AI & Search: The Next Marketing Battleground

Deep Dive Article With Christina Värno

Why B2B marketers need to rethink discoverability in 2026

Search is changing fast. With Chat GPT, YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit increasingly used for answers, B2B marketers need to think beyond Google rankings. Buyers still search, but now they ask AI tools questions and expect trusted, contextual responses in return. We're entering the era of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).

This shift isn’t about replacing SEO;  it’s about expanding visibility across the entire discovery journey.

At this year’s RIGA COMM, I had the chance to hear Christina Värno, Head of Strategy at Convertal, speak about this exact shift. One line stuck with me:

“People don’t just want answers,  they want trusted, contextual ones.”

That moment turned to spark this article, because B2B marketers are asking:

“How do we show up when buyers search through AI tools, not just Google?”

So I reached out to Christina to share her view on what this shift really means, and what practical steps marketers can take now to prepare for 2026.

Her insights, especially on digital trust, platform behavior, and actionable findability, are something every B2B marketing team should be thinking about.

You said that “visibility gets you in the room, but trust gets you the yes.” How do you see this playing out in the new search landscape, especially in AI tools like ChatGPT?    

Simply put: just as before. People are still the ones who decide who gets chosen. You can still buy visibility. You can prompt your way into ChatGPT results, pay for ads, and chase virality. But at the end of every search, there’s still a human deciding who to believe.

Sam Altman recently compared SaaS to fast fashion — and he’s right. Anyone can spin up a half-decent product in two weeks now. So, if anyone can copy your features, what can’t they copy? Your credibility. Your consistency. Your relationships.

In AI search, the same dynamic applies — ChatGPT and Perplexity don’t have emotions, but they’re trained on trust signals. They look for patterns of authority: mentions, reviews, verified facts, consistency of tone.

So, the brands that built a strong reputation years ago are already showing up more often in AI summaries — not because of optimization tricks, but because they’ve earned digital trust over time.

Compared to the old Google era, where clever on-page SEO and backlinks could help a new brand rank fast, the new AI-driven landscape has a potentially much higher entry barrier for newcomers.

So, for new B2B brands, the game isn’t to out-keyword the established players; it’s to build credibility faster and more intentionally.

That means:

·        Partner with credible voices and borrow authority.

·        Contribute to expert discussions and niche communities early.

·        Publish transparent, high-value proof — like open benchmarks, customer interviews, and data insights.

·        Use founders’ personal brands to humanize and accelerate trust.

Visibility gets you into the AI result — but trust decides whether the human reading that result believes you deserve to be there.

• Okay, then what are the top 3 things marketers should (can) do today to increase their brand’s findability across platforms (not just Google)?        

B2B buying isn’t a line — it’s a swarm. You have five to eight people in one account, all searching separately on different platforms, comparing notes later in Slack or Teams.

You can’t control that path — but you can engineer what they all find when they go looking.

1) Start by building a Discovery Map.
Literally list:

·        What do buyers type into Chat GPT or Google when they start researching?

·        Which communities or creators shape their opinions?

·        What content formats do they trust — PDFs, videos, peer posts?

Then, anchor your system around repetition and proof.

Your goal is that no matter which person in the buying group searches, your brand shows up at least three times — through different, credible touchpoints.

Also – map reality, not your assumptions. Most companies still plan content around what they think people search for. But when you actually ask customers, it’s usually totally different.

Start by literally interviewing 10 customers:

·  ‘Where did you first hear about us?’

·  Where would you research something like this today?’

·  ‘Which voices do you trust when deciding?’

That gives you your real search map.

2) Build ‘retrieval assets’ that speak to each role.
Build referenceable proof that teams can use to make internal cases.

That means:

·  Benchmark reports or calculators the CFO can quote internally.

·  Short explainers or demo reels that product or tech teams can forward.

·  Practical templates, ROI visuals, and slides the CMO can drop into a pitch deck.

Think about how your content travels inside organizations, not just across the internet.

3) Make credibility impossible to miss.

In AI and social discovery, authority isn’t earned by shouting — it’s earned by consistency of proof.

So, surface it everywhere:

·  Reviews and client logos on YouTube descriptions, not buried on your site.

·   Case studies turned into short LinkedIn carousels.

·    Press mentions turned into proof of snippets across product pages.

Every visible signal of trust helps both algorithms and humans conclude, ‘Okay, this brand’s real.’

The key shift is this: “Don’t just optimize for where people search — optimize for how buying teams remember.”

That`s a great way of mindset shifting, what experts can look into, to turn it into actionable practices. Nowadays, a lot of marketers feel also overwhelmed with constant platform changes. What fundamentals should they hold onto as north stars?       

Just one: platforms determine who appears. But! People still choose who gets selected.

The landscape evolves. The psychology doesn’t. People still look for proof that you can do what you say. They still look for relevance – something that speaks to their world, their need, their timing. And they still look for trust – the quiet sense that you’re credible, consistent, human.        

Every algorithm update, every AI feature, every new platform — they’re all just changing how people look for those three things.

So, if your marketing consistently shows proof, relevance, and trust, you’ll stay resilient.

The smartest brands I work with don’t chase channels; they chase understanding. They study what makes people curious, what gives them confidence, and they build from that.

Lastly, what new mindset or approach would you recommend for B2B teams trying to map or influence the modern discovery journey?

B2B hasn’t changed because people stopped caring about trust — it’s changed because trust is now filtered through AI, social algorithms, and fragmented discovery journeys. What worked by instinct now has to work by design.

Buying groups are now asynchronous — each stakeholder consumes content through a different channel and even through different AI summaries. Alignment has to be system-engineered, not left to sales.

Trust used to be centralized. Now it’s decentralized — and discoverable through dozens of signals you don’t fully control.

Before, you influenced the buying committee through sales and nurture.
Now, half the buying group forms opinions through content the brand didn’t create, AI tool results, or private Slack conversations.

AI systems literally learn authority — by weighing mentions, backlinks, brand consistency, tone reliability, and semantic stability.

Ten years ago, trust was emotional. Now, it’s mathematical.
The question isn’t just Do people trust us? — it’s can machines verify that they do?”

For example.

Old B2B: hide your case studies behind forms.
New B2B: publish benchmarks, data sets, methodology — make your competence verifiable.
Why? Because AI scrapes and reuses your data to decide who’s trustworthy.