250 sales and marketing pros voted across a category evolving from search engine optimization into Answer Engine Optimization for the AI search era. Here is what the results reveal.
The May 2026 IT Brand Pulse AI Brand Leader survey asked 250 sales and marketing professionals to vote for Market, Intelligence & Innovation, Creativity & Expression, Accuracy & Trust, and Human Empowerment leaders in AI SEO Tools, one of 18 products in the AI Sales and Marketing stack. Semrush was voted Market Leader with 38.80% of votes, with Ahrefs finishing second at 29.20%. Ahrefs was voted Intelligence & Innovation Leader (27.85%). SE Ranking was voted Creativity & Expression Leader (30.87%). Moz Pro was voted Accuracy & Trust Leader (37.10%). Surfer SEO was voted Human Empowerment Leader (29.22%).
Semrush and Ahrefs split Market and Innovation as the established institutional SEO platforms, while Moz Pro’s Trust win reflects its long-standing reputation for measurement integrity, SE Ranking takes Creativity through breadth of feature surface, and Surfer SEO wins Empowerment through AI-driven content briefing accessibility. The IT Brand Pulse analyst team expects SEO tools to fully absorb AEO methodology, with future Brand Leader voting rewarding citation-tracking accuracy across AI search interfaces, content recommendation quality, and the ability to measure organic visibility across both traditional and AI-driven discovery channels.
What Are AI SEO Tools?
IT Brand Pulse defines AI SEO Tools as systems that combine keyword research, competitive intelligence, on-page optimization, technical SEO auditing, and content briefing in AI-augmented workflows. These platforms increasingly extend beyond traditional search engine ranking into Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), helping content teams optimize for AI-driven search experiences alongside conventional SERPs. AI SEO Tools sits within the AI Marketing Products sublayer of the Horizontal Business Apps layer in the IT Brand Pulse AI Product Taxonomy, alongside Account Based Marketing Platforms, AI Content Creation Platforms, AI Customer Data Platforms, AI Marketing Automation Platforms, AI Social Media Management, Email Marketing Platforms,, and Marketing Analytics & Attribution Platforms.
Download the Brand Leader Report for AI SEO Tools.
