Search optimization just got a 2025 upgrade. Zeta Global (NYSE: ZETA), the AI Marketing Cloud, is launching a new feature called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), built directly into the Zeta Marketing Platform. The goal: help brands show up accurately—and advantageously—when consumers turn to generative AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude for answers instead of Google or Bing.

The product will roll out in the coming weeks, and the timing couldn’t be sharper. According to Gartner, query volume on traditional search engines will drop 25% next year, while Bain & Company reports that 80% of consumers already use generative AI for nearly half of their searches. For marketers, that’s less “How do I rank on page one of Google?” and more “How does ChatGPT describe me?”

From SEO to GEO

For two decades, the marketing playbook has revolved around SEO. Zeta’s new GEO tool flips that model to meet a consumer reality where AI-driven summaries, not blue links, are the gateway to discovery.

Inside the platform, marketers will be able to:

• Track brand visibility and sentiment across major AI models via an “AI Visibility Leaderboard.”

• Spot inaccuracies like hallucinations, misattributions, or off-brand messaging—and correct them.

• Optimize content for large language models with Q&A formats, summaries, and metadata tweaks.

• Benchmark competitors and measure “AI share of voice.”

• Unify PR, SEO, and content strategies around a single AI-facing playbook.

David A. Steinberg, Zeta’s Co-Founder and CEO, frames it bluntly: “Generative engines are becoming the new front door of digital discovery. If you’re not present and accurate in the answer box, you’re invisible.”

Why It Matters

The shift is bigger than just another marketing buzzword. GEO acknowledges that the rules of online visibility are being rewritten by AI—and fast. While SEO has matured over 20 years into a data-driven science, GEO is still a frontier space, with no universal standards for how AI systems surface and cite information.

That creates both risk and opportunity. A brand that fails to appear (or appears incorrectly) in AI-generated answers risks disappearing from customer consideration. Conversely, those that adapt early could secure a defensible edge in what may become the next billion-dollar marketing category.

As Neej Gore, Zeta’s Chief Data Officer, put it: “The next 20 years will be about optimizing for generative engines that generate high quality visitors.”

Context: An Emerging Arms Race

Zeta isn’t the first to hint at the AI-SEO convergence, but its GEO solution arrives as marketers scramble to understand how generative AI is reshaping search. Rivals like BrightEdge and Conductor have rolled out early tools to monitor AI search visibility, while agencies are experimenting with “LLM-ready” content strategies. Zeta’s differentiator lies in integrating GEO directly into its full-stack marketing platform, pairing monitoring with immediate optimization recommendations.

Whether GEO evolves into a must-have feature or a niche experiment depends on how quickly consumer search habits continue to shift. But the writing is on the wall: for brands, optimizing for AI-generated answers could soon be as critical as buying keywords was in the Google era.

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