Every quarter, we publish what we're seeing across a rolling panel of categories we track. This is the Q2 2026 update for B2B SaaS. Data is drawn from 48,000+ scans across 200 categories, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot, over the three months ending March 31, 2026.
Headline findings
- Mention concentration keeps rising. The top 3 brands in a mature category now capture an average of 62% of all named citations, up from 54% one quarter ago. The winner-takes-most dynamic is accelerating.
- Reddit citations up 19% QoQ across prosumer SaaS. Notion, Linear, Raycast, and Cursor all see a material share of their citations coming from Reddit-originated content.
- G2 + Capterra citations remain stable in mid-market categories (HRIS, CRM, helpdesk) and are still the single most-cited source type by AI models.
- Help-doc citations are up 34% QoQ in categories where the top 3 brands have invested heavily in docs. The compounding from docs content is now visible in the data.
- Competition for category-level questions ("best X") has intensified. The gap between brand #1 and brand #10 is wider than last quarter in 80% of tracked categories.
Category-level movers
Five SaaS categories where the default answer shifted noticeably this quarter:
- Helpdesk: Zendesk losing share to Intercom and Front in AI answers, specifically on "best helpdesk for ecommerce."
- CRM: HubSpot remains dominant in SMB but losing ground to Attio in Series A–C startup-oriented queries.
- Analytics: Amplitude and PostHog rising fast in "product analytics" answers, at the expense of Mixpanel.
- Design: Figma still dominant. Notable: challengers are losing share, not gaining.
- Dev tools: Linear's citation density in AI answers for project management has roughly doubled YoY.
What this means if you run marketing at a B2B SaaS
- If you're not in the top 3 of your tracked category, the gap is widening. The longer you wait, the more expensive it gets to close.
- If you've invested in help-doc content in the last 12 months, you're probably seeing compounding now. If you haven't, start.
- Reddit is a bigger lever than almost anyone in B2B SaaS is admitting. Most of our clients' biggest unforced errors are still ignoring it.
- Category pages on G2 and Capterra are still underrated. Most teams fire-and-forget their listings. Revisit them.
What we're watching for Q3
- Whether the Reddit citation share keeps rising, or plateaus. Our guess: keeps rising for another 2–3 quarters, then plateaus.
- Whether AI-native referral traffic becomes a cleanly-attributable line in analytics. Early signals suggest yes.
- How the new rounds of model releases change citation patterns. We usually see meaningful drift in the first 30 days after a major release.
See where your brand actually stands in AI answers.
We'll run a full custom audit before the call. You keep the report regardless.
State of AEO — Professional services, Q2 2026
Law firms, accounting firms, boutique consultancies, healthcare practices. The AI visibility picture in services looks different than SaaS — here's how.
What to measure when SEO no longer predicts pipeline
If your organic traffic is flat and your pipeline is moving the wrong way, the metric that used to explain things isn't explaining anymore. Here's what to track instead.
Teardown: when the smaller brand wins the answer
How a 40-person challenger took share in AI answers from a 4,000-person incumbent — without outspending them.