The rules of discoverability just went undercover—again. Gone are the days when SEO meant ranking for a handful of shiny keywords. Welcome to the era of agentic AI, where highly capable digital operatives like OpenAI’s Operator, Google Gemini and Amazon Rufus aren’t just generating content—they’re on a mission.
These AI agents don’t scroll. They don’t skim. They investigate, weigh options and make decisions on behalf of your potential customers, sometimes in mere seconds. If your brand isn’t in their crosshairs, your competitors will be.
Enter generative engine optimization—code name: GEO. Your toolkit for charming algorithms, cracking their code and making sure your brand is the one recommended when AI agents call the shots. It’s the new discipline of ensuring your brand shows up favorably in the AI-generated outputs that increasingly shape decisions. And unlike SEO, which fights to win over human searchers, GEO’s real audience is an algorithm that thinks in context, not clicks.
For brands, this marks a fundamental shift in how influence is earned. AI agents are poised to become the new gatekeepers between your message and your market—prioritizing accuracy, clarity and credibility above all else. Marketing and PR strategies can no longer be designed solely for human audiences; they must be crafted to resonate with both people and the intelligent systems advising them. In this new era, success will belong to brands whose stories are not only compelling but machine-readable, verifiable and positioned to rise to the top of an AI-driven recommendation.
For marketers, that means the battleground has shifted. You’re no longer just fighting for a click—you’re fighting to be the choice an AI agent recommends. Which is exactly where GEO comes in.
First, What Exactly Is an AI Agent?
These aren’t your typical chatbots or search tools. AI agents are autonomous systems that can research, evaluate and make recommendations on your behalf. Think of them as personal researchers for the digital age. Ask one to find the best CRM for a mid-sized retail business, and it won’t send you ten blue links to sift through—it will analyze product reviews, case studies, reports and even Reddit threads, then tell you which CRM you should choose and why. They’re not browsing like humans. They’re synthesizing data from across the web, weighing credibility and delivering a decision in one neat package.
From Search Rankings to “Part of the Answer”
If SEO was about climbing search rankings, GEO is about becoming the recommendation itself. It’s no longer enough to just appear on page one of Google; you want AI agents to cite you, reference you and ultimately deliver your brand as the answer.
If generative engine optimization is the practice of ensuring your brand, product or service is favorably represented in AI-generated outputs, then answer engine optimization, or AEO, is the outcome: your brand shows up in the AI’s summary or recommendation. GEO is the heavy lifting: structuring your content, establishing authority and signaling trustworthiness. AEO is the payoff when your audience actually sees you as a go-to resource. Both are critical, but GEO is where the magic—and the effort—happens.
Why PR Just Became Your GEO Powerhouse
Here’s the kicker: AI engines aren’t just scraping Wikipedia or top-tier sites like The New York Times. They’re pulling insights from trade publications, niche industry blogs and domain-specific experts. In some cases, a specialized manufacturing journal could outrank a global news outlet in AI’s eyes if the query is about logistics trends.
What does that mean for marketers?
- Outlet authority is the new ranking factor, and it’s hyper-specific to your industry.
- Earned media is pure gold—roughly half of LLM outputs cite it.
- Your PR strategy can be reverse engineered: track which outlets AI is citing most and go after them.
In short, PR isn’t just having a moment—it’s becoming the strategic center of GEO. The brands that can craft authoritative, timely and widely cited content will have a permanent seat at the AI recommendation table.
Your GEO Toolkit
Getting your brand into the AI conversation starts with a mindset shift: You’re not creating content just for humans anymore—you’re training algorithms to trust and recommend you. Here’s how to play the game:
- Optimize for AI consumption
Keep your content structured with H1s, H2s, bullet points, tables and FAQs. Add schema markup so LLMs can read your data like a pro. Sprinkle AI-specific keywords into bios and thought leadership content. Make your brand as machine-readable as it is human-readable.
- Leverage your PR and social signals
Press releases aren’t just announcements—they’re training data for AI. Post them online, distribute via the wire and maintain an ungated, crawlable media center. Every mention, share or citation signals trustworthiness to AI.
- Play in the right communities
Platforms like Reddit reward credibility. Build authority before sharing your exclusive content. Wikipedia is worth monitoring, but your own site and reviews on trusted platforms (think Gartner or TrustRadius) often wield more influence with LLMs.
- Audit your AI visibility
Ask the AI: “Who are the leaders in [your industry]?” If you don’t appear, you’ve got work to do. Track which sources AI cites for your space and target them directly—then rinse and repeat.
The Nuance Problem (and Why Humans Still Win)
AI engines are fast, but they’re not flawless. They can misread nuance, skew context and pull outdated information. That’s not just an accuracy problem—it’s a reputation risk. A proactive PR team can fact-check, correct and ensure your narrative stays clean and compelling.
In fact, as AI reshapes information flow, we might see a renaissance of high-quality, human-led journalism. Because, let’s be honest: Following a reporter with a beat, a voice and a POV still matters. Context, insight and storytelling aren’t fully replicable by AI—they can’t outhuman a human.
The Takeaway
Generative engine optimization isn’t a replacement for SEO—it’s just the next evolutionary layer. The brands that win won’t just appear when people search—they’ll appear when machines decide what’s worth showing. And if AI is the new gatekeeper of information, PR is your VIP pass. Craft authority, earn mentions and show up where it counts—because in the age of agentic AI, being part of the answer isn’t optional. It’s everything.
Want to punch up your PR strategy to be agentic AI-friendly? Hiebing can help. Email Nate Tredinnick at ntredinnick@hiebing.com to set up a call.