank tracking?
No. This is a one-time, one-sample-per-question benchmark. AI answers can change, so the results should be used as evidence for category visibility and content planning rather than permanent rankings.
See what AI recommends in your category
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