This summer, the PR agency Bospar encountered a puzzling issue while preparing a major announcement for its client, RealSense, an AI computer vision company. When Bospar queried AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Copilot for information about RealSense, each returned the same false narrative: RealSense was no longer in business. Contrary to this, RealSense was about to announce a spin-out from its parent company Intel along with a $50 million funding round. This raised concerns about how RealSense could secure top-tier press coverage if the leading AI tools had prematurely “written its obituary. ” Curtis Sparrer, Bospar principal, remarked, “There's no 1-800 number for ChatGPT if there's an error. ” With about half of U. S. consumers using AI-powered search to explore brands, according to a recent McKinsey report, the evolving search landscape demands accurate and prominent brand representation. Google, controlling about 90% of global search traffic per Cloudflare and integrating its own AI features, remains dominant, but businesses across industries are racing to appear correctly in AI-driven answer engines. The rise of GEO (generative engine optimization) has heightened demand for traditional SEO specialists. Adobe recently announced its intention to acquire Semrush, a marketing software platform specializing in SEO and GEO, in a $1. 9 billion deal. Meanwhile, a cottage industry has emerged, with former SEO experts rebranding themselves as GEO and AEO (answer engine optimization) gurus. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Meta are awash with startups, agencies, and consultants promising formulas to boost AI platform visibility. Yet, only about 16% of brands actively track their AI search performance, McKinsey notes. This surge has prompted debate over whether GEO and AEO providers can truly deliver. Kai Spriestersbach, an applied AI researcher and SEO veteran, warned about many “side hustlers and snake oil sellers” capitalizing on the hype. Business Insider spoke with SEO experts and key AI search platforms—Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity—while OpenAI declined to comment. The consensus: some GEO tactics can enhance brand visibility in AI-generated answers, but improvements may be transient due to the constantly evolving nature of AI models. In essence, GEO often repackages traditional brand-building strategies, including solid website maintenance, PR, and advertising. Supporting this view, Lorelight, an AI visibility tool, recently shut down. Its founder asserted there is no distinct "GEO strategy" separate from brand building, at least for large companies. Jesse Dwyer, head of communications at Perplexity, suggested the truth lies “somewhere in between” the claims of GEO proponents and skeptics. **GEO vs. SEO** SEO, primarily focused on Google’s search engine, involves optimizing webpages and securing quality backlinks to rank highly in search results. This field benefits from 25+ years of research, experimentation, and some transparency from search companies about ranking algorithms. By contrast, GEO has far less historical data and lacks comparable transparency. Tools like Google Search Console and Google Trends provide valuable SEO insights, but AI platforms share little data beyond occasional blog posts—for example, OpenAI’s study showing ChatGPT’s common use in everyday tasks like writing and tech support. Kai Spriestersbach highlighted that, in AI chats, “You don't know how people are looking for brands and services right now. ” Personalization adds complexity: unlike traditional search results pages that are mostly consistent across users, AI-generated answers vary greatly depending on user preferences and chat histories.

Additionally, AI models frequently retrain, causing brand appearances to fluctuate, said Tim de Rosen, cofounder of GEO auditing firm AIVO Standard. GEO tools often analyze only a subset of prompts, and responses are inherently unstable due to varied user queries and evolving models. **Platform Perspectives** Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity stress that core SEO principles still apply in the AI era. Microsoft’s Krishna Madhavan emphasized the need for fresh, authoritative content and warned against shortcuts. Google’s Danny Sullivan noted GEO tools focusing solely on ranking might neglect “the big picture”—creating content useful to humans. Sullivan cautioned that popular advice, such as favoring brief content for large language models, might soon become outdated as models evolve. A significant shift is optimizing content inclusion in synthesized AI answers rather than mere link listings. Madhavan urged companies to “think beyond keywords to user intent, question-answer structure, and machine-readable cues. ” **How Companies Are Navigating GEO** As GEO evolves, companies are cautious, often working with multiple providers to foster innovation and customization. Vineet Mehra, CMO at fintech Chime, prefers using several companies simultaneously to spur competition. Bospar, likewise, combined various approaches rather than trusting a single GEO consultant. They traced the false “death” rumor of RealSense to a 2021 news article about a restructuring, which was amplified on platforms like Reddit, a key source for training large language models. Bospar successfully requested corrections from the original publisher, updated RealSense’s website with FAQs disputing closure claims, and encouraged executives to engage actively on social media to reinforce thought leadership. Although AI visibility tools remain rudimentary, Bospar’s comprehensive tactics align with traditional digital reputation management. Sparrer summarized, “It's pretty early days in GEO and AEO for anyone to raise their hands and declare themselves as an expert…considering how new the science is. ” **Key Recommendations from Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity** - *Google:* Danny Sullivan stressed that core SEO principles remain relevant. Many successful sites do not even focus on SEO but prioritize creating great content. Maintaining good website and structured data hygiene is essential to ensure Google’s crawlers access relevant content. Google’s AI increasingly supports multi-modal queries, so integrating images and videos is beneficial. - *Microsoft:* Madhavan emphasized SEO fundamentals like site structure and content freshness to facilitate AI consumption. Suggesting Q&A sections, sitemaps, schema markup, and the adoption of IndexNow (which signals search engines about site updates), he advises stylistic simplicity—using lists and tables, simple punctuation, and avoiding complex symbols—to improve parsing by AI. - *Perplexity:* Jesse Dwyer warned against treating GEO as a straightforward extension of SEO. He advises marketers to avoid purely transferring traditional SEO tactics. Instead, increased AI-driven search reduces friction and allows users to transact through direct queries, raising the importance of robust brand marketing. In summary, while the rise of AI-driven search is transforming how brands appear and are discovered, the fundamentals of quality content, website hygiene, and brand reputation management endure. GEO and AEO may introduce new nuances but largely build upon established SEO and marketing principles amid a dynamic landscape where AI models and user behaviors continuously evolve.