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How D2L Nearly Tripled Its Visibility in AI Answers and Grew Demo Requests 73%

D2L is the company behind Brightspace, a learning platform used by schools, higher education institutions, and businesses. D2L went from appearing in 12% of tracked AI answers in December 2025 to 33% in September 2026. In its first year with Flying Cat, D2L also reported a 73% increase in demo requests from organic search and LLMs.

by Maeva Cifuentes – October 5, 2026

From 12% to 33%
of tracked AI answers recommend D2L

+73%
demo requests from organic search and LLMs, year over year

3.2x
demo requests from ChatGPT, year over year

Challenges we faced

A crowded category. D2L sells Brightspace into a learning platform market where buyers compare a long list of vendors before they book a demo.
Vendor comparison moving into AI assistants. By early 2026 a growing share of that comparison was happening inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI answers.
A mixed starting position. In late 2025 D2L appeared in 12% of tracked AI answers and ranked 11th among the learning platform brands tracked.

Opportunities we seized

Made AI visibility the top priority for 2026. D2L put the largest share of its content programme behind the pages AI assistants draw on when they recommend a learning platform.
Built the comparison content buyers ask AI for. The programme covered best LMS roundups by use case, competitor alternatives pages, and head-to-head comparisons.
Sharpened positioning with product marketing. D2L’s product marketers supplied approved positioning, and every competitive page was reworked to present Brightspace in its strongest light.
Kept pages fresh every month. Light refreshes on 10 to 15 pages a month kept content current, since AI assistants favour recently updated pages.
Earned placements on the lists AI already cites. Outreach shifted from general link building to third-party roundups that appear as sources in AI answers.
Measured through to pipeline. Quarterly reviews tracked recommendation share across AI assistants, and D2L’s own attribution tied LLM referral traffic to opportunities.

Results

12% to 33% share of tracked AI answers recommending D2L, from December 2025 to September 2026
11th to 7th among tracked learning platform brands in AI answers
Nearly 4x monthly AI citations of d2l.com pages in a single quarter, with Perplexity citing d2l.com in more than four of every five tracked answers
3.2x demo requests from ChatGPT year over year, ahead of 2.1x for the site as a whole
+73% demo request conversions from organic search and LLMs, +58% non-branded organic impressions, and a 54% improvement in average position for non-branded keywords, as D2L reported in its Clutch review
2x traffic to pages in the monthly refresh programme between March and May 2026
11 days to close a higher education deal. Before the first conversation, the institution’s provost had already asked ChatGPT how Brightspace compares with its incumbent platform, and that answer reached the senior leadership team.

In D2L’s words

“Flying Cat Marketing gets laser-focused on the problem.”
Erik Frye, Director of Digital Marketing
“That’s a very powerful endorsement of the early work we’ve been doing on LLM visibility.”
Brian Finnerty, CMO
“Cristi shared a great example of how LLMs are helping to shape the buying journey in our favour.”
Erik Frye, Director of Digital Marketing
“It is so wonderful to hear how it is impacting actual deals.”
Amita Parikh