A new study finds only 22% of US marketers say their AI search and search engine optimization strategy is fully integrated—while internal silos are leaving brands with inconsistent messaging that can distort how chatbots and search platforms describe them, com
For years, brands could get away with speaking to customers in separate rooms. Marketing posted here. SEO optimized there. Customer success watched what customers said elsewhere. In the AI search era, that old setup is starting to show its seams.
Semrush found that only 22% of US marketers it recently polled say they have a “fully integrated” AI search and search engine optimization strategy. Everyone else described some version of a gap. The problem isn’t technical alone—it’s organizational.
Semrush says the reason silos matter more now is simple: large language models pull together information from multiple sources at once. That includes corporate websites’ blogs, news articles, Reddit chatter, and YouTube videos.
Leigh McKenzie. director of online visibility at Semrush. said. “In the past. companies were able to operate in a fairly siloed approach.” She added that the brand team might handle social media differently from how the SEO team works on the blog. and the customer success team might not pay much attention to what people are saying about the brand on Reddit.
When those pieces don’t connect. Semrush warns. inconsistencies can lead to inaccuracies in how chatbots and search platforms represent a brand—potentially affecting how visible it is on those channels compared with competitors. It can also mean brands aren’t measuring their AI search efforts effectively because they aren’t joined up internally.
Semrush’s survey also found that the most effective brands in AI search right now are doing more than fixing content. McKenzie said they make sure their brands show up across all those channels in a much more cohesive way.
Since ChatGPT’s debut in 2022. brands have been scrambling to manage generative engine optimization. or GEO—so AI answer engines accurately surface products. services. and messaging. With AI companies regularly updating their models and search shifting from links to answers. marketers have had to rewrite their SEO playbooks in real time.
HubSpot. a customer relationship platform that ranks third in the business and professional services category in Semrush’s latest quarterly brand visibility index report. points to how it organizes that work. HubSpot chief marketing officer Kipp Bodnar said the company “never treated answer engine optimization as a separate team or strategy from SEO. ” approaching AI visibility as an evolution of search. Bodnar said: “That integrated approach has allowed us to move faster. avoid duplicate work. and create a more consistent experience across both traditional search and AI-driven discovery.”.
The stakes are starting to show up in how marketers describe what’s going wrong for them. When asked about issues they’d experienced with AI search. 37% of the marketers Semrush surveyed said competitors were mentioned more often than their brand. Thirty percent said their brand was described inaccurately, and 29% said their positioning was unclear or generic.
Companies are also splitting responsibilities in different ways. While 18% of the companies Semrush surveyed said they have a dedicated GEO specialist or team. 16% said it sat within the SEO department. 15% said content teams looked after it. and 14% said responsibility was shared across multiple teams.
At Semrush, McKenzie said the SEO team has gained influence inside the corporate hierarchy: “I have a much bigger seat at the leadership table than I had two years ago.”
Semrush’s study, shared exclusively with CMO Insider, surveyed 481 US marketers, business owners, and SEO professionals in April 2026.
AI search generative engine optimization GEO SEO Semrush marketers silos large language models chatbots brand visibility HubSpot Kipp Bodnar