Before the first call or the first reply to your proposal, there is a good chance a buyer has already asked an AI tool about you. Who does positioning work for founders in this space? Is this firm credible? What do they actually do? You weren’t part of that conversation, and you didn’t write the answer. But it shaped the person who eventually walks into your meeting.
This is no longer a prediction. It is how business buying works now, and it changes what “being visible” means for founders, consultants and advisors.
What Changed in How Buyers Research You?
Forrester’s report The State Of Business Buying, 2026, published in January, puts it plainly: generative AI searches are now the starting point for B2B buyers. Before a shortlist exists, someone is asking an answer engine to summarise the options.
The same research found something just as important. The typical buying decision now involves 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers. And while AI tools offer speed, Forrester notes they often deliver incomplete or unreliable information, which creates mistrust. So buyers do something very human. They check. They ask colleagues and peers whether the answer holds up.
That gives you two moments to win, not one. The AI answer that gets you onto the list. And the human check that decides whether you stay there.
Where Does the AI Answer Actually Come From?
Not only from your website. Answer engines assemble a description of you from whatever they can find and trust: your site, but also directory profiles, award listings, interviews, podcast pages, old press mentions, your LinkedIn profile and what other people have written about you.
That is where most founders get caught out. Your website might say one thing today. A directory profile you filled in two years ago says another. A podcast description still uses the way you explained your work before you changed direction. An AI tool doesn’t know which version is current. It blends them, or it picks whichever source it trusts most, and that is often not the one you control.
The result is rarely dramatic. It’s just slightly wrong. A little vague, a little outdated, a little like everyone else in your category. And slightly wrong is enough to keep you off a shortlist.
Why Does Positioning Matter More Than Content Here?
Because an AI tool can only repeat a clear story if there is one to repeat. If you haven’t decided, in one sentence, what you do, who it’s for and why you’re different, then every surface ends up describing you a little differently. More content doesn’t fix that. It just adds more versions.
The same is true for the human check. When a buyer asks a peer “have you heard of them?”, the peer can only pass on something specific and memorable. “She’s good” doesn’t move a decision. “She’s the one who researches your market before writing a word of messaging” does.
Forrester’s Barbara Winters put the requirement in one line: providers must “ensure that their claims can be validated through trusted external voices.” That is a positioning problem before it is a visibility problem.
A named, consistent position is what gives a model something specific to repeat about you. That is the point of running the Authority Engine™ in order — research, business positioning, founder positioning, messaging — before any visibility work: the sentence a buyer’s AI reads back to them is the one you decided on, not the one it had to assemble from scraps.
How Do You Shape What AI Says About You?
You can’t control the answer directly. You can control what it is built from. This is roughly the sequence we follow at You Creatives:
- Start with research, not assumptions. Ask the AI tools your buyers use the questions they would ask about your category and about you. Write down exactly what comes back, and which sources are cited.
- Define the position in one sentence. What you do, who it’s for, and what you deliberately don’t do. Every other step depends on this.
- Make your own surfaces say it consistently. Website, LinkedIn headline and About section, bio, podcast and speaker descriptions. Same idea, in your own words, everywhere.
- Correct the third-party surfaces. Directory profiles, award listings, partner pages, old interviews. These can carry as much weight as your own site, and they’re the ones founders update least.
- Give trusted people something specific to repeat. Clients, peers and partners are the human validation layer. A clear, true sentence about what you do travels much further than a vague compliment.
A Simple Check You Can Do This Week
Open two or three AI tools and ask the question a buyer would ask: “What does [your name or company] do, and who is it for?” Then ask the category version: “Who should I talk to about [the problem you solve] in [your market]?”
Compare the answers with how you would describe yourself today. If they’re vague, outdated or missing you entirely, you now know where the work is, and it usually isn’t writing another post.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do B2B buyers really use AI to research vendors?
Yes. Forrester’s State Of Business Buying, 2026 identifies generative AI searches as the starting point for B2B buyers, followed by validation through colleagues and external influencers.
Can I control what ChatGPT or Perplexity says about my business?
Not directly. You can make sure the sources they draw on, your own and third-party ones, describe you clearly and consistently.
Is this only relevant for large companies?
No. It matters even more for founders, consultants and advisors whose reputation has mostly travelled by word of mouth, because there is often little written about them.
This is the same order behind all our work at You Creatives: research first, then positioning, then the story and visibility that carry it. If you want to know how clearly your position comes across today, to AI tools and to the people buyers trust, we offer a free 30-minute consultation. No pitch, just a clear look at where you stand.