Key Takeaways
- ChatGPT is rapidly becoming a major B2B referral source, with monthly visits to Demandbase-tracked websites rising 303% year over year to 2.6 million in June 2026.
- As AI-driven discovery expands and obscures parts of the buyer journey, B2B marketers are increasing investment in brand-building channels like CTV and display to reinforce trust and familiarity.
A new Labs by Demandbase data show artificial intelligence (AI) assistants have become a fast-growing source of referral traffic and inbound leads to B2B websites as OpenAI’s ChatGPT referral visits to the B2B web properties Demandbase measures grew nearly fourfold over the past year.
According to Demandbase’s customer platform data, monthly ChatGPT-referred visits rose to 2.6 million in June 2026 from roughly 645,000 in June 2025— a 303% increase— with a sharp inflection in May 2026, when volume more than doubled versus prior months.
But the growth is far from evenly distributed across AI platforms, according to reports authors. ChatGPT is the clear driver, accounting for the overwhelming majority of AI-referred traffic, while referrals from Perplexity declined and Gemini and Claude remained flat.
Why AI Assistants Have Grown in Importance for B2B Buyers
AI assistants are becoming an increasingly important way B2B buyers discover and evaluate companies, said Rachel Truair, Chief Marketing Officer at Demandbase
“But much of that activity happens before a buyer ever reaches a brand’s website,” said Truair in a statement. “That makes it more important than ever for marketers to reinforce their brand across the channels they control—from advertising and content to sales engagement—to build trust and deliver a consistent buyer experience.”
How B2B Marketers are Diversifying Their Media Strategy
The report comes at a times when marketers are placing greater emphasis on the channels they can control to reinforce their message and build brand familiarity as AI-driven discovery creates a blind spot in the buyer’s journey. Drawing on more than $123 million in media expenditures across 75,645 campaigns, Labs’ advertising data reflects this shift toward a more diversified media strategy.
Between June 2025 and June 2026, CTV advertising spend on the Demandbase platform increased 112%, more than double the growth of display advertising (55%) over the same period. CTV’s share of overall advertising investment also increased from 1.53% to 2.08%, underscoring continued investment in channels that help brands reinforce their messaging and engage buyers across the customer journey.
As AI-assisted buying continues to evolve, Demandbase officials expect AI-generated referral traffic to become an increasingly important indicator of buyer intent. Success will be defined not only on measuring this emerging source of demand, but on integrating AI-driven discovery into coordinated advertising, marketing and sales strategies that build brand familiarity and accelerate pipeline.
