"What's the best invoicing / CRM / project management software for a company like mine?" That question no longer goes to Google alone: it goes to ChatGPT. And the AI doesn't hand back twenty links to compare — it recommends two, three, four tools by name. Per G2's 2026 research, half of B2B software buyers now start their research in an AI chatbot more often than in Google. If your SaaS isn't among the names that come up, you're not in the buying conversation. This is the map to getting in.
For a SaaS, the buying decision now starts in a chatbot, not in Google
Software buyers stopped starting in the search bar. Per 6sense's 2025 global study of nearly 4,000 B2B buyers, 94% use large language models at some point in the purchase journey. G2 sharpens it: 51% of software buyers start their research in an AI chatbot more often than in Google, up from 29% just a year earlier. The buying committee no longer browses your site to poke around — it asks the AI to build the shortlist before talking to any rep.
And that shortlist isn't decoration: it's the market. 69% of buyers ended up choosing a different vendor than the one they had in mind because of what the chatbot suggested, and 33% bought from a vendor they didn't even know before asking. Translated to your business: if the assistant doesn't name you when someone describes their problem, you don't make the demo, you don't make the comparison, you don't make the decision. The fight to be on that list is the fight for pipeline.
AI doesn't read your site first: it reads G2, Capterra, and the comparisons
A SaaS's number-one mistake is assuming the AI forms its opinion by reading your home and pricing pages. It doesn't. When ChatGPT answers "the best X software," it leans heavily on third-party review sites. G2 is its fourth most-cited source overall, and the only B2B review platform that ranks among the twenty most-cited domains across ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, and Perplexity at once. Your site is necessary — it gets fetched to confirm features, pricing, and integrations — but the list of names is built off your domain.
And the deck is concentrated. In analyses of ChatGPT answers about B2B software, 100% of the tools mentioned had Capterra reviews and 99% had G2. On top of that, in February 2026 G2 closed its acquisition of Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp from Gartner: they're now one company. So a single group of platforms feeds nearly every software recommendation the AI spits out, and not being in it means playing with one hand tied.
Your reviews are asset number one: being on two platforms multiplies your mentions
If one number justifies the work, it's this: companies with an active profile on at least two review platforms (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, TrustRadius) are 3.4 times more likely to show up in ChatGPT answers than those without a profile. It's not that it "helps": it's the difference between being in the conversation and being invisible. And "active profile" isn't "profile created in 2021": it's the right category, features kept current, and recent reviews that prove the product is alive.
The work, in order of what moves most:
- Claim and complete G2 and Capterra (at least two platforms). Correct primary category, features, integrations, and pricing kept current. An incomplete profile is one the AI half-cites.
- Ask for reviews systematically, not in one-off campaigns. The steady flow of recent reviews is what keeps your listing "alive" in the assistant's eyes — same as for the human buyer.
- Reply to reviews, the bad ones too. A profile with vendor replies is more credible — and more citable — than a perfect, silent one. Credibility is what decides who the AI names.
- Aim for category rankings. G2's awards and rankings content (the "Best Software" lists) accounts for roughly 60% of the G2 citations that show up in AI answers. Being among your category's leaders isn't vanity: it's where the AI goes to look.
Comparison and "alternatives to X" pages: the content AI retrieves
Beyond reviews, one type of content gets retrieved and cited again and again: comparisons. "X vs Y," "alternatives to [competitor]," "best [category] software for [company type]." These are exactly the queries a buyer about to decide runs, and they're pages you can build on your own domain — where you do control the message — so the assistant has them as a citable source. The key: make them honest and concrete, not brochures in disguise. The AI penalizes empty copy as much as the buyer does.
Three pages almost no SaaS does well and the AI is grateful for:
- Direct comparisons ("[Your product] vs [competitor]"): feature table, real pricing, who each one is better for. Admitting where the other one wins makes you more credible, not less.
- "Alternatives to [competitor]" pages: they capture the buyer who already has a name in mind and is shopping around. It's top-intent traffic and the AI uses it to build lists.
- Your own category page answering "what's the best X software and how to choose": with criteria, not self-praise. Mark it up with schema (Product, FAQ) so the AI reads your data without guessing.
Measure it like a funnel: do you show up when people ask about your category?
Measuring GEO for a SaaS isn't counting stray mentions: it's checking whether your name comes up when someone describes the problem you solve. Define 15 to 25 real buying queries for your category — the way a buyer phrases them: "best [category] for [size/sector]," "alternative to [competitor]," "[your product] vs [competitor]," "X software with Y integration" — run them once a month in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, and log per query whether you appear, where in the list, and with what data (pricing right? integrations right?). The month-over-month trend is what counts.
And check the boring stuff, which is where people slip: that your G2 and Capterra have reviews from this quarter, that your comparison pages exist and are current, that your category and integrations are listed correctly, that your site doesn't block the crawlers that fetch pages to answer. On timing, be honest: the first new mentions can land in days after refreshing reviews and comparisons, but cementing your name in a category takes 2 to 4 months of sustained work.