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

In the Benelux, no single AI engine drives all business traffic on its own.

ChatGPT is by far the best known AI assistant.

But Google keeps the widest reach through search, and Microsoft Copilot sits in the working day of millions of office workers.

Perplexity is small, but popular with people who do thorough research.

The verdict: which engine drives the most AI search engine traffic for you depends on where your audience asks its questions.

So measure it, don’t guess.

Below: a level-headed view of the players that matter for B2B in the Benelux, plus a way to find out which engine delivers most for you.

All of this falls under generative engine optimization (GEO).

That means making sure your brand shows up in the answers AI engines generate, not only on a classic results page.

Which AI engines does the business Benelux really use?

Four kinds, in practice: ChatGPT, Google, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.

Each reaches your audience in a different way:

• ChatGPT: the standalone assistant people open to ask, summarise or work something out. For many, it’s become synonymous with “AI”.
• Google: AI built into the searching people already do, through AI Overviews, AI Mode and the Gemini assistant.
• Microsoft Copilot: lives inside the work environment, in Windows, Edge and above all Microsoft 365.
• Perplexity: an engine built for searching and research, with source citations under every answer.

How these engines differ technically is covered in our AI search engines comparison.

They don’t compete for the same moment

What stands out: these engines catch different moments.

One catches a spontaneous question. Another catches a search query. A third catches a task within the job.

Bottom line: as a B2B brand, you don’t pick one channel. You want to be visible where your audience actually is.

For adoption figures in our region, see AI search adoption in the Benelux.

Language matters in the Benelux

The Benelux asks its questions in Dutch, French and English. That’s a detail with real weight.

Our experience: ChatGPT weighs each language separately. So a brand that’s visible in English can still be missing in Dutch or French.

That makes localisation one of the lowest-effort, highest-impact levers. Our comparison of GEO in the Netherlands vs Belgium covers the market differences.

Why is ChatGPT by far the best known?

Because most people first met AI assistants through ChatGPT, and that head start still carries weight.

Anyone who “just asks AI something” often simply opens ChatGPT.

Where it matters in the buying journey

For B2B, that’s relevant because decision-makers also use it privately and informally. For example:

• a first orientation on a problem
• a shortlist of possible suppliers
• an explanation of a piece of jargon

In that early stage, before anyone requests a quote, it becomes clear whether your brand gets named.

If you’re not mentioned, you’re not on the list someone picks from.

Here’s what a typical ChatGPT answer looks like. Note that it gives no sources to click:

ChatGPT free (temporary chat), 17 October 2026: three bullets, about 90 words, no sources.

One question, many searches

When ChatGPT searches the web, it doesn’t run just your question. It splits it into many variations.

Those are called fan-out queries. Rank in the top 3 for those variations and your chance of being cited goes up.

It’s no guarantee, though. Position helps; it doesn’t decide.

Awareness isn’t traffic

An important nuance: awareness isn’t the same as traffic to your site.

AI engines often answer without anyone clicking through. The gain then sits in the mention itself, not in a click.

How to get a grip on that, you can read in getting found in ChatGPT.

How does Google keep the widest reach?

Because its AI appears inside the searching your audience was doing anyway.

That search behaviour doesn’t simply disappear.

AI Overviews and AI Mode are live here

In the Benelux, Google’s AI features have now rolled out.

Google’s help pages list both Belgium and the Netherlands, and Dutch as a supported language, for AI Overviews.

The same goes for AI Mode, the separate AI conversation mode, explained further in our guide to Google AI Mode.

So Google also touches people who would never consciously open an AI assistant.

For example, someone types a business question into Google. They get an AI-generated answer with a few sources at the top.

If you’re in that answer, you reach a far wider audience than through a standalone assistant alone.

The flip side: fewer clicks

The flip side is well known. Such a summary sometimes answers the question completely, and the classic click disappears.

So 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.

Our experience: our own site went from 0 Google AI Overview citations in the 10 months before we started, to 24 from July to September 2026.

What makes Microsoft Copilot interesting for B2B?

It sits where business users already work all day: in Microsoft 365.

Many Benelux organisations run on Office, Outlook and Teams, and Copilot is built into all of them. Its sign-in page shows exactly that:

Microsoft’s Copilot sign-in page, Belgian Dutch interface, October 2026. The Office app icons show where Copilot lives.

It depends on the licence

How deep that goes depends on the licence.

Microsoft’s Copilot overview shows Copilot Chat in Outlook, Teams and Edge for eligible accounts.

Full in-app features in Word, Excel and PowerPoint are tied to a Copilot licence.

Tasks, not supplier questions

That gives Copilot a different position than a standalone assistant.

It’s used less for a spontaneous “what’s the best agency for X”. It’s used 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.

Our guide on how Copilot chooses sources explains what it cites when it does search.

Don’t underestimate it

So don’t underestimate Copilot as a channel, but don’t expect the same traffic as from a search or answer engine.

Its relevance depends on whether your audience works in a typical Microsoft environment.

In some sectors, that’s almost everyone; in others, far fewer.

Case in point: for our client Kaizo, Bing Copilot citations rose 5.7x against the 28 days before we started.

See how to rank in Microsoft Copilot for the approach.

What role does Perplexity play for business users?

A smaller one in absolute numbers, but it’s popular with people who do thorough research.

In B2B, that’s often exactly your audience.

Sources make it strategic

The engine gives clear sources with every answer.

That makes it attractive for anyone who wants to verify things before a purchase decision.

You can see the source chips right in the answer:

Perplexity free, logged out, 17 October 2026: three bullets, a source chip on every bullet and 10 sources in total.

Small volume, high intent

That source citation is what makes Perplexity strategically interesting.

If you get cited here, you appear in front of a user who digs deeper, compares and checks.

That’s 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.

Our experience: Perplexity now names us in 16 of 125 agency-choice prompts, up from 7.

Which engine really drives the most B2B AI search engine traffic?

There’s no reliable, hard figure for your specific Benelux company.

The rankings circulating online differ strongly by source, method and month. They also mix consumer and business use together.

Base decisions on such a general market share and you’re steering on a number that doesn’t describe your situation.

Our piece on ChatGPT vs Google market share shows how far those figures drift.

The directional picture

What we can say with confidence is the direction:

The balance between them also shifts fast.

Steer on leads, not market share

That fits how we look at this question: we steer clients on leads and revenue, not on vanity metrics.

A nice market share figure says nothing if it doesn’t describe your audience.

Ask through which engine 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?

Measure instead of guessing.

Look at which AI engines actually send visitors and enquiries to your site.

Then ask your customers’ questions yourself, to see where you get named.

That gives you a picture accurate for your market, instead of a general percentage.

Three steps

Concretely, you do it like this:

• Break out your referral traffic in analytics, to see which AI engines send visitors and what they do next.
• Run a mention test: ask your audience’s typical questions in ChatGPT, Google, Copilot and Perplexity.
• Track it over time, because engine answers change constantly.

Step 1 in GA4

In GA4, filter Traffic acquisition on the AI source. Here’s ours for chatgpt.com:

GA4 Traffic acquisition in our own property, last 90 days, October 2026: 58 sessions from chatgpt.com.

Our guide to tracking ChatGPT traffic in GA4 walks through the setup.

For tying those visits to leads, see AI traffic attribution.

Steps 2 and 3: mentions over time

A one-off test is a snapshot. Repeated tests across engines are a trend.

That’s what prompt monitoring does: the same buying questions, measured again and again.

Here’s what our own measurements look like, per engine:

Mentions, citations and sessions aren’t the same unit. So compare each engine’s trend, not one total.

Which signals to watch

Which signals to keep an eye on is covered in the 5 core indicators of AI visibility.

This is also exactly what our AI visibility service sets up for you.

We measure where you stand today, then make you visible in the engines that count for your audience.

Frequently asked questions about AI search engine traffic

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

No reliable general figure exists for your company.

ChatGPT leads on awareness, Google on reach, Copilot inside Microsoft 365 and Perplexity on research.

Are Google AI Overviews available in Belgium and the Netherlands?

Yes. Google’s help pages list both countries, and Dutch as a supported language, for AI Overviews and AI Mode.

How do you measure AI search engine traffic?

Break out AI referrals in GA4, run mention tests across engines, and repeat them over time.

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 isn’t a market figure. It’s a measurement question, so start with your own data.

Contact us and we’ll measure which AI engines your audience in the Benelux really uses.