Nearly half of funded B2B SaaS are invisible to AI
We asked ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews to recommend the best tool in 98 funded SaaS categories: the unbiased question a buyer would actually ask. Here's who showed up across all four, and who didn't.
of funded B2B SaaS are invisible on all four AI engines at once
Invisible, by engine
% of companies NOT named when a buyer asks for the "best [category] tool"
Google is the brutal one
How many engines name each company
No company is visible on all four; "AI presence" is never a simple yes or no
The engines disagree, so checking one lies
It's not product quality. It's not funding.
Well-funded products, invisible, while incumbents get named instead
| Invisible company | Who AI recommends instead |
|---|---|
| Tabnine: AI coding | GitHub Copilot, Cursor |
| Aviatrix: cloud security | Wiz, Prisma Cloud |
| Coralogix: observability | Datadog, Dynatrace |
| SpotDraft: contract management | Ironclad, DocuSign CLM |
Why: authority, not features
AI recommends the brands that are referenced, reviewed, and discussed across the web in roundups, comparisons, forums, video, and press. It doesn't read your homepage and decide you're the best. It surfaces the names the internet already talks about. A flawless product can still be invisible if the web isn't citing you.
Where the citations actually come from
A second, separate dataset: GetIntel's own live tracking of the AI-visibility/GEO tools category, not the 98-company study above.
Of that 92%, five sources carry most of it
Community platforms, not editorial media, dominate: Reddit and YouTube alone account for more citation share than every blog, review site, and trade publication in the category combined. Classic backlink-style outreach to "best tools" roundups still works, but it's fighting for a much smaller slice than a genuine Reddit thread or a well-made video.
Where do you show up across AI search?
GetIntel runs this exact audit across every major AI engine: the gaps, the winners, and the fixes. Find out where your brand (or your clients) stand.
Method: 392 probes: 98 funded B2B SaaS companies (one per category) × 4 engines: ChatGPT (GPT-5.5 + web search), Claude (Sonnet 4.6 + web search), Perplexity (Sonar Pro), and Google AI Overviews (via DataForSEO, US / English). Unbiased query: "best [category] tools," with no brand name in the prompt. Run through GetIntel's own production infrastructure. June 2026 · ~$15 total. Stability: re-running 20 companies on ChatGPT held the result 85% of the time. Live models are non-deterministic; Google AI Overviews are locale-dependent and didn't trigger for 10% of queries (recorded honestly). Aggregate rates are the defensible figures.
Method (citation-source section above): a separate, ongoing dataset from GetIntel's own production tracking of the AI-visibility/GEO-monitoring tools category: 1,139 AI answers to 400 real buyer prompts, across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, citing 4,838 distinct sources. Not the same sample as the 98-company study above; reported separately on purpose. Refreshed continuously, last pulled July 2026.