Which AI engine drives the most B2B traffic in the Benelux?

In the Benelux, no single AI engine pulls in all business traffic on its own. ChatGPT is by far the best known AI assistant, but Google keeps the widest reach through search, Microsoft Copilot is baked into the working day of millions of office workers, and Perplexity is small but popular with people who do thorough research. Which engine drives the most AI search engine traffic for you therefore depends on where your specific audience asks its questions. In this article you get a level-headed view of the players that matter for B2B in the Benelux, and you will read how to find out which engine delivers the most for your company.

All of this falls under generative engine optimization (GEO): making sure your brand shows up in the answers AI engines generate, instead of only ranking high on a classic search results page.

Which AI engines does the business Benelux really use?

For B2B in the Benelux it comes down in practice to four kinds of engines: ChatGPT, Google (with Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode), Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity. Each of them reaches your audience in a different way.

• ChatGPT is the standalone AI assistant people turn to in order to ask something, have it summarised or worked out. For many people it has become synonymous with “AI”.
• Google builds AI straight into the searching your audience was already doing: through AI summaries above the results, a separate AI conversation mode and the Gemini assistant.
• Microsoft Copilot lives inside the work environment: in Windows, in the Edge browser and above all in Microsoft 365, where people create their email, documents and presentations.
• Perplexity is an AI engine aimed specifically at searching and researching, with clear source citations under every answer.

What stands out: these engines do not compete for the same moment. One catches a spontaneous question, another a search query, the third a task within the job. For you as a B2B brand that means you do not pick one channel, but want to be visible in the places where your audience actually is.

Why is ChatGPT by far the best known?

ChatGPT is the name most people first met AI assistants through, and that head start in awareness still carries weight. Anyone who “just asks AI something” often simply opens ChatGPT.

For B2B that is relevant because decision-makers also use it privately and informally: a first orientation on a problem, a shortlist of possible suppliers, an explanation of a piece of jargon. Exactly in that early stage of the buying journey, before anyone requests a quote, it becomes clear whether your brand gets named or not. If you are not mentioned here, you simply are not on the list someone picks from.

An important nuance: awareness is not the same as traffic to your site. AI engines often give an answer without anyone clicking through. The gain then does not sit in a click, but in the mention itself. How to get a grip on that, you can read in getting found in ChatGPT.

How does Google keep the widest reach?

Google has one big advantage: AI appears there inside the searching your audience was doing anyway, and that search behaviour does not simply disappear. In the Benelux, Google’s AI features have now rolled out: AI summaries above the search results and a separate AI conversation mode are available in both the Netherlands and Belgium.

That means Google also touches people who would never consciously open an AI assistant. Someone types a business question into Google and gets an AI-generated answer with a few sources at the top. If you are in that answer, you reach a far wider audience than through a standalone assistant alone.

The flip side is well known: such a summary sometimes answers the question completely, which makes the classic click disappear. That is why the value shifts to being mentioned and cited in that summary. How to steer on that, you can read in getting found in Google AI Overviews.

What makes Microsoft Copilot interesting for B2B?

Copilot is mainly interesting for B2B because it sits where business users already work all day: in Microsoft 365. Many Benelux organisations run on Office, Outlook and Teams, and Copilot is integrated into all of them.

That gives Copilot a different position than a standalone assistant. It is used less for a spontaneous “what is the best agency for X”, and more for tasks within the job: summarising a document, drafting an email, pulling information out of files. The business context is strong here, but the kind of question is different.

For you that means: do not underestimate Copilot as a channel, but do not expect the same traffic from it as from a search or answer engine. Its relevance depends heavily on whether your audience uses a typical Microsoft environment. In some sectors that is almost everyone, in others far fewer.

What role does Perplexity play for business users?

Perplexity is a smaller player in absolute numbers, but it is popular with people who do thorough research, and in B2B that is often exactly your audience. The engine gives clear sources with every answer, which makes it attractive for anyone who wants to verify things before a purchase decision.

It is precisely that source citation that makes Perplexity strategically interesting. If you get cited here, you appear in front of a user who deliberately digs deeper, compares and checks: the type of decision-maker who seriously considers a supplier. The traffic is smaller in volume, but the intent behind it is often high. How to become visible here, you can read in getting found in Perplexity.

Which engine really drives the most B2B traffic?

The honest answer: there is no reliable, hard figure that tells your specific Benelux company which engine drives the most traffic. The rankings circulating online differ strongly by source, by measurement method and by month, and they mix consumer and business use together. Anyone basing decisions on such a general market share is steering on a number that does not describe their own situation.

What we can say with confidence is the directional picture: ChatGPT leads on awareness and spontaneous use, Google has the widest reach through search, Copilot is strong within the Microsoft work environment and Perplexity is small but research-driven. The balance between them also shifts fast.

That fits how we look at this question: we steer clients on leads and revenue, not on vanity metrics. A nice market share figure in a report says nothing if it does not describe your audience. The relevant question is not “which engine is biggest worldwide”, but “through which engine do the right people find your company”. For the broader B2B context, GEO for B2B is a good next step.

How do you find out which engine drives your traffic?

You find out by measuring instead of guessing: look at which AI engines actually send visitors and enquiries to your site, and ask the questions your customers ask yourself to see where you get named. That way you build a picture that is accurate for your market, instead of leaning on a general percentage.

Concretely, you do it like this:

• Break out your referral traffic in your analytics, so you can see which AI engines send visitors through and what those visitors do next.
• Run a mention test: ask your audience’s typical questions in ChatGPT, Google, Copilot and Perplexity and note whether and how your brand comes back.
• Track it over time instead of once, because engine answers change constantly.

Which signals to keep an eye on there is covered in the 5 core indicators of AI visibility. This is also exactly what our AI visibility service sets up for you: measuring where you stand today, and making you visible in the engines that count for your audience.

The short summary

No single AI engine drives all B2B traffic in the Benelux on its own. ChatGPT is the best known, Google has the widest reach, Copilot sits in the work environment and Perplexity is small but research-driven. Which engine delivers most for you is not a market figure but a measurement question. So start with your own data and build an approach from there that makes you visible where it counts.

Book your free intake and find out which AI engines your audience in the Benelux really uses.