Excited to be back after a brief 2-week hiatus due to the Antler Embark program launch in SF! Today, we're diving into the impact of AI on the massive USD 80-100B Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry. SEO is rapidly giving way to a new category—Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)—as users increasingly turn to AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity for their searches rather than traditional Google search.
A few intriguing trends that signal this shift from SEO to GEO:
👉 For the first time in 22 years, Google searches via Apple's Safari browser declined last month.
👉 Website traffic from Google searches is dropping—studies show that in up to 64% of searches, users find all necessary info directly on the results page, eliminating the need to click through to external websites.
👉 According to Capgemini’s 2025 consumer trends report, 58% of consumers prefer product recommendations from GenAI tools over traditional search engines, with 68% ready to act on these recommendations.
👉 71% of shoppers want GenAI integrated into their shopping experiences.
Check out this excellent market map by MMC Ventures (h/t: Advika Jalan, Mina Samaan) that clearly explains GEO, its necessity, and highlights 40 promising startups shaping this emerging space. (Link in comments)
Broadly, GEO is divided into three emerging segments:
1. Core GEO solutions: SEO and GEO differ significantly—SEO relies heavily on keywords and backlinks, whereas GEO focuses more on user intent, context, and memory. Core GEO solutions typically involve a 4-step optimization process:
- Construct synthetic queries
- Run queries through AI models and gather responses
- Analyze responses (visibility, accuracy/content gaps, sentiment analysis, benchmarking, citation analysis)
- Provide recommendations or execute optimizations through AI agents or human-in-the-loop services
2. AI Advertising: This is still a nascent field but full of potential. Innovations might include sponsored questions within chat interfaces, AI-native ad formats embedded into conversations, or contextually relevant sponsored content.
3. AI Discoverability Infrastructure: A completely revamped recommendation engine infrastructure is required for hyper-personalized, real-time recommendations based on user interactions in conversational AI platforms.
Clearly, the value is shifting dramatically from SEO to GEO, necessitating entirely new approaches and solutions. If you’re building in this exciting and rapidly evolving space, I'd love to connect. Feel free to comment, tag, or DM!
Rajiv Srivatsa, Nitin Sharma, Jasnoor Gill, Karan Prasad, Sankalp Sharma
MarketMapMondays GEO SEO AISearch AIDiscoverability GenerativeAI AITrends DigitalMarketing ContentMarketing TechInnovation AIAdvertising AIInfrastructure ConversationalAI Startups Innovation
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