If one of your 2026 marketing goals is to, “show up more in AI search,” you are not alone. It is one of the most common briefs landing on marketing desks right now, and the instinct is reasonable. AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are now a primary research channel for buyers, and being visible there matters.
The problem is that most teams are measuring the wrong thing; building their strategy around a metric that does not actually reflect whether AI is working for them.
Mentions Are Not the Same as Influence
When brands talk about GEO performance, they typically mean one thing: is our brand being cited in AI responses? That seems logical. If the AI recommends you, your strategy is working.
Here is what recent research from Demand Genius reveals: AI citations happen almost exclusively when a user is ready to make a decision. Think “which CRM should I buy” or “recommend a digital marketing agency in London Ontario.” At that stage, yes, your brand may get mentioned. But by that point, the AI has already decided who belongs on the shortlist. It formed that view much earlier, in conversations that left no trace in your analytics.
By the time a buyer asks AI for a recommendation, the real competition is already over.
The Conversations You Cannot See
Buyers now use AI throughout their research process, long before they are ready to choose a vendor or a product. They ask it to help them understand a problem, explore their options, and figure out what a good solution should include. These conversations do not generate clicks or referrals. They do not show up in your website traffic reports.
But they are where your brand’s relevance gets established or ignored.
When a buyer is in that early research phase, the AI is drawing on what it has learned from the content ecosystem in your category.
If your brand has contributed meaningfully to how the AI understands that space, you will be part of how it frames the problem. If you have not, you may never enter the conversation, regardless of how well your content is optimised for the final recommendation stage.
What This Means for Your GEO Plan
This is the shift that matters practically. GEO strategy needs to start earlier in the buyer journey, not at the point where buyers are ready to choose.
Stop optimising only for recommendations. Content written to position your brand as the obvious winner is less useful to an AI that is trying to help a buyer think through a problem. It helps once the buyer has already decided what they want. It does not help build the framework that gets them there.
Create content that adds something genuinely new. AI systems are well-stocked with generic category content. What earns early-stage influence is content that contributes a perspective, framework, or insight the AI cannot already synthesise from existing sources.
Original research, documented client experience, and clear points of view on how a category of problem should be approached all carry more weight than polished overviews of well-covered topics.
Measure differently. If your only GEO metric is whether your brand appears in bottom-of-funnel AI recommendations, you are measuring an outcome you can barely influence. A more meaningful question is whether your brand appears when AI is helping buyers explore and compare, not just when they are ready to decide. That requires testing prompts that reflect earlier-stage research questions, not just purchase-intent queries.
What to Tell Your Stakeholders
Being recommended by AI is a reasonable goal to set. But it is a lagging indicator of a deeper question: does your brand have enough credibility and relevance in your category that an AI naturally includes you when helping buyers think through a problem?
Building that credibility takes the same things it has always taken: genuine expertise, content that earns trust, and consistent presence across the channels your buyers use. GEO does not replace that work. It rewards it.
The brands that will win in AI search are not necessarily the ones that have figured out the right technical optimisation trick. They are the ones that have built a body of work that actually helps people understand their category better.
That is a longer game, but it is the one worth playing.
Ready to build a GEO strategy grounded in influence, not just visibility?
