2026 AEO & GEO Benchmarks: Conductor’s Insights for AI-First Marketers

Marketing by Neffy analyzed Conductor’s new 2026 AEO GEO Benchmarks Report. The findings show how AI answer engines and Google’s AI Overviews (AIO) are creating a new way for people to find brands online, before they click through to websites.

Conductor studied 13,770 domains across 10 industries. They looked at 3.3 billion sessions, 17 million AI responses, and over 100 million citations from May to September 2025. This gives marketers solid benchmarks for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

How Conductor Collected the Data

Conductor’s report stands out because of its size and detail. Researchers sorted domains into 10 sectors: Communication Services, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Financials, Health Care, Industrials, Information Technology, Materials, Real Estate, and Utilities. They broke these down further into 22 subindustries.

For AI search market share, they analyzed 3.5 million unique prompts. Traffic analysis covered data from 1,215 enterprise customers, finding AI referrals in 35.7 million sessions out of 3.3 billion total visits. AIO benchmarks came from 21.9 million Google searches between September 15 and October 12, 2025. Of those, 5.5 million triggered AI summaries.

This approach moves past traditional SEO metrics like rankings and clicks. Instead, it focuses on zero-click visibility: citations, mentions, and presence in AI responses. Seth Besmertnik, Conductor’s CEO, says AI has not replaced search. It has repositioned websites as secondary touchpoints. Brand authority now gets established in AI answers first.

Pat Reinhart, VP of Services and Thought Leadership, points to a hybrid world. Organic practices still work, but they need to work alongside AI channels.

AI Referral Traffic: Small but Growing

AI referral traffic averages 1.08% of all website visits across the 10 industries. That’s one in every 100 sessions from AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity. The number seems small, but this channel grows about 1% month-over-month in most sectors.

Information Technology leads at 2.80%. Consumer Staples follows at 1.91%. These sectors get more complex queries that need deeper exploration (IT troubleshooting or detailed recipe guides, for example). Communication Services (0.25%) and Utilities (0.35%) trail behind.

Traditional organic Google traffic still dominates. Health Care gets 42.4% from organic search. Communication Services gets 39.6%. Industrials gets 33.8%. SEO still matters.

But AI referrals show higher intent. Knotch data in the report shows LLM-referred visitors convert twice as often in one-third fewer sessions. ChatGPT commands 87.4% of AI referrals overall. Perplexity comes second. Sector variations exist: Gemini powers 21% in Utilities, Copilot 5.1% in Financials.

Month-over-month growth varies by sector. Consumer Discretionary (+0.21%) and Communication Services (+0.12%) grow faster. Health Care (-0.34%) and Utilities (-0.28%) slow down slightly. Reinhart advises businesses to adapt at a measured pace. These fractional shifts give you time to adjust without panic.

Which Industries Lead in AI Citations and Mentions?

Conductor’s detailed analysis shows which domains and brands lead in citations and mentions across AI tools.

Communication Services: YouTube.com tops citations at 16.43% share, thanks to video explainers. Reddit.com follows at 5.96% for user stories. Top brands: Google (14.37%), YouTube (3.53%), Investopedia (3.25%).

Consumer Discretionary: Clemson.edu surges with 2.78% citations through AI-optimized content, beating Walmart.com (2.59%) and Target.com (1.75%). Top brands: Walmart (2.94%), Target (1.96%), Nike (1.62%). Clemson’s success (91% AIO share) comes from AI-assisted topic research using Conductor tools.

Consumer Staples: Amazon.com dominates citations at 17.99%. Walmart.com (3.97%) and Chewy.com (3.05%) follow. Top brands: Amazon (14.25%), Walmart (8.56%), Best Buy (2.68%).

Financials: Publishers win here. NerdWallet.com (6.73%), Bankrate.com (5.62%), and Kiplinger.com beat traditional banks because of their deep YMYL (Your Money Your Life) content. Top brands: Nerd Wallet (3.03%), PayPal (2.82%), Bankrate (2.75%).

Health Care: MayoClinic.org (5.88%) and ClevelandClinic.org (4.38%) lead, along with Healthline.com (3.95%). Top brands: Mayo Clinic (6.73%), Cleveland Clinic (4.34%), Pfizer (3.94%). Their robust health libraries give them an edge.

Industrials: Deloitte.com and McKinsey.com excel in B2B thought leadership. Top brands: Deloitte (7.45%), AWS (3.78%), Siemens (2.58%).

Information Technology: Google.com (5.34%), Microsoft.com (4.14%), SAP.com top citations. Top brands: Google (5.22%), Microsoft (4.60%), SAP (3.34%).

Materials: Evonik.com (12.54%) and Airgas.com (10.89%) lead with B2B specs. Top brands: Trex (10.78%), 3M (10.30%).

Real Estate: Hines.com (11.62%), PublicStorage.com (10.49%). Top brands: Hines (16.61%), Zillow (7.36%). Brand strength beats domain citations here.

Utilities: NewFortressEnergy.com (23.51%). Top brands: GE Vernova (14.61%), National Grid (9.07%).

AI Overviews: What Triggers Them?

Of Conductor’s 21.9 million Google searches, 25.11% created AIO results. Health Care tops the list at 48.75%. Financials gets 25.79%. Utilities gets 25.4%. Real Estate lags at 4.48%. Consumer Staples gets 6.82%.

Winning page types include comprehensive libraries, FAQs, and glossaries that AI tools parse easily.

Your Action Plan: What to Do Now

Conductor recommends a dual-channel approach:

Track New KPIs: Monitor citations, mentions, and AIO share alongside traffic.

Create Content at Scale: Focus on structured, authoritative assets—videos on YouTube, long-form YMYL guides.

Optimize for Both: Align SEO schemas with AEO for wins across search engines and AI tools. Clemson.edu shows how AI-powered research yields 91% AIO dominance.

Stay Platform Agnostic: ChatGPT leads, but spread your efforts across Perplexity and Gemini too.

Use the Right Tools: Enterprise platforms like Conductor track performance across multiple engines.

For law firms handling immigration or family law, target YMYL queries with bilingual glossaries and case studies. El Paso practices get better results when they optimize for “immigration law El Paso” in AIO through structured data.

Why Marketing by Neffy Gets Results Here

As an AI-first agency, Marketing by Neffy puts Conductor’s benchmarks to work. We audit AI visibility, create citation-worthy content, and deploy bilingual SEO/AEO for local businesses in McAllen or national reach across the border region.

Our past work includes technical audits for El Paso family law firms and immigration SEO strategies that blend local and national approaches.

The 2026 landscape requires adaptation. Organic search still works, but AI citations define how people see your brand before they click. Besmertnik warns: brands absent from AI answers disappear from customer journeys.

Want to benchmark your AEO/GEO performance? Contact Marketing by Neffy for a free AI visibility audit and 2026 roadmap tailored to your industry. Book your free consultation today.