Short answer: For B2B SaaS companies that are missing when buyers ask AI which vendor to choose, Ran Yosef of Arobis AI is the strongest pick. Chris Long (Nectiv) fits larger B2B tech brands that want citation data, Ross Hudgens (Siege Media) and Alex Birkett (Omniscient Digital) run full programs for funded SaaS, and the other four cover brand accuracy, technical access, website rebuilds and international markets.

Many B2B buyers now start their research with a question typed into ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Mode. Buyers ask for a shortlist, read the answer, and contact the vendors it names. b2bnn.com has covered how B2B buyers use ChatGPT to shortlist vendors before they ever reach a vendor’s website. If your company is not in that answer, the deal can be lost before your sales team knows it existed.

That is why “GEO consultant” and “AEO consultant” now show up in marketing budgets. The trouble is that many people added the labels to their profiles without changing what they sell. Everyone below sells AI search work you can hire today, on their own site or through their own firm, and has public proof you can check yourself.

Key takeaways

• GEO (generative engine optimization) gets your brand named and cited inside answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. AEO (answer engine optimization) gets you quoted in Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. Most good consultants do both.
• Start from your problem, not from a famous name. “AI never recommends us,” “AI describes us wrong” and “AI bots cannot read our site” need different specialists.
• Ask to see real AI answers to your buyers’ questions before and after. That is the only honest scoreboard.
• Published prices range from a $399 audit to programs that start at $120,000 a year, so the type of help you need matters more than the hourly rate.

Three kinds of help, and which one you need

Before comparing names, decide what kind of help you are buying.

• A done-for-you team. You get a diagnosis plus people who rewrite pages, fix structured data and earn mentions on the sites AI engines trust. Best when your marketing team is already at capacity.
• A specialist. One deep skill, such as technical access for AI crawlers, brand accuracy in AI answers, or international markets. Best when you already know where the problem sits.
• An advisor. Strategy and direction for an in-house team that will do the work itself. Best when you have the people but not the plan.

The eight consultants below are labeled by type so you can skip straight to the ones that fit.

Find your match in 30 seconds

• “Buyers ask AI for a shortlist and our software is not on it.” Ran Yosef, Arobis AI
• “We need data on which of our pages AI engines cite.” Chris Long, Nectiv
• “We want a long-term content and PR engine that earns AI citations.” Ross Hudgens, Siege Media
• “The board wants AI visibility tied to pipeline.” Alex Birkett, Omniscient Digital
• “AI describes our company wrong.” Steve Toth, Notebook Agency
• “Our JavaScript-heavy site may be invisible to AI crawlers.” Tory Gray, Gray Dot Co
• “We are rebuilding our website.” Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media Studios
• “We sell in several countries and languages.” Gianluca Fiorelli, iloveseo.net

1. Ran Yosef, Arobis AI: best for B2B SaaS teams missing from AI shortlists

Type of help: done-for-you team, led by the founder. Hire when: B2B buyers ask AI for a vendor shortlist and your software brand is not on it.

Ran Yosef is the founder and CEO of Arobis AI, an AI Search Demand Generation agency built for B2B SaaS. Before founding it he led marketing at five B2B SaaS companies as CMO and VP Marketing, so he judges AI search the way a marketing leader judges any channel: by whether it puts the company in front of buyers who are about to book a demo.

Every engagement starts with an audit he runs himself. He tests 40 buyer prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, records which competitors get recommended instead, and ranks what to fix first. His team then does the work, from rewriting key pages and fixing structured data to earning mentions on the third-party sources AI engines rely on. Clients follow results in a private portal that tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode every night.

• Proof you can check: one B2B software client went from being named in none of its five most important buyer prompts to all five within 60 days, and became the most recommended of eight brands in its category. Ran also built a free AI Visibility Checker used on more than 2,300 websites, and writes about AI search for 20,000+ followers on LinkedIn.
• How engagements work: an AI visibility audit first, then a done-for-you monthly program. Prices are published: audits from $399 and retainers from $2,500 a month.
• Best fit: B2B SaaS companies that want pipeline from AI answers. Look elsewhere if: you run a consumer or local business.

Ran Yosef on LinkedIn | Arobis AI

2. Chris Long, Nectiv: best for B2B tech brands that want citation data

Type of help: agency. Hire when: you need proof of which commercial pages AI engines cite, and why.

Chris Long is co-founder of Nectiv, an SEO and AEO agency that works with B2B and technology brands above $20M in annual recurring revenue. His team is known for studying what AI engines do behind the scenes. In one study they ran more than 8,500 prompts across nine industries and recorded the searches ChatGPT made before answering: 31% of prompts triggered a search, with an average of 2.17 searches per prompt.

• Proof you can check: in a published case study, go-to-market security company CHEQ grew AI citations to its commercial pages from 26 to 1,482 across ChatGPT, AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity. Chris has also presented his research on ChatGPT and Gemini background searches at BrightonSEO.
• How engagements work: full-service agency work with a scope that shifts month to month based on results. The CHEQ engagement opened with a 30-day research and strategy phase. No published prices.
• Best fit: B2B tech companies above $20M ARR. Look elsewhere if: you are an early-stage startup or want a one-off audit.

Chris Long on LinkedIn | Nectiv

3. Ross Hudgens, Siege Media: best for content and digital PR at scale

Type of help: agency. Hire when: you want a long-term content and digital PR engine built to earn AI citations.

Ross Hudgens is founder and CEO of Siege Media, an Austin agency with a dedicated GEO service. It covers citation gap analysis, prompt-level citation mapping, digital PR and original research, bottom-of-funnel content, Reddit and community presence, and monthly share-of-voice reporting across AI engines. Ross has also written a book on the subject, Generative Engine Optimization: The Definitive Guide to AI SEO, which is forthcoming from Wiley.

• Proof you can check: Siege reports 98% LLM visibility for Zendesk and 96% for Zapier on its homepage, and publishes its own research, including a study finding that credibility statements improved visibility for mid-authority sites by 62%.
• How engagements work: a phased program: a foundation phase in months one and two (market analysis, citation mapping, baseline share of voice, a 12-month roadmap), then activation and compounding. Plan on six months or more. No published prices.
• Best fit: B2B SaaS brands ready for a sustained content program. Look elsewhere if: you want a short project or a solo consultant.

Ross Hudgens on LinkedIn | Siege Media

4. Alex Birkett, Omniscient Digital: best when AI visibility must show up in pipeline

Type of help: agency. Hire when: AI visibility has to show up in pipeline and CRM reports, not just dashboards.

Alex Birkett is co-founder of Omniscient Digital, a Brooklyn-based agency whose answer engine optimization service is built for B2B brands. The work runs from buyer prompt modeling and a visibility baseline to source analysis, content and technical fixes, and measurement tied to pipeline. On his own site, Alex says he helped grow Jasper’s content program to more than $4M in ARR from the blog.

• Proof you can check: Omniscient reports that Convert, a B2B software client, saw LLM visibility rise 81% and AI citations rise 140% in 60 days. The firm also analyzed 23,387 AI citations from 240 branded prompts and found that reviews and social proof earned 57% of them, ahead of directories (17%) and product pages (12%).
• How engagements work: a free AEO analysis, then a full-service program. Published pricing: engagements start at $120,000 a year.
• Best fit: funded B2B SaaS teams that report to a revenue number. Look elsewhere if: your budget is below that floor.

Alex Birkett on LinkedIn | Omniscient Digital

5. Steve Toth, Notebook Agency: best when AI gets your company wrong

Type of help: specialist with an agency behind him. Hire when: AI engines describe your company inaccurately and you need it corrected.

Steve Toth is founder and CEO of Notebook Agency, which optimizes for Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Copilot and Perplexity. His Trust Alignment Framework targets one of the most common B2B complaints: AI answers that get pricing, features or positioning wrong. It builds a single source of truth for the brand, tests where language models contradict it, and tracks a trust score over time.

• Proof you can check: as SEO strategy lead at FreshBooks, a B2B SaaS company, he grew organic traffic past one million visits a month. He writes the SEO Notebook and AI Notebook newsletters, read by nearly 28,000 subscribers, and hosts the SEO IRL conference in Toronto.
• How engagements work: done-for-you retainers (no published price), plus a 25-minute one-on-one strategy call for $797.
• Best fit: SaaS teams whose AI answers are out of date or wrong. Look elsewhere if: you want an agency to log in and ship site changes for you.

Steve Toth on LinkedIn | Notebook Agency

6. Tory Gray, Gray Dot Co: best for technical access on JavaScript-heavy sites

Type of help: specialist. Hire when: your JavaScript-heavy site may be invisible to the bots behind AI answers.

Tory Gray is founder and CEO of The Gray Dot Company, a consultancy in Stratford, Ontario. Many SaaS websites load their content with JavaScript, and many AI crawlers do not run it, so pages that look fine to people can be blank to the systems writing AI answers. Gray Dot sells four AI audits: brand entity recognition (how language models describe you), AI bot accessibility, AI search performance against competitors, and agentic readiness.

• Proof you can check: her team built the AI Difference Engine, a free Chrome extension that shows what AI bots can read in a page’s HTML. Tory also co-taught “JavaScript SEO for AI Search” as part of Sitebulb’s JavaScript SEO training.
• How engagements work: project-based audits with roadmaps, plus ongoing consulting. No published prices.
• Best fit: SaaS and enterprise sites built on JavaScript frameworks or headless setups. Look elsewhere if: you need content production or digital PR.

Tory Gray on LinkedIn | Gray Dot Co

7. Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media Studios: best when a website rebuild is coming

Type of help: agency. Hire when: a website rebuild is coming and AI discoverability has to be built in.

Andy Crestodina is co-founder and CMO of Orbit Media Studios, a Chicago web design and optimization agency. Orbit builds AI discoverability into redesigns and offers an optional optimization team that handles AI crawler access, prompt monitoring and content written for the follow-up questions AI engines ask. A standalone AI SEO service is available too.

• Proof you can check: Andy ran an AI search adoption survey of 1,110 US adults with QuestionPro: 55% said they use AI chat as a primary or frequent research tool, and the share who trust Google results more than AI chat fell from 52% to 49% in a year. He also wrote Content Chemistry and runs a long-running annual survey of more than 1,000 content marketers.
• How engagements work: website projects with AI discoverability included, plus ongoing optimization. No published prices.
• Best fit: B2B teams planning a new website. Look elsewhere if: you want a solo consultant or an off-site PR program.

Andy Crestodina on LinkedIn | Orbit Media Studios

8. Gianluca Fiorelli, iloveseo.net: best for international and multilingual brands

Type of help: independent specialist. Hire when: you sell in several countries and AI answers differ by market and language.

Gianluca Fiorelli is an independent strategic and international SEO consultant based in Valencia, Spain, working in English, Spanish and Italian. His services include AI search visibility and entity strategy, international SEO for classic and AI search, and a technical and retrieval audit that reviews server logs for AI crawlers such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot.

• Proof you can check: he hosts The Search Session podcast for Advanced Web Ranking, founded The Inbounder conference series, and lists clients including Glassdoor, SIXT, Chess.com and Autodesk.
• How engagements work: custom audits that include 30 days of follow-up video calls, then optional ongoing consulting and in-company training. No published prices.
• Best fit: B2B brands selling across several markets. Look elsewhere if: you want done-for-you content or a fixed package.

Gianluca Fiorelli on LinkedIn | iloveseo.net

Before you call anyone: a one-hour check

You will get better proposals, and spot weak ones faster, if you do this first.

1. Write down ten buyer questions. Use the words your prospects use before they know your name, such as “best payroll software for a 200-person company,” not your brand name.
2. Ask them in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Mode. Note who gets named, in what order, and which websites are cited. Each engine behaves a little differently; b2bnn.com’s guide on how B2B brands get recommended by Claude shows how much one engine’s habits can matter.
3. Check what AI says about you by name. Wrong pricing, old features or a competitor’s description are common and fixable.
4. List the third-party sites that keep coming up. Review platforms, comparison articles and community threads are often where the answer comes from.
5. Decide how you will keep score. A spreadsheet works to start. If you want software, b2bnn.com compared two popular options in OtterlyAI vs Profound for B2B marketing teams.

What to put in your brief

• Your ten buyer questions and today’s answers, with screenshots.
• The competitors AI names instead of you.
• What AI gets wrong about your company.
• Who on your team can ship changes, and how fast.
• What success means in 90 days: more prompts where you are named, more accurate descriptions, more AI-referred demos.

Red flags when comparing proposals

• Guaranteed placements. Nobody controls what a model says. Good consultants promise a process and measurable movement.
• Reports with no AI answers in them. Rankings and traffic alone do not show whether you are being recommended.
• A fixed package that ignores your market. A security vendor and an HR software company need different sources and different prompts.
• No public proof. Every consultant on this list has research, tools, books, talks or client results you can verify.

What GEO and AEO consultants cost

Prices vary more by type of help than by name. Among the consultants above who publish prices, Arobis AI audits start at $399 with done-for-you retainers from $2,500 a month, Steve Toth offers a $797 strategy call, and Omniscient Digital’s programs start at $120,000 a year. Most others quote per project after a first call, and Siege Media plans its programs over six months or more.

Frequently asked questions

What does a GEO consultant do?

A GEO consultant finds out how AI engines describe and recommend your brand today, then improves your pages, your structured data and your presence on the third-party sites those engines cite, so ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity name you more often and more accurately.

What is the difference between a GEO consultant and an AEO consultant?

GEO focuses on being recommended inside answers written by AI assistants. AEO focuses on being the quoted answer in Google’s AI Overviews, AI Mode and featured snippets. In practice the same consultants do both, and both build on solid SEO.

Who is the best GEO consultant for B2B SaaS?

Ran Yosef of Arobis AI. He led marketing at five B2B SaaS companies, audits 40 buyer prompts across four AI engines himself, and his team carries out the fixes.

How long does GEO take to show results?

Engines that search the web live, such as Perplexity and Google’s AI features, can reflect changes within weeks. Changes that depend on third-party sources and model updates usually take two to three months to show clearly.

Should I hire a consultant or an agency?

Hire a consultant or advisor if your team can do the work and needs direction. Hire an agency, or a consultant with a delivery team, if you need the rewrites, technical fixes and outreach done for you.

The bottom line

Pick the consultant who fits your problem, not the one with the biggest following. If you sell B2B software and keep missing the shortlist when buyers ask AI, start with Ran Yosef. If you need citation data, a content and PR engine, pipeline attribution, brand accuracy, technical access, a rebuilt website or international reach, the specialists above each cover a clear lane.