The State of AI Search Visibility in Cybersecurity — 2026 Benchmark Report

Published February 2026 · Research Period: Sep 2025 – Jan 2026 · 100 Vendors · 6 AI Platforms · 250 Buyer Prompts

Key Findings at a Glance

• 73% of cybersecurity vendors tested received zero citations from ChatGPT when buyers asked for vendor recommendations in their category
• 4.4× the value per visitor from AI-referred traffic compared to traditional organic search, based on conversion data across B2B SaaS
• 2–7 domains cited per AI response on average — far fewer than Google's 10 blue links, making inclusion dramatically more competitive
• 48% of ChatGPT citations come from Wikipedia, with Reddit at ~11% — most vendor-owned content is not being cited at all
• 12K+ cybersecurity keywords now trigger Google AI Overviews for a single enterprise security company, fundamentally changing SERP dynamics

1. Why This Report Matters Now

1.1 The AI Search Revolution in B2B Buying

The B2B technology buying process has undergone its most significant transformation since the rise of Google search. Buyers no longer follow a linear journey from awareness to consideration to decision. Instead, AI search is collapsing the entire funnel into single interactions.

Consider a typical cybersecurity buyer scenario: A CISO asks ChatGPT, "Which SASE vendor is best for a 500-person financial services company that needs SOC 2 compliance and integrates with our existing Microsoft stack?" The AI responds with a comparative analysis citing specific vendors, features, pricing considerations, and implementation complexity — all in a single response. That buyer has moved from awareness to shortlist without visiting a single vendor website.

The Data Behind the Shift

1.2 Why Cybersecurity Is Uniquely Affected

• High-complexity buying decisions: Security purchases involve 6–10 stakeholders and require deep technical evaluation. AI assistants excel at synthesizing complex comparisons, making them a natural tool for security buyers.
• Risk-averse buyer behavior: 78% of cybersecurity buyers shortlist only known vendor names. If AI doesn't mention you, you never enter the consideration set.
• Rapidly evolving threat landscape: Buyers need current information on threats, compliance, and capabilities. AI search platforms that perform real-time retrieval (Perplexity, ChatGPT with browsing) are becoming primary research tools.
• Market size and competition: The global cybersecurity market was valued at $219B in 2025, growing at 13.8% CAGR. North America alone represents $94B. The stakes for visibility have never been higher.

1.3 The Visibility Gap

Our research uncovered a critical disconnect: companies with strong traditional SEO rankings often have minimal AI search presence, while some newer entrants with AI-optimized content strategies are winning citations they would never have earned through Google rankings alone.

Case in point: One enterprise cybersecurity firm with 50,000+ monthly Google visitors received zero ChatGPT citations when buyers searched for their category. Meanwhile, a competitor with a fraction of their organic traffic appeared consistently across multiple AI platforms due to structured, citation-friendly content.

2. Research Methodology

2.1 Scope and Approach

This benchmark analyzed 100 cybersecurity vendors across 10 major sub-categories, testing visibility across six AI platforms using 250 standardized buyer-intent prompts. Research period: September 2025 – January 2026.

Categories: Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR), SIEM, Zero Trust / SASE, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Cloud Security (CSPM/CWPP), Email Security, Vulnerability Management, Managed Detection & Response (MDR), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and Network Security / Firewall. Vendors ranged from enterprise leaders to mid-market challengers and emerging startups.

AI Platforms Tested

Prompt Methodology

250 standardized buyer-intent prompts across three funnel stages:

• Top-of-Funnel (Awareness) — 80 prompts: "What are the best [category] tools for [use case]?" — testing brand awareness and category positioning.
• Mid-Funnel (Evaluation) — 100 prompts: "Compare [Vendor A] vs [Vendor B] for [specific requirement]" — testing competitive positioning and feature differentiation.
• Bottom-of-Funnel (Decision) — 70 prompts: "Which [category] vendor is best for a [company size] in [industry] with [compliance requirement]?" — testing purchase-ready recommendations.

Scoring Framework

Each vendor scored on four dimensions: Citation Frequency (how often brand appears, 0–100), Citation Quality (top recommendation vs. merely listed, weighted), Cross-Platform Consistency (appearance across all six platforms, 0–100), and Sentiment Accuracy (whether AI descriptions match actual capabilities).

3. Platform-by-Platform Citation Analysis

3.1 ChatGPT: The Dominant Discovery Channel

ChatGPT drives nearly 78% of all AI-referred traffic and is the single most important platform for cybersecurity vendor visibility. With 400M+ weekly active users and ~10-minute session durations on referred sites, it represents the primary AI discovery channel for B2B buyers.

Citation Patterns

Analysis of 30 million AI citations (Profound, 2025) reveals ~48% of ChatGPT's top cited sources are Wikipedia, ~11% Reddit, followed by established tech outlets. For cybersecurity queries, vendor-owned content appears more in technical queries ("How does XDR differ from SIEM?") but almost disappears in buyer-intent queries ("What's the best SIEM for mid-market?"), where third-party reviews, analyst reports, and editorial content dominate.

Key Finding — The Earned Media Bias: The September 2025 University of Toronto study confirmed a systematic bias in AI search toward earned media over brand-owned content. Your blog posts and product pages are far less likely to be cited than a Gartner mention, a G2 review, a Reddit thread in r/cybersecurity, or a third-party comparison article.

Cybersecurity Vendor Visibility in ChatGPT

3.2 Perplexity AI: The Citation-Dense Alternative

Perplexity accounts for 15.1% of AI traffic globally (~20% in the US). Unlike ChatGPT, it performs real-time web searches and cites 5–8+ sources per response, creating more opportunities for inclusion. It favors fresh, well-structured content regardless of domain authority — a vendor publishing a comparison page today could appear in results within hours.

3.3 Google AI Overviews: The Largest Immediate Battleground

Google AI Overviews represent the biggest near-term GEO opportunity given Google's 86%+ search share. AIOs appeared in ~16% of US desktop queries by mid-2025. One enterprise cybersecurity company had ~12,000 target keywords triggering AI Overviews. AIOs cut CTR by 34.5% for top-ranking pages.

Critical Data Point: 80% of sources cited in AI Overviews don't rank organically in the top results, and a top-3 position gives only an 8% chance of AIO citation. Google AIOs reference 6–14 sources per response (9 most common).

3.4 Claude, Gemini, and Copilot

Claude (Anthropic): Only 0.17% of AI traffic, but the highest session value at $4.56 per visit. Prioritizes technical accuracy with nuanced vendor comparisons. Influence exceeds traffic share for enterprise buyers.

Google Gemini: 6.4% of AI traffic. Benefits from Google ecosystem. Cross-agent consistency scores between Gemini and ChatGPT are notably low (as low as 26/100).

Microsoft Copilot: Built on Bing + GPT models. Gaining traction in enterprise Microsoft environments.

4. Cross-Platform Visibility Scores by Category

Composite AI Visibility Score (0–100) combining citation frequency, quality, cross-platform consistency, and sentiment accuracy across all six platforms:

Key Insights

1. Winner-take-most dynamics: In every category, the top 2–3 vendors capture the vast majority of AI citations. Gap between #1 and category average is consistently 30–50+ points.
2. Traditional leaders generally maintain advantage: CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, and Splunk dominate, primarily due to earned media presence, Wikipedia pages, and analyst coverage.
3. Challenger opportunity on Perplexity: Wiz, Abnormal Security, and Expel show disproportionately higher Perplexity scores — real-time content optimization can close the gap.
4. Cross-platform inconsistency is the norm: Average consistency score was just 41/100 — most vendors see wildly different visibility across platforms.

5. The SEO vs. GEO Gap in Cybersecurity

One of this report's most significant findings: the disconnect between traditional SEO performance and AI search visibility. Having a high Google ranking does not guarantee AI citation.

Counterintuitively, 9.5% of AI Overview citations come from pages ranking 11–100, and 14.4% from pages outside the top 100. AIOs actively surface content that Google's own organic algorithm wouldn't show on page one.

6. The Zero-Click Impact on Cybersecurity Pipeline

The zero-click trend creates "invisible demand" — buyers who research, evaluate, and shortlist vendors entirely through AI interactions without ever visiting a website. This demand is real and high-intent, but invisible to traditional analytics. Your GA dashboard might show declining organic traffic while your brand is actually gaining impressions inside ChatGPT conversations.

7. What Wins AI Citations in Cybersecurity

GEO Strategy Effectiveness

Content Types That Earn the Most Citations

1. Third-party reviews and analyst content: Gartner MQ mentions, G2 reviews, and Forrester Wave inclusions drive the highest citation rates.
2. Comparison and alternatives pages: Structured comparison content with feature tables, pricing data, and use-case matrices.
3. Original research and proprietary data: Vendors publishing original threat intelligence, benchmarks, or surveys earn citations as primary sources.
4. Programmatic SEO portals: CVE databases, compliance centers, and security tool directories generate 18% conversion rates vs. 0.5% from traditional blogs.
5. Community and peer validation: Reddit threads (r/cybersecurity, r/sysadmin) and user-generated content are increasingly cited by AI engines.

8. Strategic Recommendations

For Marketing Leaders and CMOs

1. Audit your current AI visibility immediately. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude the 10 most common buyer questions in your category. Document where you appear and which competitors are cited instead.
2. Allocate dedicated GEO budget. 35% of B2B marketers already prioritize GEO as their #1 success metric. Reallocate 15–20% of content budget toward AI-optimized content.
3. Invest in earned media and analyst relations. Given AI's bias toward third-party sources, PR and analyst relations have a direct, measurable GEO impact.
4. Track AI-specific metrics. Set up GA4 channel groupings for AI referral traffic. Monitor citation frequency across platforms weekly.

For Content Teams

1. Restructure existing content for AI extraction. Add 40–60 word answer blocks, comparison tables, statistics with sources, and FAQ sections.
2. Prioritize data-driven content. Content with original statistics earns 4.1× more AI citations.
3. Build programmatic content at scale. CVE databases, compliance guides, integration pages, and alternatives pages create large citation surface areas.
4. Update content every 30 days. Content updated within 30 days gets 3.2× more AI citations. Implement a monthly refresh cycle for your top 50 pages.

9. About This Research

About GrackerAI

GrackerAI is the pioneering AI-powered AEO and GEO platform built specifically for B2B SaaS companies. The platform helps businesses get discovered and cited by AI search engines including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. GrackerAI has helped 500+ B2B SaaS companies improve AI search visibility, with special focus on cybersecurity, fintech, and enterprise software.

Methodology Note

This report represents GrackerAI's analysis of publicly observable AI search behaviors. Vendor visibility scores are based on GrackerAI's proprietary scoring methodology and should be considered directional benchmarks. AI platform behaviors change frequently, and results may vary over time.