• by Nicholas Papagiannis , Yesterday

In just months, the online consumer landscape has changed decisively. Today’s consumer and B2B buyers aren’t “googling and clicking.” They’re going directly to AI-powered assistants that serve up instant answers, bypassing traditional web search results altogether. 

In 2025, nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults reported their first answer on health, home, or product questions came from AI-driven platforms, according to a Menlo Ventures study. That means brands are no longer competing for links on page one; they’re fighting to be cited as the definitive answer in conversational, generative AI results.

Marketers can’t afford to treat this shift as just another SEO tweak. It’s the new front in brand visibility, and those that move first will win trust, authority, and revenue. 

From SEO to AEO: Playing by New Rules

Answer engine optimization (AEO) is not an add-on to traditional SEO. It's a transformation in how brands are discovered, chosen, and trusted. While traditional SEO helps you rank for links, AEO ensures your brand is cited and summarized by AI platforms like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google Gemini.

Each platform processes content differently: Perplexity favors structured FAQs, ChatGPT blends media and brand sites, Gemini prioritizes authoritative publishers, and Claude maps to reputable third-party reviews. There’s no universal playbook; marketers must optimize for each platform and a rapidly diversifying search ecosystem.

Why It Matters for Brand Visibility, Trust, and Revenue

Your brand’s revenue is at risk if your insights or support content doesn’t appear as AI-sourced answers. When that happens, your competitors can intercept customers in their moment of need and potentially take your sales.

Trust is a growth engine. For example, when Air Canada updated its refund policy FAQ, major AI tools and news sites began using Air Canada’s own information instead of relying on third-party sources. By providing clear, up-to-date answers, Air Canada became the go-to source, which resulted in more authority for the brand.

Lowe’s made its garden care advice easy for AI to find and share, ensuring its answers showed up in AI search results right when people were getting ready to plant for the season. This strategic embrace of AI turned online expertise into more in-store sales.

To realize AEO’s value at enterprise scale, marketers should:

Audit for AI readiness: Evaluate how well your content answers consumer questions and meets AI-friendly standards for clarity, authority, accuracy and structure. Consider building LLM scorecards or metrics that can measure these key aspects and incorporate them into the production process.   

Drive earned mentions beyond owned channels: Remember that AI relies on third-party validation, not just self-published material. Invest in PR to secure brand mentions in independent forums, media coverage, review sites, and trusted industry publications.

Track LLM presence: Success for AEO isn’t just traffic, but AI citation and brand mentions. Benchmark your brand’s presence with an AEO dashboard that tracks answer results across major platforms. 

Tie AEO to business outcomes: Map AEO visibility to customer journeys, conversions, and revenue to identify high-impact opportunities.

Build an always on content strategy: Continually publish and optimize content for AI discoverability, amplifying it through social,emails, and other channels to raise awareness. 

The AEO race is underway, and it’s a sprint.  If your brand isn’t in the conversation, you’re invisible. And invisibility doesn’t sell.