Veuno Study: Half of Consumer Brands and Two-Thirds of B2B Companies Missing From Most AI Category Answers

Veuno’s analysis of 5,400 AI answers finds B2B companies appear in 35% of answers to category questions & consumer brands in 51%, despite 99% name recognition.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, October 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Veuno, a digital visibility agency specializing in AI marketing, today released the results of a study of how AI assistants answer buyers’ questions. When asked about each of the 20 U.S. companies in the study by brand name, the assistants described it accurately in 99% of answers. When asked the category question instead, the same AI assistants named B2B companies in 35% of answers and consumer brands in 51%.

The study tracked 100 prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI, and Perplexity from Sept. 30 to Oct. 13, 2026, producing over 5,400 answers.

Key findings

Name recognition was near universal. Across 20 companies and ~1,100 answers to the branded question (“What is [company name] and what is it known for?”), 99% accurately described the company.

Category questions produced a different result. When asked for the best option in a category, a recommendation, or a comparison, the assistants named B2B companies in 35% of answers and consumer brands in 51%. The median B2B company appeared in 18% of category answers; the median consumer brand in 56%.

Most B2B companies rank near the bottom. Six of the 10 B2B companies appeared in fewer than one in four category answers, and three of the 10 in fewer than one in 10. Among consumer brands, the figures were four of 10 and one of 10, respectively.

Absences are persistent. On 10 of the 80 category questions (13%), the company did not appear in a single answer across 14 days and five engines. On 26 of 80 (33%), it appeared in fewer than one answer in 10.

B2B results split into two groups

The B2B results split in two. Three of the 10 B2B companies were named in 80% to 90% of category answers. The other seven averaged 13%, ranging from 1% to 29%. No company sat in between.

Consumer brands were spread more evenly: five appeared in over 60% of category answers, one in about half, and four in 1% to 21%.
Veuno’s reading of the pattern is that AI assistants settle on a short list per category. A company on that list appears in nearly every answer. A company not on that list is close to invisible, regardless of how well the assistants know it.

“Being known and being recommended are two different things,” said Selina Wragg, founder and CEO of Veuno. “Every company in this study is described accurately when you ask about it by name. What matters is what the assistant says when a buyer asks for the best option in the category, and for most B2B companies that answer doesn’t include them.”

“AI assistants don’t discover companies. They repeat what they read: comparison articles, review sites, analyst lists, and community threads,” Wragg said. “If a company isn’t in those sources, it isn’t in the answer. Most B2B budgets still go to the company’s own website and ads, and the assistants are reading somewhere else.”

Where most companies start

All 20 companies in the study are funded, growth-stage startups. Companies running their first AI visibility audit typically start far lower. In Veuno’s own initial 40-prompt audits over the same two weeks, B2B companies appeared in 1% to 2% of category answers and were absent from approximately two-thirds of category questions. A consumer services brand appeared in 16% and was absent from about half.

Methodology

Veuno tracked 100 prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI, and Perplexity from Sept. 30 to Oct. 13, 2026, via Otterly.AI, using U.S. settings. The study covered 10 B2B companies (healthcare data, financial infrastructure, accounting AI, developer tools, employee benefits, construction data) and 10 consumer companies (personal finance, consumer health, travel, children’s education, food and home products). Veuno selected the 20 companies from venture-backed or privately funded U.S. businesses in those sectors with 100 or fewer employees and estimated annual revenue between $1 million and $15 million. None is a Veuno client, and individual companies are not named.

Each company received five prompts: one branded (“What is [company name] and what is it known for?”) and four unbranded category questions covering the best options in 2026, a recommendation, a specific use case, and a comparison. A company was counted as appearing when its name was present in the answer text. The study produced more than 5,400 answers, about 4,350 of them to category questions. Results varied by engine; Perplexity figures rest on a smaller number of completed runs.

Selina Wragg
Veuno
+1 646-526-9076
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