Issue 56 -
April 17, 2026
In this week's newsletter:- HubSpot’s AEO tool, a first look
- Bing Webmaster’s AI Performance reporting
- The LinkedIn algorithm update that never was
- The AI Confidence Meetup
It’s been a busy month for marketing tools and updates! Below you’ll find quick roundup of some of the best new releases (and one that never happened) for B2B marketers.
We are also cooking up a new series on how AI is changing the B2B buying journey and what you need to know, and do, to keep up—watch out for our next issue coming soon…
HubSpot’s new AEO Tool – a first look
The HubSpot Spring Update this week included a new tool, HubSpot AEO. The feature is currently still in beta but is designed to show marketers how their business appears across answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity and to provide recommendations to improve discoverability and drive more, better traffic from AI search.
HubSpot AEO is available as part of Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise (or for purchase at a surprisingly reasonable price of $50/month).
HubSpot claims that “it’s the first and only solution to use a customer’s own data to suggest prompts that real customers are likely to use in LLMs”.
We will be trialling it out ourselves over the coming weeks to help guide B2B marketers on how to get the most out of this new feature.
Bing Webmaster’s AI Performance reporting
HubSpot isn’t the only one with a recent release to help B2B marketers understand and measure AI discoverability—back in February this year Microsoft released AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools (also in beta).
AI Performance is a new, dedicated dashboard inside Bing Webmaster Tools that enables you to see where, and how often, your content is cited in AI-generated answers across Microsoft Copilot, Bing’s AI summaries, and select partner integrations. It tracks citation visibility across those platforms but instead of measuring clicks or rankings, it shows whether your content is used to ground AI-generated answers.
If you aren’t already using Bing’s free Webmaster Tool now is the time to get it set up!
The LinkedIn update that never was
Back in October last year you may have heard some buzz about 360Brew which was supposed to be a new “AI ranking and recommendation system” for the platform. Except it wasn’t. Yesterday (15 April), LinkedIn’s very own Bearer of Good News, Tim Jurka, finally confirmed that although last year LinkedIn trialled the AI model, they ultimately decided it didn’t work and shut it down. What does that mean for your organic LinkedIn strategy? Just stay focused on relevant, authentic conversations with the people you want to reach.
AI Confidence Meetup in Leeds
If you’re based in Leeds, or near Leeds on Thursday 30 April, join Sharp Ahead Founder Dr John Woods at the AI Confidence Meetup. The Meetup is focused on how marketers can use AI tools with more confidence and better judgement, and to share ideas and best practices in an informal welcoming setting.
Find out more and sign up today.
