Introduction
Your potential buyers no longer start with Google. They start with AI. Picture a CMO preparing for a major launch. The team pushes SEO updates, publishes thought leadership, and activates campaigns.
Yet when prospects enter the funnel, they say they first asked an AI assistant which vendors to evaluate, and the brand was nowhere in sight.
If you are a B2B tech or SaaS brand looking to increase your presence in AI assistants and enterprise copilots like Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot, this shift is urgent.
Discovery now begins inside these systems, and visibility depends on how well they understand who you are and what you offer.
Today's guide explores the top answer engine optimization thought leaders to follow in your journey to making your brand the answer in AI answer engines.
TL;DR - Top 7 Answer Engine Optimization Thought Leaders
Let's start with a quick list of the best answer engine optimization experts to watch:
1. Eric Carrell
2. Sebastian Schäffer
3. Jason Barnard
4. Mike King
5. Alex Birkett
6. Neil Patel
7. Josh Grant
This guide discusses each of these experts in detail in a section below.
But first, to build context…
What Defines an Answer Engine Optimization Thought Leader
A good AEO thought leader is defined by their ability to consistently secure brand visibility and influence within AI-driven answer engines such as Google AI Overviews.
These experts help your brand do more than chase traditional rankings. They help you earn mentions in AI assistants and become the source those systems cite in their answers.
Check out the following key characteristics of AEO thought experts:
- Content Structuring Expertise: AEO experts know how to format content for machine readability and direct answer extraction. They help you use question-based headings, give clear and concise answers upfront, and break down information into scannable paragraphs, lists, and tables.
- Mastery of Structured Data or Schema: Top answer engine optimization experts understand and leverage various schema markup types to explicitly signal the purpose and context of content to AI crawlers, making the extraction of answers easier.
- Focus on E-E-A-T and Credibility: They prioritize content that establishes Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). This can include adding author credentials, securing mentions in reputable third-party publications, using original data or research, and ensuring a positive brand presence across industry forums and platforms such as Reddit.
- Strategic Adaptability and Innovation: AEO is a new and evolving field. A good thought leader runs experiments, adapts quickly to algorithmic changes in AI models, and shares insights grounded in first principles and real-world data. They don’t simply follow established, outdated optimization rules.
What Sets These Thought Leaders Apart
You can distinguish an AEO thought leader by their ability to innovate and provide original, data-informed insights that help shape industry best practices.
Here's what that looks like:
- Original Research and Unique Frameworks: Instead of rehashing existing information, AEO thought leaders conduct and publish original studies, data analysis, and case studies, such as how a brand's mentions correlate with AI citations. They develop new methodologies that become industry benchmarks.
- Redefining Success Metrics: AEO thought leaders measure success using new metrics beyond organic traffic and rankings. These may include assistant mentions, trusted citations, or "share of voice" in AI answers, and conversion rates from highly qualified, high-intent user queries or the prompt landscape.
- Future-Proofing Strategies: Thought leaders proactively deal with the rapid evolution of search. They anticipate future trends, such as the growth of voice search, increased personalization, and the greater integration of AI with other business solutions. Their proactiveness helps brands to remain relevant in the long term.
With the right thought leaders, you can outperform your competitors by improving your brand’s discoverability and authority within AI assistants.
You can also strengthen and future-proof your digital presence as organic search continues to evolve.
Top 7 Thought Leaders in Answer Engine Optimization
Now that you know who thought leaders are and what characteristics set the best apart, here's a closer look at the top seven AEO thought leaders to follow.
1. Eric Carrell (Founder, dofollow.com)
As one of the founders of dofollow.com, Eric Carrell helps B2B SaaS and technology brands increase their visibility in search and AI systems.
Carrell began his career in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), where he learned how people search, think, and make buying decisions online.
Today, he not only understands algorithms but also human behavior, which informs his focus on the intersection of human psychology and technology.
Through dofollow.com, Carrell has helped brands experience massive growth through storytelling, trust, and scalable systems.
Carell's work has transformed from just keywords to building purpose-driven businesses and helping brands position themselves better in the AI era.
He helps brands become the default recommendation in AI-powered buying decisions by engineering how they are surfaced in LLMs and AI assistants like Claude, Perplexity, and ChatGPT.
2. Sebastian Schäffer (Founder, dofollow.com)
Sebastian Schäffer is also one of the founders of dofollow.com and has a strong background in marketing and software development.
Schäffer has had a successful career as a business development professional, with extensive expertise in SEO, no-code tools, link building, digital marketing, content marketing, and managing remote teams.
At dofollow.com, Schäffer has helped brands acquire high-quality backlinks to support their content marketing efforts.
Alongside Carell and the team, Schäffer helps brands in the SaaS and technology spaces become category leaders by being discovered, cited, and recommended within AI assistants and enterprise copilots.
Carrell and Schäffer deliver results as leading experts in answer engine optimization in various ways:
- Proprietary AI Visibility Methodology: dofollow.com is a category-defining leader in AI visibility, based on its proprietary methodology. This 4-step repeatable framework of Audit → Build → Optimize → Measure helps the team diagnose AI presence, build authority signals, optimize presence, and track AI-driven discoverability.
- Strategic Focus on B2B SaaS and Tech: The team has a deep understanding of the complex buying cycles and long-form decision processes in the B2B tech and SaaS sector.
- Focus on Category Leadership: dofollow.com doesn't just help you position your brand highly on AI systems. The company also helps you become a trusted leader in your category within the AI landscape.
- Data-Backed Diagnostics: The team conducts in-depth audits to gauge your brand's visibility across AI assistants, including your citations and how your presence compares to competitors'. The audit data informs the strategy that will grow your AI presence.
- Full-Spectrum Engagement: You can expect immersive 6-12 month programs that bring together diagnostics, strategy, and continuous optimization to get you more discovered in AI systems.
Want to see this in action?
Work with Dofollow.com today to secure trusted brand mentions to own the next era of organic discovery.
3. Jason Barnard
Jason Barnard is credited with coining the term “Answer Engine Optimization” (AEO) in 2018, which helped establish the early foundation of the field.
Barnard focuses on entity optimization and knowledge panels, helping brands ensure that AI systems or answer engines can understand them.
Because of his expertise in entity optimization and knowledge graph management, Barnard is regarded as a pioneer and is praised for his systematic approach to entities.
As a thought leader, Barnard regularly gives keynote speeches and offers insights on AI assistive engines, Google search strategies, and knowledge panel optimization.
4. Mike King (Founder of iPullRank)
Mike King is known for his technical depth at the intersection of SEO, data, and AI. His background as a marketer and developer allows him to translate complex retrieval mechanics into a practical strategy for brands.
King is known for developing the “Relevance Engineering” approach, and his work helps brands adapt enterprise SEO to an AI-first environment.
The “Relevance Engineering” methodology maps the retrieval mechanisms used by AI systems to engineer content specifically for how generative platforms like Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT cite sources.
5. Alex Birkett (Co-founder of Omniscient Digital)
Alex Birkett is known for bringing analytical rigor to content strategy and using experimentation to uncover what actually drives visibility.
Birkett’s background in growth and content operations grounds his frameworks in real-world performance rather than theory.
Birkett pioneered the "Surround Sound SEO" strategy and has extended it to AEO, recognizing that AI assistants depend heavily on distributed signals and entity mentions across trusted sources.
His focus is on getting brands mentioned on AI platforms, and he emphasises robust attribution from AI traffic to revenue.
6. Neil Patel (Founder of NP Digital)
Neil Patel is recognized in the digital marketing industry for distilling complex topics into actionable guidance. His influence comes from years of publishing Data-Backed insights and building large-scale marketing programs.
Patel has integrated an "entity-first" AEO approach into his agency, focusing on ensuring your business’s information is consistent and credible across all brand mentions on the web so LLMs and AI assistants can trust it.
Incorporating AEO positions Patel as one of the early advocates for treating AI assistants as an extension of SEO.
His frameworks help companies rethink how they manage brand data, reputation, and authority in an AI-driven search environment.
7. Josh Grant (VP of Growth at Webflow)
Josh Grant has emerged as one of the more forward-thinking leaders applying AEO at scale in a major SaaS company. His work centers on operationalizing AEO in a way that fits real product and growth priorities.
Grant leads Webflow's AEO strategy, which prioritizes ChatGPT visibility first, using the "ChatGPT first, the rest will follow" mantra.
The strategy also tracks specific metrics, such as visibility, comprehension, and conversion, related to AI citations.
Grant's work shows how enterprise marketing teams can integrate AEO into growth operations rather than treat it as a side experiment. His practical, metrics-first mindset has positioned him as a notable practitioner in the emerging AI visibility ecosystem.
All these AEO experts are actively shaping the AEO field through research, proprietary frameworks, and practical application.
The strategies they champion reveal a clear pattern:
If your brand can structure its content for AI systems, strengthen its entity signals, and earn credible citations, it can gain robust visibility.
The strong presence can directly support lead pipeline, brand growth, and long-term revenue impact from content.
How to Learn AEO from These AEO Experts
Now that you know the top experts in answer engine optimization, how can you learn from them to build a greater digital presence for your brand across AI systems?
The best way is to follow and implement the strategies they use and recommend for content quality, structure, and technical implementation.
Here’s how:
- Emulate Content and Structure: Start by understanding user intent by learning what questions your prospective buyers are asking in user queries and the prompt landscape. Create high-quality content that meets this intent, while optimizing it for a conversational style. Maintain clear question-based headings, direct answers, lists, and short sentences.
- Emulate Technical Implementation: Implement structured data using Schema.org markup to help search engines understand and pull information from your content. Ensure your technical SEO is top-notch because it's the foundation for AEO.
- Build Strategy and Authority: Create your own internal team of thought leaders to produce authoritative, linkable content. Include their author bios to highlight their credentials. Integrate AEO with SEO and backlinking for a robust strategy. Track your results and optimize your performance.
You should also monitor AEO and industry trends to stay up to date and evolve your strategy as needed, ensuring your brand remains future-proof.
Key Insights from Best Answer Engine Optimization Experts
As you put the recommendations of these AEO experts into practice, focus on the following key takeaways to help you refine your approach:
Eric Carrell:
“The future of search isn’t just about Google anymore - it’s about behavioral search and AI-assisted discovery. My focus now is on helping businesses position themselves for that next era: where authenticity, intelligence, and human connection are the true ranking factors.”
This insight shows Carrell’s category-defining outlook on AI visibility.
Carrell emphasizes the need for brands to master the behavior of their prospective decision-making buyers, who now often start their search for solutions on AI engines rather than traditional search engines.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Let’s end the discussion with the top questions brand leaders often ask about AEO and AEO thought leadership:
What Tools Help With Answer Engine Optimization?
Your AEO thought leadership can be smoother if you use a mix of the right types of tools, including:
- Question and content ideation tools such as AnswerThePublic, Quora, and Google Search Console.
- Content creation and optimization tools such as Frase, MarketMuse, and Surfer SEO.
- Tracking and analytics tools such as HubSpot’s AEO Grader, Semrush, and Ahrefs.
What Types of Content Perform Best for Answer Engines?
How-to guides, list posts, and FAQ pages usually perform well for answer engines.
These content types feature question-based headings, direct answers followed by supporting details, proper schema markup, conversational tone, and high-quality backlinks.
What Common Mistakes Do Brands Make With AEO?
Most brands make common AEO mistakes, such as:
- Ignoring traditional SEO
- Overlooking user intent
- Poor content structuring and formatting
- Burying the answer rather than “front-loading” it in the first 40-60 words after a heading
- Ignoring content freshness
- Incorrect or missing schema markup
- Inadequate performance tracking
- Not building brand credibility
- Ignoring mobile and site performance.
Conclusion
Building a strong digital presence across AI assistants by earning cited answers can directly boost your brand's visibility and influence where your potential buyers now start their research.
You can make the process easier by following and working with the best answer engine optimization thought leaders in your industry.
If you are in the B2B tech and SaaS sector, you can follow and work with dofollow.com’s Eric Carrell and Sebastian Schäffer. Using their expertise and proprietary AI visibility framework, they can help you determine your visibility baseline.
From there, they help you build the trust signals and authority needed to be discovered and cited by answer engines.
Acting now ensures your brand stays visible as AI-driven discovery solidifies its place as the new standard.
Explore how dofollow.com’s brand mentions approach can improve your AI presence and engineer lasting category leadership.
