Search is undergoing its biggest shift in two decades. Which AI engines are sending traffic to B2B websites, and how fast is the landscape changing? We analyzed 400M sessions to find out. In this installment, we start to layer B2B-focused, account-level data into our analysis. This is where it gets interesting for B2B marketers.
LLMs are becoming the front door to the internet. A new discipline is emerging alongside this shift: GEO and AEO (Generative / Answer Engine Optimization) are quickly replacing SEO as the conversation marketers need to be having. Startups like Bluefish, Peec AI, and Profound have raised millions to help brands show up in AI-generated answers.
Octane11 sits at a unique vantage point. We’re focused entirely on B2B, where we connect the dots between which channels drive engagement and how AI Search actually converts into pipeline and revenue. In this second edition of our State of B2B AI Search report (see Vol. 1), we’re sharing a high-level view of which LLMs are driving the most traffic to B2B destinations, and we’ll update it every quarter to track trends and go deeper on how AI Search is changing the game for B2B marketing.
The landscape is changing quickly, and we tracked 400M B2B sessions across our ecosystem to bring you these insights. Each panel covers a distinct angle of the AI Search story.
Based on analysis of 400 million B2B website sessions by Octane11:
Source: Octane11 State of B2B AI Search report, Vol. 2. Data covers September 2025 through June 2026. Originally published April 8, 2026; this edition published July 29, 2026.
Percent of closed-won deals with a channel touch, Aug 2025-Jun 2026: Organic Search ranges from 46% to 57%. AI Search ranges from 5% to 15%, peaking at 14.5% in February 2026.
Incremental visits are visits where only one channel registered a signal for that target account, accounts no other channel would have reached. Organic Search accounts for 13-19% of these exclusive visits each month from Aug 2025 to Jun 2026; AI Search adds a smaller, still-measurable share that fell an average of 48% from Q1 to Q2 2026. Combined, Search accounts for roughly 1 in 6 of all single-channel-exclusive visits to target accounts.
AI Search accounts for less than 2% of total B2B search sessions. Organic search still dominates at 96%+, though its share is eroding as both AI Search and Reddit Organic gain ground. Reddit surged to 1.9% of total search traffic in June 2026 alone.
ChatGPT share of AI referral traffic: Sep 2025 84%, Oct 86% (peak), Nov 86%, Dec 80%, Jan 2026 76%, Feb 75%, Mar 71%, Apr 69% (low), May 82%, Jun 79%. Up 10 points from April’s low, though still 7 points below the October peak.
AI Search share excluding ChatGPT (Jun 2026): Google Gemini 9.8%, still the clear #2 despite dropping from a 17.3% April peak to 9.3% in May. Claude 4.5%, holding third place since March, though Perplexity (4.2%) has closed the gap to just 0.3 points by June. Microsoft Copilot trails at 2.5%.
Median month-over-month AI Search share change, Sep 2025-Jun 2026: Gemini (+0.6 pts) and Claude (+0.3 pts) are the only sources with positive median momentum. Bing and Google organic search are roughly flat. Perplexity and Copilot are both slightly negative. ChatGPT has the steepest negative median (-2.5 pts) despite a volatile, non-monotonic trend.
Methodology: Data aggregated across the Octane11 B2B ecosystem, covering 400 million sessions from September 2025 through June 2026. AI Search sessions attributed via referral classification across ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Bing AI. Share of total reflects all search sessions, not just AI referrals. Originally published April 8, 2026 by Octane11; this Q2 2026 edition published July 29, 2026. Updated quarterly.
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