Beyond the Sales Funnel: Curtis Sparrer on How AI Platforms Decide Which Brands Win

For years, enterprise software buying was defined by demos, decks, and dinners. But, the most influential decision-maker in the room isn’t human – it’s Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Rather than scheduling discovery calls or reading dense whitepapers, tech leaders simply ask AI to “recommend the best enterprise cybersecurity platform” or “the top CRM solution for mid-market companies.” The AI’s answer in return, often presented as a ranked or a summarized list, has become the new trusted source for buyers.

Curtis Sparrer, Principal at Bospar and a leading voice in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), breaks down this new power shift—where AI algorithms, not account executives, are closing deals. He explains why AI has become the new decision-making engine, how credibility now shapes competitiveness, and what every CEO, CMO, and CTO must do to stay visible in an AI-led marketplace.

Q: Were you surprised by how quickly AI has taken over the early stages of the B2B buying process?

Sparrer: The shift has been dramatic. Our research indicates that by 2030, Google may no longer be the primary means of searching for companies. AI has fundamentally changed the search process. Instead of typing in phrases or categories, users can now be very, very specific.

We discovered this urgency firsthand with our client RealSense. We were spinning them off from Intel. AI engines were reporting the company was “defunct.” Completely untrue. Devastating for a company trying to launch. That was our wake-up call. This isn’t just changing. It’s already here. It’s already impacting real business outcomes.

Q: What has driven this shift from human-to-AI trust in high-stakes purchasing decisions? What specific factors or signals do systems use to decide which companies to recommend?

Sparrer: According to our research, the heaviest users of AI aren’t young people. They’re executives at the very top of the corporate ladder. The higher you go in your career, the more likely you are to use AI for business decisions. The older you are, the more you use it.

These executives admit they often use the top result or first result. They make decisions based on one idea: if it’s the top result and it’s been vetted, it’s probably the best.

Likewise, when it comes to what AI systems prioritize, here is the clue:  AI weighs published material from reputable sources much more heavily than anything a company says about itself. When AI is fashioning a narrative, it leans on Reuters. It leans on Axios. It leans on reputable outlets. The news reporting that happens is the diet on which AI really feeds itself.

Earned media placements have become critical. Otherwise known as PR. AI doesn’t trust brands. It trusts external validation from credible third parties.

Q: Traditionally, enterprise deals required months of relationship-building and sales cycles. How is this new AI-driven process changing the economics of enterprise sales?

Sparrer: This represents a fundamental shift in power. For years, I’ve dealt with CEOs who would tell me grumpily, “I never trusted PR anyway.” Now that AI is prioritizing PR content, that has completely changed.

The losers in this shift? Those who never believed in publicity in the first place, or who thought they would continue doing what they had always been doing. Those who don’t adapt. This is our big evolutionary moment.

Companies now need to think about making their entire online portfolio “AI-friendly.” More FAQs. More schema in web pages. Better structured data. It’s going to feel like we’re eavesdropping on a conversation between an AI and a company. It’s not going to be humans first. The AI-first mentality is going to create a huge content gold rush.

Q: As per Bospar’s study, AI isn’t choosing based on who has the best product or biggest budget—it’s choosing based on authority. Could you explain more about that?

Sparrer: AI doesn’t have the human understanding we’d like it to. It reads everything. But it makes decisions based on what it considers credible authority. AI prioritizes respected media outlets over anything a company says about itself. Anyone can put oppositional or fake research online. But AI isn’t easily fooled. It weighs reputable sources much more heavily.

This makes the errors and omissions function of PR truly important. In the RealSense example, there was a story from what we jokingly called the “No One Reads Weekly.” A small outlet that didn’t matter to humans. But AI determined it was credible. Suddenly, our client was being reported as dead across multiple AI engines. That small article became a massive problem.

Effective PR in 2026 requires earned media placements from reputable sources that AI respects. You need to monitor and correct the record, even on outlets that seem insignificant.

Q: Does this mean SEO and traditional demand-gen strategies are becoming less relevant? Or are they evolving?

Sparrer: I would not say anything is a complete waste of time. SEO is important. Blogging is still probably the best way to show that the lights are on. AI will review those blogs and form opinions about your company. You should keep the lights on there.

But we’re shifting from SEO to GEO. SEO is search engine optimization. GEO stands for generative engine optimization. There’s also AEO. Answer engine optimization. That’s about simple factual queries like “what’s the capital of California?”

GEO is all about the narrative. If you’re asking it to name the best PR company for a tech company launching out of stealth, it would have answers and ideas. That’s where publicists and marketers are really trying to win.

Q: In your view, are companies prepared for this “AI PR era,” or are most still playing by last decade’s marketing rules?

Sparrer: Most companies have not caught up with the hype cycle. For every AI-native company, many are not. They’re aware they need to do something. But they’re still in the early days.

The people in Silicon Valley are hyper-aware and hyper-vigilant. Then the further you get away from the coast, the more denialism creeps in until you get back to the eastern seaboard.

I suspect that as the years go by, other companies will start catching up with what they’re doing with GEO. That’s going to change things. When prospects come to us, those who say they used AI will tell us “we were the first result,” or “we were the top result,” or “we were the result with the most content.”

As more companies fall behind, there will be a sense of “wait, I need to catch up.”

Q: You’ve emphasized that brands now need credible media coverage to even enter AI recommendation lists. What counts as “credible” in the eyes of AI models today?

Sparrer: AI prioritizes earned media from reputable, respected outlets. It doesn’t trust self-promotion.

What you say about yourself on your own website matters far less than what Reuters says about you, or Axios, or The Wall Street Journal, or The New York Times. When tech analyst Rob Enderle saw our Audit*E demo, he said he couldn’t believe a PR agency was doing this. He expected an AI company. This is the level of thinking you’d expect from an AI company.

But for us, it makes perfect sense. PR has a fundamental point of view that’s important. It’s not just the public we’re relating to anymore. It’s also AI.

Q: Is this creating a new kind of media arms race?

Sparrer: Absolutely. We’re currently in an AI content arms race. Companies are creating tons of content. People are getting hit with tons of AI-generated pitches. But I think that’s going to reach a tipping point. Either people can’t write another AI pitch, or we succumb to the AI pitching.

My suspicion? It’s going to stop. People are going to realize there’s only so much AI can do before they hit diminishing returns.

We’re talking about AI ethics right now. I think in the future, we’ll be discussing AI etiquette. When is it considered rude to use AI? That’s going to be the new etiquette of our time.

Q: What trends have you seen from early users of Audit*E?

Sparrer: One publisher we met with was confident they were doing fine. They produce a large amount of content. But we discovered their about page was a real problem. People don’t really understand what they do from that about page. They assume people will already be aware of them. Real people probably would. But AI doesn’t. It’s coming in tabula rasa.

Everyone we’ve taken this to has had a reaction as if we were giving STD test results to a college student. Lots of “oh no” moments. But you can be taken care of. Audit*E is one way to do it.

We’re also finding that with eight different engines, there are blind spots that no one could have anticipated. Do you think you’re doing well on ChatGPT? DeepSeek is tremendously important and quite different. The previous science of SEO was really Google engine optimization. You only had to worry about one company.

Now, with the wild west of AI, we have eight different engines. Eight different ways companies are solving these problems.

Q: Where do you see this trend going in the next 12-24 months? Will AI become the dominant buying assistant for all enterprise categories?

Sparrer: Our research shows that nearly half of professionals believe AI platforms will completely replace Google for business research by 2030. That’s just five years away.

The executives at the very top are already the heaviest users. They’re bypassing traditional research methods for their business decision-making. This puts new urgency on what PR does. The best thing executives and PR people can do? Start putting themselves in the AI engines. See what they find. Ask follow-up questions. What are the good things? What are the bad things? Once you start looking for your own weaknesses, that’s when you realize you really need this kind of technology.

As for my broader predictions? It’s probably a mix of utopian and dystopian. There will always be idealists striving to improve AI’s capabilities. Then there will be people who do awful stuff. It’s going to be the big dramatic tension of our time. Who wins over the rest of humanity? How do we survive? Or if we survive?

My larger view is this: as long as we’re trying hard not to suck, AI is going to be fine. But we’ve never as a species had 100% luck with our idealism.

Tell us more about Audit*E. How does it help brands understand where they stand in the AI recommendation ecosystem?

Sparrer: Audit*E looks at eight different AI engines. It gives you a report. An audit. It shows how you’re showing up in the queries that matter to you. Most importantly, it tells you what steps you can take to fix problems.

The RealSense example shows why this is critical. We discovered AI engines were saying the company was defunct. We had to do a whole remediation process. First, we had to figure out what the problem was. We discovered that problematic article. Then we created new content. FAQs. Website content with better schema to make it AI-friendly. Finally, we secured 500 media stories about their spin-off.

All those efforts convinced AI that RealSense was not dead. But the challenge with AI? It’s not instantaneous. These things take time to bake into the process.

We realized other organizations would want this capability. Executives will want to include this in their reports. Share it with their bosses. They’re not going to want to wait for a PR agency to furnish it back to them. We also thought there would be companies that don’t even need a PR agency. Or can’t afford one yet. They need this information.

So we’re creating a subscription model. Cost-friendly enough for the smallest businesses. But also robust models worthy of board meetings.

Key takeaway for CTOs and business leaders

For business and technology leaders, this moment calls for a strategic reset.

Understanding how generative engines evaluate authority is now as critical as understanding market share or product innovation. It’s no longer enough to be a good brand—you must also be recognized as credible by the AI systems that shape perception and decision-making.

Those who act early—by investing in AI visibility, authentic storytelling, and credible media presence—will define the next era of digital or tech leadership. Those who don’t risk becoming invisible in a marketplace where AI decides which brands matter.