Two-thirds of CMOs say they don’t have the skills, budget or resources to compete with faster, AI-enabled competitors, according to a new study from agency 3Thinkrs.
Indeed, the acceleration of research and decision-making generated by AI is rapidly eroding traditional marketing levers. As brand visibility plummets across search, websites, and social, the race is on to modernize strategies for the new era of AI-driven discovery.
The conclusions come from “A CMO Marketing and Communications Handbook for 2026”, a survey of 400 B2B technology marketers – and they paint a picture of a playbook that is falling apart faster than many teams expected.
Traditional channels disappear as AI grows
According to the report, B2B technology websites saw a 34% decline in traffic between 2024 and 2025, despite AI-driven traffic accelerating to an expected 20% share by the end of 2025. This is a significant erosion of the traditional content scale that marketers have depended on for decades.
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Research is also evolving. The study predicts that by 2027, traditional search will account for just 45% of all search queries, a 42% decline from previous standards. Social media is also feeling the impact. On LinkedIn, the visibility of the company’s organic content declined sharply – from 2.1% to 1.6% of user feeds between March and October 2025 – reducing the reach of content that once drove awareness and engagement.
As generative engines replace traditional search behaviors, CMOs are forced to change direction. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is now the must-have feature for teams trying to stay visible in zero-click environments.
Sixty-one percent of marketers are already adapting their strategies to improve visibility in AI-generated summaries and answer engines. The shift shifts marketing from keyword placement to “trust signaling,” ensuring that AI models recognize your brand as credible, current, and authoritative.
This means:
- Reformatting content in structures adapted to AI – the lists alone representing almost a third of the results cited.
- Keep content up to date — AI tends to deprioritize hardware that is more than one to two months old.
- Invest in public relations – especially for startups. Forty-five percent of venture-backed brands plan to increase their PR budgets to improve their presence with trusted sources such as Bloomberg, Fortune, and Forbes.
- Tracking new metrics – like AI visibility scores, quote share, and “AI share of voice” (the most used share of voice metric reported to CEOs, at 33%).
Message fragmentation is the hidden risk
As generative search tools synthesize responses from across the web, brands without a clear, unified narrative risk being misrepresented – or ignored altogether.
And it’s a real problem: 61% of CMOs say their company is only “marginally proficient” or worse at maintaining a common brand story across PR, content and sales. Without a strong narrative, even quality content may not gain visibility.
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Marketers respond by relying on structured storytelling: think messages based on contrast (problem/solution), the rule of three, or clear arcs between heroes and villains. Repetition and rhythm, across all channels, become essential to promote recall and build confidence.
CMOs are also doubling down on their efforts to offer more engaging formats. As LinkedIn’s organic reach declines, 54% say they are prioritizing short-form video and multimedia content to regain relevance.
Deepfakes are increasing and B2B brands are not prepared
While the focus has been primarily on visibility, AI has also introduced a whole new category of reputation risk: synthetic media.
Generative AI makes it easier to produce realistic – but fake – video and audio content. Despite the threat, only 16% of B2B tech brands have a general crisis communications playbook, and only 14% have a specific response plan for AI-generated threats like deepfakes.
Worse still, 26% of CMOs say they would rely solely on their internal teams to manage such a crisis, even if they acknowledge the lack of formal procedures. This leaves most brands dangerously exposed in a landscape where misinformation spreads quickly and credibility is everything.
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