Is your product visible to AI?
One in three active AI users now reaches for ChatGPT or Gemini before a search engine. In the UK, that figure rises to one in two. In this piece, Verdane Elevate share insights from our latest European AI study, alongside a checklist to help strengthen your product’s visibility in AI-driven environments.
About Verdane
Verdane is a European growth equity firm that partners with tech-enabled and sustainable businesses across the Nordic region and beyond. We do not just invest capital. Through our in-house operating team, Verdane Elevate, we work directly alongside portfolio companies to accelerate growth, covering everything from go-to-market strategy, talent, finance to AI and technology adoption.
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Why AI visibility, why now
AI is changing how buyers find and evaluate products. We saw this shift coming in our own portfolio and wanted to understand it properly. In early 2026, we commissioned an independent study of 6,488 consumers across Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the UK and Germany to measure how people are actually using conversational AI in their daily lives. The findings were clear: AI-assisted research is no longer a niche behaviour. It is becoming the default starting point for a growing share of buyers across nearly every product category we studied. In this piece, we share our findings and the practical steps we think SaaS companies should take to strengthen their AI visibility.
Findings
In early 2026 we surveyed 6,488 consumers across six European markets. Three numbers stood out
49%
use conversational AI privately every week, up 8pp in six months
82%
of active users have used AI to research or compare products
94%
expect their usage to stay the same or grow
A consumer study with a B2B signal
The Verdane study examines how Europeans aged 18 to 60 use conversational artificial intelligence (AI) in their private lives, rather than how SaaS buyers evaluate software. It nevertheless highlights a clear shift in how people find and process information: 49% of respondents use AI weekly, with most using it to research or compare products, and adoption increasing across nearly all categories. As this behaviour becomes more widespread, the implication for SaaS is clear: how individuals use AI in their private lives is increasingly shaping how they evaluate options and make decisions in a professional context.
Where this maps to SaaS
AI performs strongest in research and comparison, where users assess options and build shortlists. This mirrors how SaaS buyers evaluate tools, suggesting that early consideration increasingly happens within AI interfaces. For B2B marketing teams, this makes clear positioning, defined use cases and differentiated messaging in publicly available content more important.
AI is less effective in price comparison but performs well in assessing capabilities, fit and credibility. This reinforces the need for strong proof points and customer validation, as these shape how solutions are compared and recommended.
As users increasingly get answers directly from AI, traffic may decline while conversion improves. This extends the “dark funnel”, with more evaluation happening in hard-to-track channels. The focus should therefore shift from measuring interactions to shaping the information AI systems rely on, while placing greater weight on pipeline quality and conversion over traffic alone.
What determines whether you show up
AI visibility is currently organic. LLMs generate answers based on trust, relevance and credibility signals across the web. Structured product information helps. So does context-rich content that explains your product in relation to specific use cases rather than listing features in isolation. Products that receive genuine positive reviews on platforms like G2 and in community discussions are more likely to surface. Brand recognition helps at the margins: when AI narrows options rather than making the final decision, known products stay in contention longer.
Four things to do after SaaSiest
To start working more strategically with AI visibility
