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I Asked AI Who to Hire. It Recommended Me. Once · Uphoff on Media Podcast

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's Tony.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: For the last 20 years,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've run B2B businesses that spent serious time, energy, and money on SEO.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Making our content, our marketing, and our websites discoverable was the whole game.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Outsmarting the search engines was how you played it.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: That era is ending.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Buyers now ask AI who to hire and the machine hands them a short list.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Discoverable isn't the goal anymore.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Recommended is.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And most B2B companies are still keeping score the old way.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I ran the test on my own two businesses.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Google my name and you get about 86,000 results.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Ask AI the questions my buyers ask and my advisory firm made one list out of 43.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: In this episode,
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'll walk through what that gap means and the five moves that close it,
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: whether you're building, running, or funding a B2B business.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's get to work.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: This episode is titled, I Asked AI Who to Hire, It Recommended Me Once.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Most B2B companies still measure whether buyers can find them.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: The market has moved to whether AI recommends them, how to test the gap and what to fix.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: B2B buyers still build short lists.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: They just don't build them alone anymore.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Google Tony Uphoff and you get about 86,000 results.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: 35 years of bylines,
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: press releases,
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: bios and CEO announcements make me discoverable and by extension
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: the two businesses I started in February of this year.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: As long as someone is searching for my name.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: AI is a different story.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: This month I asked AI the questions my audience and prospective clients ask.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Who to hire?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Who to call?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: What to read?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: 19 prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini,
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Perplexity,
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: and Google AI overviews tracked in Aref's brand radar from October 10th through
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: the 17th.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Produced 59 answers about my two businesses and me.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uphoff on Media showed up in zero of 12 category answers.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uphoff Advisory showed up in one of 43. Who is Tony Uphoff?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Every engine answered and knew the career.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: The models know who I am.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: They almost never recommended what I've built.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: The gap is where B2B buying has gone, and most companies aren't measuring it yet.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Search didn't die, it just changed jobs.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: It used to be where buyers found you.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's where they check what the machine recommended.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: In a March 2026 G2 survey of 1,076 B2B software buyers,
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: 51% said they now start their research in an AI chatbot more often than in Google,
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: up from 29% a year earlier.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: In a SEMrush survey of US B2B professionals fielded in March and April 2026,
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: the most common workflow among those who use AI at work,
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: 41%, was to start with AI, then verify its answers through traditional search.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've been brought in to transform two businesses built on the last era.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: At business.com and thomasnet.com, helping B2B buyers find suppliers was the product.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: The function hasn't changed.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Connect the buyer and the seller.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: The form has.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: The machine does the finding now, and the short list comes back already built.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's the new sequence.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: The machine drafts the shortlist.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: The human validates it,
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: checks the names, reads the reviews, asks a colleague, asks the model of follow-up.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: In the same G2 survey,
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: 69% said a chatbot led them to choose For two decades,
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: the scoreboard was discoverability.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: SEO taught every marketing team to rank, earn the click, and get found.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Most companies carried that scoreboard straight into AI.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: They ask a model about themselves by name,
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: get an accurate answer, and conclude that they're covered.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's discoverability in a new channel.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: The scoreboard that matters now is recommendation.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: When a buyer asks for your category, does the model put you on the short list?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: For most companies, the pattern in my results is a false positive.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: A well-known founder, CEO, or legacy brand makes the business feel discoverable.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Ask the model about the leader and the answer sounds right.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Ask it what a buyer would ask and the company rarely makes the list.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Measure only discoverability and you'll never see the gap.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Answer engines describe the company you used to be.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: All three engines that describe me still call me CEO of Pipeline 360.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: I let its carve out and built it as a standalone business.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And since February, I've served as a board advisor.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Only one of the three mentioned Uphoff advisory, the firm I run now.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: The sources included org chart aggregators, executive databases, and old press releases.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Answer engines default to what the web has said about your company most often,
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: and most often usually means longest to go.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you've changed leadership,
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: renamed a product,
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: repositioned,
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: or entered a new market in the past two years,
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: assume the models are describing your old company to your new buyers.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: The stale record costs you twice.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: The machine uses it to decide whether to recommend you.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: The human uses it to check the machine's work.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Fixing that is the job of Answer Engine Optimization, AEO, and most companies haven't started.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: A Corporate Inc.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Study reported by eMarketer in May found only 29% of marketers actively track
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: and measure AI visibility.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: The idea travels, the name stays behind.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Ask these same engines what is demand as a service
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: and all three define it accurately, each one citing Pipeline 360's own pages.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I helped create it as the foundational strategy when we built Pipeline 360.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: None of the answers mentions me.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And for Pipeline 360, that's exactly right.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: The company owns the product and the category language.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: For any businesses that runs on a point of view, it's a warning.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: The models credit whoever publishes the clearest explanation, not whoever had the idea first.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: AI shortlists are built from other people's shortlists.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: The one time Uphoff Advisory made a list, the question was narrow.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, who advises founders of B2B information and data businesses, end quote.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: ChatGPT listed second of four.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: The broad questions,
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: the best strategic advisors for B2B media and who to call about
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: a turnaround return nothing.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: The citations explain why.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: When the models answered category questions,
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: they rarely cited the firms or newsletters they named.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: They cited roundups,
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: best AI newsletters,
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: and best B2B marketing podcasts,
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: lists from Zapier, Content Allies, Breaking B2B, the B2B Playbook, and Duple.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: The AI shortlist is assembled from lists other people already published.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: A May 2026 study by Mariana Franco and Julio da Silva run
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: on Frictions AI's platform found the same mechanism at scale.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: They sent 14,140 queries about 12 activewear brands to five AI engines.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Nike and New Balance carry the identical Google Knowledge Graph description footwear company.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Nike appeared in about 71% of athleisure recommendation answers.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: New Balance almost never did.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: In third-party content,
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Nike shows up alongside Lululemon roughly 50 times more often than New Balance does.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Equally discoverable, only one recommended.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: In The Buyer Left the Building,
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I argued the shortlist gets built from Before a human enters the conversation,
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: in the CPM collapse,
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I called 2026 the agentic inflection for B2B research and vendor discovery.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is what both look like from the vendor side.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Change the scoreboard first.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you are building,
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: running,
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: funding,
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: or starting a B2B information,
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: marketing, or technology business, here's the sequence.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm running into my own businesses now.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Move one changes what you measure.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Move two serves both sides because the machine and the human read the same record.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Moves three through five earn the recommendation.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, change the scoreboard.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Rankings, traffic, and AI mentions tell you whether you're discoverable.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Add the number that tells you whether you're recommended.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: How often you make the list when a buyer asks for your category.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Report it first.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Write 10 to 15 prompts the way your buyer asks them,
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: the category,
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: the problem, who should I hire for, and two or three that ask about you by name.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Run them across ChatGPT, Gemini,
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Perplexity,
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: and Google AI Overviews and track two numbers,
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: how often you make the list and whether the description is right.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: A tool like Brand Radar does this weekly.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: A spreadsheet in an hour a month works too.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, fix the record before you chase the shortlist.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Read the sources the models cite when they describe you.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Update the pages you control.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Your site, LinkedIn, leadership bios, press page.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Request corrections on the ones you don't.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Org chart aggregators, executive databases, directory listings.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: After any leadership change, rebrand or new pricing model, assume the models haven't heard.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is also the record your buyers reads when they check the machine's work.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, publish the canonical version of your ideas.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you coin a term,
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: a model,
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: or a method,
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: publish the definitive explanation under your brand with your name on it
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: before anyone else writes the explainer.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then make sure the people who write about it link back to yours.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, win the narrow question first.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Pick the most specific way a buyer describes the problem you solve and own
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: that phrase before you chase the broad category.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Advisor for founders of B2B data businesses made the list.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Strategic advisor for B2B media didn't.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Narrow first, then wide.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, get on the list the models read.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Find the 10 to 20 roundup and comparison pages the models cite in your category.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: The citations are visible in the answers.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Earn a place on them next to the names already being shortlisted.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's a PR and analyst response.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you run a B2B media or information business, read Move 5 from the other side.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: The lists the models read are published by someone.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: In the discoverability era, you sold traffic.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: In this one, you could own the inputs to the shortlist.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you're funding these businesses, add one diligence question.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: When a buyer asks AI for your category, how often are you on the list?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: A company that's missing there has a pipeline problem that hasn't reached the forecast yet.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: If the answer comes back as a traffic chart, they're measuring the last era.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'll rerun the test in January.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Zero and one are where my two businesses start.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know which pages to fix, which phrase to own, and which list to earn.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'll rerun the same 19 prompts in January and publish the numbers either way.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: The models are drafting your buyer's short list right now from the record
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: the web already holds on you.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Write that record on purpose, or a stale org chart will write it for you.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's the episode.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: To download the Uphoff Advisory Framework,
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: discoverable is not recommended and use it in your business,
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: go to Uphoff on Media on Substack or the Framework Library
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: at uphoffadvisory.com slash frameworks.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you found this useful, please do one thing.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Follow Uphoff on Media on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and leave a review.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: It helps other operators find the show.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Back at it next week.