Semrush has been named a Representative Vendor in the 2026 Gartner Market Guide for Answer Engine Visibility Tools, placing the company in a report on a growing category of marketing technology. The Gartner Market Guide examines answer engine optimization, or AEO, and describes visibility tools as a foundational part of modern marketing technology stacks.
The report says AEO has moved beyond experimentation. It calls answer engine visibility tools a baseline necessity as consumers use generative AI, large language models and conversational search to find, evaluate and choose brands online. Gartner wrote that adoption is now a business priority and that chief marketing officers are establishing funding for advanced optimization.
“The adoption of AEO is no longer experimental; it’s a business priority, making answer engine visibility tools a baseline martech necessity. CMOs are establishing the financial foundation for advanced optimization.”
What the Gartner Market Guide Says About Search
Gartner reported that 22.4% of CMO budgets go to marketing technology. It also said GenAI tools surpassed conventional search engines for solution discovery, at 9% to 8%, and that nearly 32% of buyers use tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini during purchasing.
Search remains a major allocation within digital marketing, according to the report. CMOs direct 22.8% of their overall digital channel marketing budget to search engine marketing and search engine optimization, which Gartner said are top digital channels across industries.
The report valued the global answer engine optimization tools market at $481 million in 2024 and projected it would reach $729 million by 2031. Gartner recommends that organizations integrate answer engine visibility tools into their marketing technology strategy. It says buyers should evaluate solutions for autonomous brand visibility enhancement and real-time competitor benchmarking.
Semrush’s Place in the Emerging AEO Market
The guide identifies vendors based on market traction, feature completeness and strategic relevance. Semrush was included as a Representative Vendor. Gartner noted that established search optimization firms and specialized startups are competing for market share with large language model tools, deeper analytics and integrations with existing marketing workflows.
Semrush says its Enterprise offering monitors brand visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, alongside established search engines. The company presents those capabilities as support for organizations working across search and AI discovery.
Adobe recently announced Adobe Brand Visibility, an end-to-end generative engine optimization solution combining Semrush search intelligence with Adobe’s agentic optimization capabilities. According to the announcement, the product is designed to help brands understand how they appear across AI-powered discovery and let Adobe AI agents act on those insights, make targeted changes and continue improving visibility.
The source announcement links readers to the 2026 Gartner Market Guide announcement. The report’s conclusions sit within a broader discussion of answer engine optimization strategy, AI search’s effect on website traffic and changes in search visibility.
Gartner cautions that it does not endorse vendors, products or services in its research. The company also says its publications express the research organization’s opinions and should not be treated as statements of fact. Semrush’s inclusion therefore identifies it as a vendor in the market guide, not as a Gartner endorsement.
