There's a source of strategic intelligence that almost all B2B companies completely ignore: what AI engines say about their sector.

ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude have ingested millions of documents about your market. They have a synthesised view of who the recognised players are, what the trends are, what problems your clients face, and how your type of service is perceived. This view directly influences your prospects' purchasing decisions — who are increasingly asking LLMs to help them find providers.

According to Forrester (2025), 89% of B2B buyers consult generative AI tools during their purchasing process. What these tools say about your sector is therefore first-rate strategic data — and a competitive intelligence opportunity that's often overlooked.

What you can learn in 30 minutes

Before trying to improve your AI visibility, start by understanding the terrain. Here's what LLMs can reveal about your sector.

The perceived map of your market

LLMs have a representation of the players in your sector — who is recognised, who is specialised, who is perceived as a generalist. This representation isn't necessarily accurate, but it reflects what your prospects will see when they ask questions about your domain.

Test these prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude:

"Who are the recognised players in [your field] in [your country]?"

"What are the reference companies for [your type of service]
in [Belgium / France / Switzerland]?"

"If I had to choose a provider in [your field], who should
I turn to?"

What you'll discover: a list of names — probably competitors, perhaps companies you didn't know, and perhaps your own name. Note who appears on each platform.

The problems your clients ask LLMs about

LLMs also reveal the questions your prospects ask — a goldmine for your content strategy and positioning.

"What are the main challenges for [your target clients] in terms
of [your field]?"

"Why should a B2B SME invest in [your type of service]?"

"What mistakes do companies make when trying to manage
[your field] themselves?"

The responses give you directly your prospects' language, their implicit objections, and the angles you should address in your content.

The perception of your competitors

Test directly what LLMs say about your main competitors:

"What is [competitor name]? What are their strengths
and limitations?"

"For what types of clients is [competitor] particularly
suitable?"

"Compare [competitor 1] and [competitor 2] — which do you recommend
for [use case]?"

These responses reveal how your competitors are perceived, which arguments they're associated with, and potentially their weak points in AI perception.

The perceived trends in your sector

"What are the current trends in [your field] in 2026?"

"How is [your type of service] evolving with AI?"

"What differentiates good providers in [your field]
from bad ones?"

These responses give you a vision of how your market is perceived — and potentially differentiation angles you hadn't yet exploited.

Choosing the right tool for each type of analysis

The three main AI engines have different strengths for this sector analysis exercise:

Perplexity is best for real-time intelligence. It cites its sources, allowing you to trace back to the articles and publications that form the perception of your sector. Use Perplexity to understand current trends and identify the sources that professionals in your sector read.

ChatGPT is best for synthesis and analysis. It has a broad view and can cross-reference information from many sources. Use ChatGPT to get a general map of your market and understand the idea associations prospects make with your domain.

Claude is best for nuanced and verifiable analysis. It's more conservative in its claims and cites more reliable sources. Use Claude to validate important information and get more factual analyses.

5 strategic insights to extract from this exercise

Insight 1 — Your perceived positioning vs your intended positioning

If LLMs describe you as "a web agency" when you position yourself as "a digital transformation consulting firm", you have a perceived positioning problem. This gap between what you say about yourself and what LLMs have internalised reveals a clarity or presence problem in the right sources.

Insight 2 — Invisible competitors

LLMs may cite players you didn't consider direct competitors — because they appear in the same queries as you. This is an extension of your competitive map that your traditional monitoring probably doesn't capture.

Insight 3 — Unexploited differentiation angles

When LLMs describe the "best providers" in your domain, they mention specific attributes: a methodology, a geographic specialisation, a client type. If you're not associated with any distinctive attribute, you appear generic — and therefore easily replaceable.

Insight 4 — Your prospects' vocabulary

The prompts LLMs generate in response to your questions reveal how your prospects formulate their problems. This vocabulary is valuable for your content, your site, and your commercial messages.

Insight 5 — Sources your sector considers reliable

On Perplexity in particular, you can see which publications are systematically cited when questions about your sector are asked. These are the sources you should seek to integrate into your earned media strategy.

From analysis to action: using these insights

For your content strategy

The questions LLMs ask about your sector are exactly the articles you should write. If ChatGPT generates the question "why do SMEs under-invest in [your field]?", that's an article to write — because it's a question your prospects actually ask.

For your positioning

If your perceived positioning doesn't match your intended positioning, you have clarification work to do — on your site, on LinkedIn, in your communications. The clearer and more consistently repeated your positioning is across multiple sources, the more correctly LLMs will internalise it.

For your competitive intelligence

Do this sector analysis exercise every quarter. LLMs' perception evolves with their training base and web searches — and a competitor can rise in their representation of your market without you seeing it with your traditional monitoring tools.

For your earned media strategy

Sources cited by Perplexity on your sector are your priority list for press relations and editorial contributions. Appearing in these publications is directly feeding the representation LLMs have of your sector — and by extension, your place in that sector.

A concrete case: the sector analysis of a Belgian B2B marketing agency

Imagine a marketing agency specialising in B2B based in Brussels. By testing the prompts described above, they might discover:

  • On ChatGPT: 3 competing agencies are cited, including one they didn't consider a direct competitor (a French agency with a few Belgian clients)
  • On Perplexity: sources cited on Belgian B2B marketing are mainly Dutch-language publications — while the agency communicates only in French
  • On Claude: they're described as "a web agency" rather than "a specialised B2B marketing agency" — a clear positioning gap

These three insights provide a concrete action plan: clarify positioning on the site and LinkedIn, develop a presence in French-language B2B marketing publications, and monitor the identified French competitor.

Where to start?

Set aside 30 minutes this week to do the sector analysis exercise described in this article. Test the prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude, and note what you discover.

Our free scoring tool complements this exercise with a structured measurement of your visibility on the 5 AI engines — giving you a quantitative view to complement the qualitative analysis described here.

To turn these insights into a concrete action plan, our AI Diagnostic includes an analysis of your sector's perception and your positioning in LLMs, with recommendations specific to your situation.

To go further on measurement and benchmarking, read How to benchmark your competitors in AI responses.

Sources: Forrester 2025 B2B Buyer Insights (89% of B2B buyers consult AI tools during their purchasing process), BrandMentions.link data on the dark visibility of AI citations (2026), comparative analysis Perplexity vs ChatGPT for business research (2026).