New study analyzes 3.3 billion sessions across 13,000+ enterprise domains, uncovering how AI answers are redefining digital discovery and reshaping search performance
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#AEO—Conductor, the leading enterprise AEO platform, today released its 2026 AEO / GEO Benchmarks Report, the industry’s first large-scale analysis of how AI-powered discovery is transforming brand visibility across every major sector.
The report exposes a dramatic shift in digital behavior: the rise of a parallel surface of visibility, a new digital layer where AI systems decide which brands appear, and which are left out of the conversation.
“AI isn’t just reshaping search, it’s rewriting the entire digital experience,” said Seth Besmertnik, Co-Founder and CEO of Conductor. “Visibility no longer begins on your website or a results page; it starts inside AI-driven experiences like ChatGPT and Gemini that influence customer perception before a click ever happens. If you aren’t in the answer, you aren’t in the market.”
Key Findings: The New Visibility Layer
Conductor’s 2026 Benchmarks Report analyzed 13,770 enterprise domains across 10 industries and 22 sub-industries, aggregating 3.3 billion sessions to separate traditional organic search from AI-driven visibility sources, including AI referrals and Google AI Overviews (AIOs).
- AI referral traffic accounts for 1.08% of all website traffic on average and is growing only about 1% month-over-month, never rivaling traditional organic traffic as the main driver of digital discovery.
- Nearly 90% (87.4%) of all AI referral traffic originates from ChatGPT, underscoring its position as the dominant AI discovery engine today.
- Google AI Overviews now appear on average in 25% of searches, reshaping how users encounter brands before they reach a website.
- In Health Care, where accuracy drives trust, nearly half of all Google searches (48.7%) surface AI-generated summaries, while Financials follows with 25.8%—placing brand authority directly in the hands of algorithms.
“AI isn’t just adding another search surface,” Besmertnik added. “It’s deciding which brands the world sees first. If your brand isn’t part of that conversation, you’re already invisible where it matters most.”
2026 Imperative: Measure and Grow AI Visibility
The 2026 Benchmarks Report signals a turning point for digital and marketing leaders. AI referral traffic shouldn’t be the goal; it’s a signal of exposure. The next phase of search strategy requires new performance metrics centered on AI shelf share, tracking how often brands are cited, mentioned, or referenced in AI-generated answers.
Conductor’s report recommends that leadership teams:
- Rebuild reporting frameworks to measure visibility (e.g. citations & mentions) across AI surfaces, not just clicks.
- Develop adaptive AEO strategies that account for evolving discovery engines, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.
- Invest in structured, authoritative content ecosystems that enable AI systems to generate trustworthy, brand-aligned responses.
“The conversation about AI visibility must move beyond traffic,” said Wei Zheng, Chief Product Officer at Conductor. “What truly matters is brand presence inside AI answers. Our benchmarks help companies see where they stand, identify opportunities to grow share of answers, and build content systems that make them discoverable across every AI experience.”
The 2026 AEO / GEO Benchmarks Report is available here.
On Wednesday, December 10th, Conductor will join Search Engine Journal for a special webinar exploring deeper insights from the study, featuring Conductor’s leadership team and industry experts discussing the future of AI-powered discovery and AEO strategy. To register, click here.
About Conductor
Conductor is the only end-to-end, enterprise AEO platform that unifies 10+ years of proprietary website data with purpose-built AI to power high-quality content generation, real-time website monitoring, and enterprise AEO/SEO. From AI search visibility to technical health and content generation, Conductor’s unified platform empowers teams to increase authority in AI search, drive website conversions, and accelerate digital growth. Conductor was named a Leader in the Forrester Wave for SEO platforms and is rated #1 on TrustRadius and G2 by enterprise marketers. Customers include global enterprise brands such as Citi, Sephora, and FedEx. Learn more: conductor.com.
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