AI has fundamentally reshaped how buyers discover information. GenAI tools synthesize responses from vast data sources, shifting the user experience from scanning ranked links to receiving immediate, conversational answers. AI-generated summaries prioritize content that is highly structured, easily parsed, and contextually aligned with user queries. But many brands still rely on pre-AI approaches to SEO, which prioritize clarity and relevance. Evolving formats and buyer behavior demand greater agility, structured content, and cross-channel consistency, which many marketers aren’t currently resourced to meet.

Investments are low, while expectations keep rising

• SEO ranked near the bottom of 2024 investment priorities. Just 11% of B2B marketers cited SEO as one of the top three areas of investment, according to a November 2024 Sagefrog survey. In 2025, most budgets are still focused on traditional platforms like Google, with limited investment in AI tools. This highlights that SEO remains underfunded relative to its growing role in AI-driven discovery. That gap gives forward-looking brands a visibility edge.

• Resource-strapped teams often deprioritize SEO in favor of short-term strategies. Many marketers use AI for surface-level tasks like generating meta descriptions. But limited budgets and competing priorities often derail long-term SEO planning.
• SEO plays an important role in lead generation. According to an October 2024 Pipeline360 and Demand Metric survey, 38% of B2B marketers in the UK and the US rely on SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) for lead generation, ahead of webinars, content syndication, and events. SEO budgets should reflect that up to 90% of search activity still occurs on traditional platforms like Google and Bing. Yet many teams are overindexing on newer AI tools, creating a strategic blind spot: SEO continues to perform but isn’t being prioritized accordingly.

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