Ella Broadbent, Senior PR Consultant at Petal & Co
At breakneck speed, AI-driven search engines and the summaries they generate are shaping brand visibility and perception. We have moved beyond the realm of only human audiences – instead, the content we are creating is now being used to train and inform AI systems. While this might sound dystopian, it actually presents a huge opportunity for businesses. By optimising content for the data streams feeding AI platforms, brands can ensure they are front and centre in the AI-driven future. This includes leveraging media placements and PR and surprisingly, owned content such as website content, blogs and press releases.
How AI is reshaping search behaviour
Generative AI search has rapidly become commonplace. YouGov’s 2025 Digital News Report shows some staggering examples of the pace of change globally:
- 15% of under-25s get news from AI chatbots.
- 27% of audiences prefer AI-summarised news.
- 70% of media publishers plan to implement news summarisation in the next year.
Meanwhile, the number of U.S. searchers using AI as their main tool is expected to reach 36 million by 2028, compared to 15 million in 2024. But beyond sheer scale, AI searches are actually being used to inform consumer and business habits. 89% of buyers use AI for purchase decisions, and buyers who start research on AI are 4.4 times more valuable. On top of this, even traditional search is being infiltrated with AI, such as the Google AI Overviews that appear at the top of Google search results.
The takeaway? To keep up with the changing digital landscape, businesses must optimise for both traditional search engines and AI generated search.
Generative Engine Optimisation explained
Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO, is a comms strategy designed specifically for the age of AI. It ensures that content is easily discoverable, clearly understood, and effectively referenced by AI-powered search engines and chatbots like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Meta AI, Claude, and Grok.
Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses primarily on keywords and backlinks, GEO tailors content for AI models that deliver information in concise, conversational answers. Imagine asking a librarian to find you a copy of a book (SEO), versus asking a research assistant with knowledge of exactly what you are searching for and why you’ve gone to the library in the first place (GEO).
Three tips for getting started with GEO
1. Strengthen AI’s view of your brand
AI systems draw on a wide range of sources to generate answers. Editorial coverage in respected outlets plays a big part, as do company-owned channels. This makes media relations more valuable than ever: securing interviews, commentary, or features in trusted media publications gives AI models credible references to draw on.
At the same time, maintaining a steady flow of blogs, website updates, and press releases ensures your own content is present in the mix. Together, these inputs shape how AI recognises and represents your brand.
2. Write for intent, not just keywords
Whereas a traditional search engine uses keywords to provide outputs, AI search goes one step further by also interpreting user intent and context. This means its results are more precise and personalised – and through machine learning, result accuracy is continually improving.
Creating authentic content that speaks to real audience pain points and is rich with insights and advice will help your content get picked up in the right places by AI. Moreover, AI systems favour comprehensive, constructive content – so when addressing challenges or problems, it’s important to frame them alongside practical solutions and actionable guidance. This doesn’t mean avoiding difficult topics, but rather presenting them in a balanced way that genuinely serves your audience’s needs.
3. Make GEO a core metric
Businesses should treat GEO the same way they track performance across other marketing channels, incorporating it into regular reporting. Monitoring how your brand appears in generative AI outputs and understanding which queries drive visibility and engagement provides valuable insight into overall marketing effectiveness.
Without comprehensive tracking, you risk losing traffic, leads, and even authority to competitors who are actively optimising for AI engines. Integrating GEO metrics into performance dashboards ensures that AI-driven visibility becomes a deliberate and measurable part of your brand’s growth strategy.
The future of content
We are seeing a paradigm shift in how we create, consume, and search for content. For brands, the next 6 – 12 months are critical. Those who invest now in GEO – building credible media visibility, structuring content for AI interpretation, and tracking performance – will be poised for the opportunities that GEO brings. Those who wait risk fading from view in the very channels where decisions are increasingly being shaped.
