B2B companies now need to communicate with two audiences: people and AI systems.
Buyers still discover ideas by scrolling LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube, but increasingly they are also turning to tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini for answers.
That means the content executives publish online now needs to work for both humans and machines.
For organisations that want to stay visible over the next decade, the strategy is straightforward:
- Publish original thinking
- Publish as identifiable people
- Publish consistently
Executive visibility is the communications superpower that B2B CEOs need to embrace.
What is executive visibility?
Executive visibility is the practice of senior leaders sharing their expertise, ideas and perspectives online so they remain visible to buyers, partners and industry peers.
Rather than relying solely on brand marketing or outbound sales, executive visibility enables CEOs and leadership teams to build trust by publishing original insights in their own voice.
The reason this works is simple.
People pay far more attention to the personable content published by familiar individuals than they do to company content published by faceless brands.
In a digital-first world, executive visibility ensures that when buyers research a topic, scroll LinkedIn or ask an AI system a question, your leadership team and your organisation are part of the conversation.
What are the two worlds of B2B communication?
Since launching Six Sells back in 2018, we have consistently made the point that B2B companies operate in two environments: the physical world and the digital world.
In the physical world, relationships are built through events, meetings and face-to-face conversations.
In the digital world, people spend their time scrolling LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube and other platforms, absorbing ideas and learning from the content they encounter there.
Marketing teams have generally adapted to this reality far better than sales teams. Marketing budgets and activity increasingly focus on digital channels, while many sales leaders, from the CEO down, still operate predominantly in the physical world.
Don’t get me wrong. I would always prefer to meet someone face-to-face than have them read something I wrote online.
But the reality is straightforward.
People spend far more time scrolling LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube than they do sitting in meetings with people from Six Sells.
Digital communication simply scales far more effectively than face-to-face meetings. While your calendar may allow you to meet five or ten people in a week, digital content can reach thousands of the right people in the same time.
Why do B2B companies now have two audiences?
For most of our existence, Six Sells has focused on helping companies reach one audience: people who influence future buying decisions.
Today, however, there are two audiences to consider when publishing content online.
1 - The human audience reading your content – your ideal client profile (ICP).
2 - The AI systems answering the questions being asked by that same ICP.
Large language models such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini are increasingly acting as discovery engines for B2B buyers, often answering questions directly without the user needing to visit an external website.
Buyers are now asking AI systems questions such as:
- What is social selling?
- How should CEOs use LinkedIn?
- What is executive visibility?
- How do I build a personal brand as a leader?
At Six Sells, we want to be a part of the answer when people ask such questions, and AI systems generate the answers in part by analysing the content that already exists online, so we write content that is visible and being read by both people and machines.
Why is LinkedIn important for AI discovery?
SEMrush, one of the leading SEO platforms, recently analysed thousands of sources cited by AI systems including ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode and Perplexity.
One finding stood out.
LinkedIn is the second most cited domain in AI-generated answers.
SEMrush also offered three simple recommendations for companies that want to influence AI discovery:
1 - Publish original content
2 - Publish as people
3 - Be consistent
Towards the end of 2025, Six Sells started receiving new business enquiries from people who had discovered us through ChatGPT.
Myself, Karen and Ben at Six Sells publish regularly as individuals on LinkedIn. We also publish weekly content on YouTube and on sixsells.co.uk, and I personally spend time contributing on Reddit, another platform that frequently appears in AI answers.
The combination of original content, published by people, and shared consistently is already paying dividends for us at Six Sells. It can do the same for your organisation.
Why does writing as a person matter more than writing as a brand?
For years we have said the same thing to our clients.
People pay far more attention to the personable content published by familiar people than they do to company content published by faceless brands.
Interestingly, large language models appear to follow the same pattern.
AI systems increasingly reference content that is:
- Written by identifiable individuals
- Clear and explanatory
- Published consistently over time
How should ad tech CEOs use LinkedIn in the age of AI?
If LinkedIn is becoming a key discovery surface for both humans and AI systems, ad tech leaders need to think differently about how they show up online.
Three things matter.
1 - Publish as people, not just brands
Buyers trust identifiable experts more than anonymous company pages. People pay more attention to original content from individuals, and AI systems increasingly do the same.
2 - Explain industry problems clearly
Content that defines concepts and explains industry challenges is easier for both humans and AI systems to understand and reference.
3 - Be consistent
One post will not change anything, and neither will random bursts of marketing activity.
You need to show up consistently with content that builds a body of knowledge that both people and AI systems can draw upon.
What will the companies that win attention do differently?
The companies that win attention over the next decade will empower their senior leadership teams to show up consistently online.
That might include:
- LinkedIn posts from the CEO and senior leadership team
- LinkedIn articles written by senior leaders
- Publishing more industry thought leadership
- Answering questions and adding value on platforms like Reddit
- Producing podcasts featuring leadership teams, clients and prospects
- Placing PR with respected trade publications
- Publishing case studies
- Entering industry awards
Key takeaways
- B2B companies now communicate with two audiences: humans and AI systems.
- LinkedIn is one of the most frequently cited domains in AI-generated answers.
- Content published by identifiable individuals performs better than content published by brands.
- The winning strategy is simple: publish original thinking, publish as people, and publish consistently.
Who is Six Sells?
I am the founder of Six Sells, an executive visibility agency for CEOs and senior leaders working in media, advertising, and technology.
Content published by executives consistently reaches more people, earns more engagement, and attracts more meaningful responses than content published by brands.
With that in mind, we work with CEOs and senior leadership teams to create consistent, credible content that reaches the people who matter most to your business.
.png)
.png)
.png)
