Eric Buckley, Co-Founder & CEO of LeadSpot, on AI discoverability, LLM visibility and the future of content

1. From Content Syndication to AI Discoverability

You’ve spent more than two decades working across audience data, content syndication, and demand generation, and now you’re building for an AI-first web. Looking back, what has remained constant about how buyers discover information, and what has fundamentally changed?

A:

Everything has gotten more difficult. I remember when one email domain could send 10k emails, 80% would hit the inbox and you’d get 30-40% replies. Now, every channel needs to be optimized and follow best practices to seek out the minimum. Sales and marketing used to be much more forgiving, more were successful. Those days are gone.

2. When Google Is No Longer the Only Gateway

Buyers are increasingly turning to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity to research companies, products, and solutions. What does this shift mean for marketers who have spent years optimizing content primarily for traditional search?

A:

Self-promoting content is how it was done for decades, AI has flipped that. Now, content needs to answer the actual AI queries asked for your category. Optimizing for keywords was easy back in the day, and was a way to game Google’s SEO. Those days are gone.

3. From SEO to LLM Visibility

SEO has traditionally focused on rankings, traffic, and clicks. AI search introduces a different objective: being understood, surfaced, and cited by LLMs. How should marketers rethink content strategy as discoverability moves beyond the traditional search results page?

A:

It’s actually very simple, three steps:

1. You must answer AI queries for your category, with

2. blogs/articles/social posts that are structured properly for LLM scanning and answer-extraction. That means, Q&A headers, bulleted/numbered answer snippets, internal links to other branded supporting insights, images with artist credit, FAQs, TL;DR for some content, etc. and

3. publish everywhere. Company blog, LinkedIn, Medium, Reddit, X. Make sure your insights are seen all across the web. It’s exactly what content syndication helps with. Also, survey your audience because unique insights are gold these days.

4. Why Great Content Still Gets Missed

You’ve argued that great content can remain effectively invisible in AI-generated answers. What are marketers getting wrong today when it comes to making their content discoverable to AI systems, and where do you see the biggest gaps?

A:

The number one reason content doesn’t get cited today is because it doesn’t help an LLM answer the current query.

It’s as simple as that. Self-promotion, feature highlights, competitive differentiation don’t work anymore.

5. AI, Data and the Future of Marketing Execution

AI is increasingly being used to optimize content, identify audiences, and automate marketing workflows. Where do you see AI creating the greatest value for marketing teams, and where will human judgment remain essential?

A:

AI can help marketing teams scale pretty much everything they do, reaching more prospects, publishing higher volumes of content, identifying the ad copy competitors are using, automating Ahrefs recommendations, etc.

I still think a human must remain in the loop for every process that involves AI, especially content creation. You can train your model as much as possible, but it’ll still sound like AI if you copy, paste, and publish.

6. Building for an AI-First Web

As the web evolves from a link-driven environment toward AI-mediated discovery, what capabilities should brands start building today to remain visible and competitive over the next three to five years?

A:

Speed. Remove long approval processes, review data daily or multiple times a day, and push new insights constantly.

7. The New Rules of Discoverability

If you could leave today's CMOs, demand generation leaders, and content teams with one piece of advice about preparing for the AI-first web, what would it be?

A:

Don’t push back on progress by clinging to what worked even three years ago. Everything has changed. Change with it.

About Eric Buckley

Eric Buckley is the co-founder and CEO of LeadSpot, a B2B lead generation agency specializing in content syndication, lead generation, human-verified leads, and AI search optimization. He has spent more than 20 years in B2B demand generation, with previous roles at NetProspex, On24, DemandScience, and Green Leads before founding LeadSpot. He runs the company alongside his two sons, who serve as co-owners.

LeadSpot's clients include UKG, ACI Worldwide, Schunk Group, Matterport, Contentful, and other forward-thinking tech and adjacent brands. The company publishes original research on B2B lead generation, lead quality, AEO optimization via syndication, and pipeline conversion, including the 2026 B2B Pipeline Trust Report and the 2026 B2B Lead Quality Report. Buckley is based in the Boston area.

About LeadSpot

LeadSpot is a B2B lead generation agency specializing in content syndication, lead generation, human-verification, and AI search optimization. The company distributes client content across 20,000+ exclusive, industry-specific, opt-in newsletter and publisher networks consisting of millions of subscribers, then verifies every lead through a multi-step process before delivery, including bot detection, geo-IP checks, CAPTCHA screening, and human review.

LeadSpot offers two lead types built around this verification process: Marketing Qualified Leads and Highly Qualified Leads, the latter confirmed against decision-making authority, active initiative, current vendor situation, and timeline before delivery. LeadSpot also structures every campaign asset for AI search visibility, positioning client content to earn citations from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude, not just traditional Google search rankings.

The company's clients include UKG, ACI Worldwide, Schunk Group, Matterport, Contentful, GEP and other forward-thinking tech and adjacent brands. LeadSpot publishes original research on B2B lead quality and pipeline conversion, including the 2026 B2B Pipeline Trust Report and the 2026 B2B Lead Quality Report. The company is based in the Boston area and co-founded and run by Eric Buckley alongside his two sons, Aidan and Jameson.

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