AI search moves faster than marketing planning

Product Marketer

Nov 11, 2026

Research

Primary Sources, Q3 2026, an AI search report from Peec AI

Marketing teams love a quarterly plan. Priorities, budgets, campaigns, goals. A clear understanding of who owns what across brand, PR, social, and SEO.

AI search moves at a pace that makes those plans harder to stick to. On any given day, a platform update can change how an AI assistant searches for information and which sources it uses. Work worth investing in at the start of the quarter may need to stop before you've had time to evaluate the results.

Meanwhile, customers are using AI to research products and compare options. Competitors are appearing in answers. Marketers need to make decisions about investment and priorities while their understanding of the channel — and the channel itself — continues to develop.

That’s why we’re introducing Primary Sources, a new quarterly research series, to examine what’s changing across AI search, how marketing teams are responding, and what we can learn from both.

Two perspectives on a changing channel

At Peec AI, we help companies measure their presence in AI search and act on their data. Our GEO research team continuously analyzes how AI platforms retrieve information and which sources they use.

We also want to understand how marketing teams are investing in AI search and organizing the work. Who owns it? What pressures do they face? How do they know if their efforts are paying off?

To find out, we went straight to the source, surveying 700 marketing decision-makers responsible for AI search across the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany.

Each quarter, we’ll bring these two perspectives together to track how AI search — and the work behind it — develops.

Here are a few themes from the first edition.

Investment is outpacing measurement maturity

Among the companies surveyed, 89% increased their AI search spending over the past year. The most frequently cited pressures to invest were competitors appearing in AI answers and customers using AI tools to research or buy, ahead of industry hype and pressure from leadership.

These are changes marketers can observe firsthand. They help explain why companies are committing resources before they can fully demonstrate a return.

Today, 24% of companies say they can already prove ROI. Roughly three-quarters are still working toward that point.

Concerning? Maybe. But an inability to demonstrate ROI doesn’t mean AI search isn’t delivering value, or that marketers have nothing useful to measure. Measuring brand visibility, checking how products are described, tracing AI-referred leads, and demonstrating overall ROI answer different questions.

Most respondents expect to be able to prove ROI within a year. For now, marketers need to use the information they have while building the ability to connect more of it to commercial outcomes.

AI search plans need to change with the platforms

Planning, investment, and execution aren’t enough. Marketers also need to budget time to stay on top of platform changes. In our survey, 33% of companies named rapid changes to platforms and features as a barrier to increasing investment — the most frequently cited obstacle.

You can see why. On August 8, ChatGPT changed its default model. Between July and September, the share of user sessions running multiple searches rose from 2% to 61%. Reddit citations fell sharply, while product pages gained ground.

Line chart of ChatGPT citations by source type, week by week from June 29 to late September 2026, indexed to the Q2 average of 100: after GPT-5.6 became the default on August 8, product pages rose to 250 and all sources to 168, while listicles fell to 57 and Reddit to 11

One day’s release can upend months of planned work. Teams need to be ready to change their approach when the platforms give them a reason to. Continuous measurement helps establish whether a platform change affects your brand and whether your response is working.

How you organize for AI search matters

AI search is no longer a side project. It requires time, people, and tools. It also needs a place in the wider marketing strategy, where priorities and resources are decided.

Our survey identified three practices associated with trusted metrics and a greater reported ability to prove ROI:

Integrating AI search into the wider marketing strategy
Assigning dedicated full-time responsibility
Using a dedicated AI visibility platform

Chart comparing each step up in commitment with the level just below it, on the share with metrics they trust and the share that can already prove ROI (all respondents: 40% and 24%): an integrated strategy 72% and 43% against a defined strategy separate from marketing 39% and 23%; a dedicated AI visibility platform 58% and 39% against features in an existing tool 42% and 24%; dedicated full-time roles 57% and 35% against AI search as part of a broader role 28% and 15%; enterprise 44% and 24% against mid-market 36% and 24%

Strategy integration showed the largest difference: 43% of companies with an integrated strategy said they could prove ROI, compared with 23% of those with a defined but separate strategy. Size wasn’t a factor. Mid-market and enterprise companies reported the same rate of proving returns.

Some of these commitments require more budget than others. Integrating AI search into your marketing strategy is largely a question of coordination, and dedicated responsibility can come from reallocating someone’s time. These steps still take resources, but they don’t all require new hires or a substantial budget increase.

Download the first edition of Primary Sources

Q4 is when teams make the case for next year’s budgets, staffing, and priorities. If AI search is part of those discussions, this report gives you evidence and advice to bring to the table.

Download your free copy of Primary Sources for the full survey findings and Peec AI’s analysis of how AI search platforms are changing.