B2B firms shift to AI engine optimization to capture agent-driven demand

B2B software buyers are increasingly using AI agents to evaluate tools, prompting a strategic shift from traditional search engine optimization to AI Engine Optimization, or AEO. Resend implemented markdown versions of its documentation and marketing pages to ensure AI agents can accurately parse data, as these agents do not execute JavaScript widgets. This change corrected previous errors where AI models misinterpreted Resend's pricing. The company now uses four different AEO tracking subscriptions, including Profound, to monitor its visibility in AI responses. Resend observes a 'recency bias' in AI models, where newer tools are recommended more frequently than established competitors with older SEO profiles.

Rocha, associated with Resend, stated that he switched from Plausible to Pulse Hog for analytics because Pulse Hog had an official Model Context Protocol, or MCP, whereas Plausible's MCP was built by a third party, Sentry. He also uses Strava for running data because it offers an MCP. Rocha argued that official, vendor-maintained integrations and machine-readable content are becoming more important than traditional SEO for winning enterprise and developer customers in the AI era. He noted that if a company is not listed in cloud connectors with an official MCP, he cannot trust the integration as much. This trend indicates that visibility to AI agents is becoming a critical component of B2B go-to-market strategies.