June 4, 2025
VP, Strategy
Artificial Intelligence (AI) ‘answer’ engines are quickly reshaping how people search, learn, and interact with brands. This moment is not just a time to adapt; it’s an opportunity to redefine how brands, marketers, and sales teams think and work to ensure their brands are included in AI-driven answers.
AI Answer engines – chat GPT, Perplexity, Meta AI, Gemini, Lama, Deepseek – are being used for research and discovery compared to search, which is primarily used to navigate to a website; for winners that are visible in this new channel, it means the stakes are high to learn how to be visible, and thus further impact the opportunity to be in ‘day one-vendor’ list that 90% of B2B buyers chose to buy from. (HBR: What B2Bs need to know about their buyers).
Here’s how to understand and monopolize on this quickly evolving new growth lever.
AI-driven information discovery has already fundamentally changed user behavior.
These changes, based on analyst reports, show that search engine traffic could decline by 25% by 2026 as more and more users turn to AI, chatbots and virtual assistants for answers.
This shift means that brand visibility is no longer just about ranking high on Google, or creating reach through brand building campaigns, it’s about securing strong visibility in AI-generated results.
As well as this, studies show that 54% of millennial buyers now prefer a sales process without human interaction (Forrester: Self-service Buying Is A Wake-Up Call For B2B Sales), and 95% of buyers anticipate using genAI to support their decision and purchase process in the next 12 months. (Forrester: To Master B2B Buying Mayhem, Providers Must Prioritize Buyers’ Needs).
The need for brands to be embedded within AI-driven search experiences early in the buyer’s journey is getting greater by the day.
AI answer engines is the new phrase on the Large Language Model (LLM) industry’s lips. Tracking your brand visibility across these AI tools helps businesses to assess their market penetration, competitive positioning, and customer perception.
And research shows that brands with higher visibility scores receive more organic mentions in AI-generated answers – a win-win. But how to get there?
A key driver is brand authority. An analysis of AI-generated responses found that for 82% of industry-related queries, multiple brands were mentioned, ranging from 2 to 16 per prompt.
This suggests that brands with stronger credibility and established digital footprints are more likely to be referenced by AI answer engines.
Some publishers, take The New York Times for example, have taken legal action against AI firms over content usage. While others have embraced AI partnerships to increase brand visibility.
PPC and SEO are not going away, yet Google, the leading player with billions of monthly global users, is launching AI experiments that are changing the quality and quantity of traffic to domains.
To understand the levers marketers, product managers, content creators and communications teams can take, the new discipline of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) has emerged.
To increase visibility in results, GEO focuses on optimizing content across four key attributes:
Studies show that effective GEO implementation can increase a brand’s visibility by approximately 40% across AI-generated queries. (GEO: Generative Engine Optimization).
Quickly identify your AI visibility baseline, then identify immediate steps to influence the main AI models across on-domain: pages to update and changes across the wider digital ecosystem that’s educating LLMS.
Identify the terms searchers are using and in which LLM your brand is likely to be visible. Evaluate how your teams can make it easier for LLMs to answer questions e.g., Use EEAT principles (expertise, experience, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) to build credibility by answering common What is…”, “How does…”, “Why choose…” questions. Evaluate FAQ sections to present real questions your ideal customer audience asks.
Know which paid publisher relationships will have a multiplier impact as their content also trains AI models.
Build the plan for cross-functional resource alignment and deployment.
Start to know what needs to be measured to show the brand’s visibility and propensity in AI models over time.
Understand how SEO and PPC will be impacted.
Identify the sites that are educating LLMs around your brand and product suite so relationships and partnerships can be fostered.
As people’s behaviors continue to change, engaging with their AI answer engine of choice, you have an opportunity to define your approach.
Wait and you could risk losing both visibility and valuable knowledge as this dynamic space evolves.
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