Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Market Opportunity and Future Impact
This article examines the market opportunity for GEO – including its growth potential, how it compares to traditional SEO, early adoption case studies, and investment trends shaping marketing strategies.
Market Size & Growth Potential of GEO
The market forces behind GEO are strong and powerful to say the least. The broader AI industry is exploding – forecasts project the global AI market to reach $826 billion by 2030. Within digital marketing, search is on the verge of a transformation due to generative AI. Traditional SEO already commands significant investment (estimated at $89 billion globally in 2024 with growth to ~$144B by 2030), and GEO represents a fast-growing new segment of that search spend since it's complimentary to SEO. The market is expected to grow rapidly month by month as more people adopt AI chat platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, as we can see below.
Consumer behavior is driving this growth. Users are rapidly turning to AI search tools for answers:
•Soaring usage of AI search: In a recent Gartner survey, 79% of consumers said they expect to use AI-enhanced search in the next year, and 70% already trust generative AI search results. Gen Z in particular is leading the charge – around 70% of Gen Z report using generative AI tools , signaling a generational shift in search habits.
•Traffic moving to AI engines: Early data shows AI chatbots are starting to send traffic to websites. An Ahrefs study of 3,000 sites found 63% of websites now receive at least some visits from AI chatbots. Although the volume is small today (only ~0.17% of website traffic on average), the trend is upward – and those visits represent high-intent users seeking specific answers.
Data from Ahrefs (Feb 2025) shows ~63% of sites studied received traffic from AI chatbots, indicating broad early adoption of generative search. Generative AI is quickly becoming a new channel for web visits, even if current volumes per site remain modest.
Our internal key insight is that even when search volumes are low, users who are searching are highly motivated and looking for solutions to their questions. This means that the traffic reaching your service has a greater chance of converting. We can confidently say this is true because we are receiving international leads from various AI chats. This success is a result of optimizing our approach and ensuring we appear in the topics people are actively seeking answers for. And we know that since we have started early, we can expect this new marketing channel to work on our behalf in the future as well for our growth!
Critically, AI-driven search usage is expected to skyrocket. Gartner predicts that by 2026, traditional search engine volume will drop 25% as users turn to AI assistants. By 2028, organic search traffic could decrease by 50% or more as generative AI search becomes mainstream. In other words, a large chunk of the search market (and its marketing spend) is migrating to AI platforms. Marketers are responding: a late-2023 survey of enterprise SEO teams found 86% have already integrated AI into their SEO strategy, and 82% plan to invest more in AI initiatives going forward. The budget for GEO and AI-focused content optimization is thus growing at double- and triple-digit rates, even if it’s a small slice of the pie today. Nearly half of businesses still allocate <10% of SEO budgets to AI tools, but that is changing rapidly as success stories emerge.
Key takeaway: The growth potential for GEO is enormous. With consumers turning into AI search and traffic shifting, GEO could command a major share of search marketing budgets within the next 2–3 years. Some estimates suggest chatbot-style search engines might drive one-third of all organic traffic for B2B sites within three years from now (2025). We also see that companies are already putting significant money into their SEO efforts, so GEO is seen as a complementary effort, so there is money being poured into it.
GEO vs. Traditional SEO: Shifting Strategies and Budgets
GEO is not “SEO as usual.” Generative Engine Optimization and Search Engine Optimization share the same goal – making your brand visible when users search – but they target very different algorithms. Traditional SEO focuses on ranking high in web search results (e.g. Google SERPs) through keywords, backlinks, and technical site tweaks. GEO, by contrast, focuses on ensuring AI answers include your content. In practical terms, that means new optimization strategies:
•From keywords to context: While SEO revolves around matching keywords and earning links, GEO emphasizes providing rich contextual content that an AI model will find valuable. This means writing in a clear, structured way (using step-by-step lists, concise summaries, and proper formatting) so that AI can easily digest and accurately summarize your content. It also means focusing on entities (people, products, brands) and facts. For example, an AI answer engine will pull specific stats, definitions, and snippets – so content that cites data or provides concise answers is more likely to be referenced.
•Multi-source optimization: Unlike a search engine, an AI like ChatGPT doesn’t just pick one result – it synthesizes from multiple sources. GEO therefore extends beyond your website. Brands need to ensure their presence across the web (on forums, Q&A sites, Wikipedia, industry publications, etc.) is strong, since LLMs draw on a broad corpus. This is a shift in budget allocation: marketers are investing in off-site content and data (entity listings, knowledge graphs, citations) to bolster their brand’s authority in the AI’s training data.
•Technical differences: Traditional SEO technical best practices (fast load times, mobile optimization, schema markup) still matter for GEO – a well-structured site is easier for AI to parse. But GEO introduces new technical priorities, like LLM-friendly metadata and ensuring your content is accessible to AI crawlers or APIs. Some are dubbing this “Artificial Intelligence Optimization (AIO)” – optimizing the data and structure as much as the content, so that AI systems can ingest it.
•Performance measurement: In SEO, you track keyword rankings and organic traffic. In GEO, success is measured in AI referral traffic and brand mentions in AI outputs. Marketers are starting to monitor how often their brand or pages are cited by AI (for example, tracking referrals from ChatGPT or Bing Chat in analytics). This is prompting budget shifts toward tools that analyze AI-driven visibility.
Is GEO cannibalizing SEO and SEM budgets? To an extent, yes – companies are beginning to reallocate marketing spend. For instance, search marketing is projected to lose market share to AI chatbots and virtual assistants by 2026. We’re seeing early signs of this reallocation: some brands are trimming marginal PPC spend or SEO content volume to fund AI-focused content initiatives (such as creating an “LLM-ready” knowledge hub). According to one industry survey, only ~6.5% of companies currently allocate more than half of their search budget to AI, but the vast majority plan to increase AI spend year-over-year. In essence, GEO is supplementing traditional SEO – but quickly. The two are integrated strategies now. As Kimmo Ihanus from Superlines said, “Traditional SEO alone just isn't enough anymore. Brands should start integrating GEO into their strategies to unlock growth from this new marketing channel”. SEO isn’t dead – Google search still delivers huge traffic – but GEO is capturing a growing share of attention and budget as marketers seek visibility wherever their potential customers ask questions.
Importantly, experts view GEO as complementary, not a replacement for SEO. Think of GEO as a new layer on top of SEO: you still need to rank on Google and you need content that AI will consider authoritative. In fact, many GEO best practices start with solid SEO foundations (quality content, strong site authority). The consensus is that for now, as Superlines' Co-Founder Kimmo Ihanus also states, “We see that a hybrid approach that incorporates both traditional SEO and GEO strategies is recommended". However, the balance of effort is indeed shifting. Marketing leaders are already preparing for an AI-first search future – 94% of senior marketers say they feel prepared to optimize for AI search, with 42% “very prepared”. This indicates that internally, budgets and teams are being aligned to make GEO a core competency. We can see this also happening in the EU and the Nordics, which are from our own experience, always a bit behind of the US in technology adaptation.
Internal Insight: Want a deeper dive into how AI-driven search differs from Google’s approach? Check out our guide on the differences between search engines and generative AI for a breakdown of how generative models retrieve and rank information versus traditional search algorithms (and what that means for optimization).
Early Adopters & GEO Case Studies
Being a promising new field, Generative Engine Optimization has early adopters across industries. Companies that rely on search visibility – from content publishers to e-commerce giants – aren’t waiting to adapt. Here are some examples and results from the GEO frontier:
•B2B and Tech Industries: B2B brands, especially in tech and software, are quickly looking into GEO as “table stakes” for visibility. Business buyers are beginning to use tools like ChatGPT or Bing Chat to research solutions (“What are the top project management softwares?”). If an AI confidently recommends a vendor – with content drawn from that company’s site or thought leadership – it can heavily influence the buyer since those are the only results available for the buyer in that conversation notes Jere Meriluoto. GEO is “gaining momentum in B2B marketing” and is critical for brands to maintain visibility in AI-driven conversations. We see B2B companies creating AI-targeted content (like detailed guides, data sheets, and authoritative articles) so that AI models have high-quality material to pull from when answering industry questions and the emphasis here is on high quality material, because we all have seen AI created blogs that are simply just low quality spam.. GEO in B2B often involves ensuring your brand’s data is part of AI training/finetuning sets, and publishing content in AI-accessible formats (e.g. structured data, explicit citations) to be the source that AI quotes.
•Knowledge and Education Sites: Publishers of informational content (how-to guides, encyclopedias, Q&A forums) are seeing generative search both as a threat and an opportunity. On one hand, if AI provides answers without clicks, their traffic can drop; on the other, if the AI cites them, they still get visibility and can even become a preferred source. Some industries like health and finance are moving cautiously (Google limits AI answers there for accuracy ), but others (e.g. DIY home improvement, coding help, etc.) are embracing GEO tactics to ensure their expertise is reflected in AI outputs. Companies like Stack Overflow or WebMD, for example, are exploring how to feed data to LLMs or mark up content so that AI assistants reference them as authoritative sources. This “answer engine” optimization is a natural extension of SEO for content-heavy industries. Informational content is king (like Neil Patel would say) in the AI world – over 70% of AI chatbot referrals in a quick first-hand study went to blog posts and informational pages conducted by Superlines, versus tiny fractions to product or landing pages. Businesses that have invested in content marketing and thought leadership are finding their content surfacing in generative answers, driving new visitors to their site.
•E-commerce Pioneers Optimizing Product Content: Online retailers are tackling a unique challenge – how to get products and shopping info into AI-driven search results. Forward-thinking e-commerce brands are experimenting with GEO by structuring their product content for AI consumption. For example, startup Ecomtent (focused on GEO for retail) helped large retailers pilot AI-optimized product descriptions at scale. The result: those retailers saw significantly improved presence in AI shopping assistants and new discovery channels. (Two major retailers with $11B+ in revenue have already completed successful pilots using GEO techniques to feed AI search results .) The pilots indicate that structured, rich product content (with clear specs, use cases, and even visual context) can make an AI more likely to recommend those products. Another example is how travel and marketplace sites are integrating with AI – Expedia and Kayak built plugins so ChatGPT would include their offerings when users ask about flights or hotels. In lieu of a plugin, GEO can ensure your e-commerce site’s FAQs, guides, and product info are formatted for AI. Early adopters in retail are seeing more AI referrals and engagement by doing things like adding schema markup and Q&A sections that chatbots readily use.
•SaaS and B2B Adapting Content Strategies: SaaS companies and B2B marketers, who traditionally rely on SEO for lead generation, are also embracing GEO. Their approach has been to create AI-friendly knowledge bases and thought leadership pieces. Those that proactively optimize (by answering common industry questions on their site, for instance) are positioning themselves to be the sources AI trusts. Here at Superlines we have noticed that small businesses can actually have an edge with GEO if they produce niche, expert content – even if they lack the domain authority for top Google rankings, an AI might surface their content if it directly answers a specific question. This has led some startups (*cough cough*, including Superlines) to invest in targeted long-form content addressing very specific problems their product solves, essentially aiming to “be the answer” an AI provides. Early results include increased brand mentions in AI chats and anecdotal evidence of prospects saying “I first heard about you via ChatGPT.” Here you can see a LinkedIn post that Superlines' CEO & Co-Founder Jere Meriluoto shared about SaaS Company called Sortlist reporting that ChatGPT is their newly unlocked channel for revenue growth.
•Success metrics emerging: Companies already doing GEO are starting to report measurable gains. One often-cited study (by researchers at Princeton and others) found that applying GEO best practices can boost a content source’s visibility by up to 40% in AI-generated results. In practice, this might mean an AI answer that previously listed 5 sources might rank a GEO-optimized page higher among those sources, or include an additional detail from that page. Another metric: Some businesses saw a 30% improvement in impressions (how often their content was referenced) after adopting GEO strategies, along with reduced marketing costs by 30% due to more efficient content reuse. While individual results vary, these cases illustrate that GEO can drive real ROI – whether through increased traffic from AI portals, higher trust (being cited by an AI lends credibility), or cost savings as content is repurposed across channels.
Across industries, the pattern is clear: the companies that treat AI search as a new marketing channel, and invest in it early, are enjoying the benefits. Whether it’s a financial info site doubling down on citable facts, an e-commerce player restructuring data for AI, or a SaaS firm creating an answer hub, early GEO adopters are capturing organic AI visibility that competitors may miss. This first-mover advantage can translate to brand awareness and traffic that compounds over time (much like early SEO adopters built durable search rankings).
Investment Trends & Business Implications
The rise of GEO is not only a marketing trend – it’s also a growing focus for investors, tech companies, and forward-thinking organizations. Significant investment dollars and resources are flowing into AI search optimization, which underscores the market opportunity. Here’s a look at the trends:
•Venture Capital bets on GEO solutions: Investors see that companies will need new tools and expertise to navigate AI-driven search. This has led to a wave of funding for startups in the GEO and AI SEO space. For example, Ecomtent, a startup specializing in generative search optimization for retailers, recently raised $850,000 in pre-seed funding to expand its platform. Notably, the round was led by an accelerator fund with participation from Techstars x eBay Ventures and retail industry angels, signaling confidence that GEO will be critical for e-commerce. We’re also seeing broader AI content startups incorporate GEO features – companies like Scalenut (an AI content platform) are marketing themselves as solutions for “AI-powered SEO” . Overall, dozens of startups globally are now tackling AI search, whether by building analytics for AI visibility, content optimization tools, or even new AI-first search engines. (Generative AI search engines themselves, like Perplexity.ai, have garnered major VC investment – Perplexity is valued at over $500M after backing from VCs and even Jeff Bezos – highlighting how hot the space is.) The VC interest indicates a belief that businesses will pay for GEO technology to maintain their digital presence.
•Big tech and marketing platforms are investing: It’s not just startups like Superlines since established SEO and martech companies including agencies are rapidly integrating GEO capabilities. SEO software firms like Moz, Semrush, and Ahrefs are developing ways to measure AI-driven traffic. Even content management systems are adapting – expect your CMS or analytics provider to add AI search insights soon if they haven’t already. This corporate investment means marketing teams will have new GEO data and tools at their fingertips, making it easier to justify budget in this area.
•Marketing budgets are shifting strategically: As mentioned, surveys show an overwhelming majority of large companies plan to boost spending on AI in marketing. In practice, CMOs are reallocating portions of their search budget to GEO experimentation. For instance, some organizations have created new roles or task forces for AI Search Optimization, pulling talent from SEO, content, and data teams. The cost of content is another factor – if generative AI answers mean fewer clicks to websites, marketers are thinking about content value in new ways. Why spend thousands on an article that might get zero clicks because the AI answered the query? This is driving a shift toward content that serves dual purposes: it still works for SEO and it’s tailored for AI (e.g. offering unique insights or data an AI might include, rather than generic text). In 2025, we’ll see marketing teams budget for things like LLM audits (assessing how an AI perceives their brand), data partnerships (feeding product info into AI platforms), and specialized GEO training. A recent survey of 300 marketing leaders found 94% feel prepared to optimize for AI search – a sign that budgets and plans are aligning accordingly.
•Predictions for 2025 and beyond: We don't have to predict that GEO will become a standard part of digital strategy by 2025-2026 because we are already witnessing it. As generative AI gets integrated into everyday search (think Google’s Search Generative Experience rolling out globally), every brand will need an AI visibility strategy. Gartner’s bold forecasts (25% less search traffic by 2026 , 50% by 2028 ) illustrate what’s at stake – marketers who ignore GEO risk losing half their organic reach in the coming years. On the positive side, those who begin early with GEO could capture new market share in a less crowded new marketing channel. By late 2025, expect to see case studies of companies that significantly grew their business via AI referral traffic or branding. We may also see convergence of SEO and GEO tools into unified search optimization suites. And as AI continues to evolve (e.g. multimodal search, voice assistants, etc.), GEO tactics will adapt – focusing on conversational keyword optimization, knowledge graph presence, and even optimizing for AI voice responses in cars or IoT devices.
In summary, GEO is reshaping marketing strategies. The investments being made – both financial and organizational – show that businesses recognize the implications of generative AI on search behavior. Marketing leaders are treating GEO as the next evolution of SEO, one that requires new skills and approaches but promises big rewards for those who get it right.
Preparing Your Marketing for GEO
For executives and marketing teams looking to capitalize on the GEO opportunity, here are a few actionable steps:
•Audit Your AI Visibility: Just as you track Google rankings, start auditing how (and if) your brand appears in AI-generated answers. Check tools (for example, Superlines’ AI Search Tracker ) that show where your content is being cited. This will reveal gaps – queries where competitors are getting mentioned but you aren’t.
•Optimize Content for AI Consumption: Begin updating key content to be GEO-friendly. This means adding structured elements (bulleted lists, concise summaries, FAQ sections) and authoritative references (data points, external citations) within your content. Remember, AI prefers content it can trust and parse easily. For example, include a quick stats box or a step-by-step answer at the top of an article – an AI might grab that for a direct response.
•Invest in Entity and Data SEO: Ensure your business is well-represented in structured data sources. Update your Wikipedia page, Wikidata entries, Google Business Profile, and industry directories. Consistent schema markup on your site (for products, articles, FAQs) can feed Google’s and other players generative AI. Essentially, feed the AI with accurate data about your brand so it’s more likely to include you.
•Balance and Reallocate Marketing Spend: Don’t cut your SEO budget wholesale, but do carve out a portion (even 5-10% to start) for GEO initiatives. This could fund content refreshes for AI, pilot projects with GEO tools, or training for your SEO/content team on AI trends. Monitor results from these experiments – if you start seeing a bump in AI-sourced traffic or leads, that’s your signal to ramp up investment.
•Stay Educated and Agile: The AI search space is evolving fast. Make GEO a standing agenda item in your marketing meetings. Encourage your team to follow the latest research and reports on AI search (e.g. subscribe to SEO newsletters that cover Bing Chat, Google SGE updates, etc.). What works for GEO today might change as AI models update, so an agile approach is key. As Gartner advises, be ready to “diversify your channels” and adapt as AI becomes more embedded.
By taking these steps, businesses can position themselves to ride the wave of generative search rather than be drowned by it. GEO offers a chance not just to defend your current search visibility, but to expand into new channels of customer engagement powered by AI. The market opportunity is clear: those who optimize for generative engines can win early marketshare (mindshare) with consumers – becoming the trusted answers that tomorrow’s searchers (and AI assistants) rely on.
Internal insight: We see loads of agencies contacting us and looking for answers online to seize the moment so to help their clients that want to gain AI chat visibility. In the Nordics, we have even witnessed some agencies doing full pivots into becoming a 'GEO agency' which is really cool in our opinion! If you are looking for more information for your own marketing team or whether you are an agency owner, you can also read our in-depth guide on "How to Optimize for Generative AI".
Conclusion
Generative AI in search represents one of the biggest opportunities in digital marketing since the rise of Google itself. Generative Engine Optimization is rapidly moving from an abstract acronym to a must-have strategy as the data increasingly shows AI-based search gaining traction. The market size and growth potential for GEO-related services and tools are significant, fueled by changing user behavior and large-scale investment. While GEO differs from traditional SEO in approach – focusing on context, authority, and AI-specific signals – it ultimately shares the same aim: capturing consumer attention. Far from rendering SEO obsolete, GEO is supplementing and transforming it, pushing marketers to innovate how they create and distribute content. We also see that AI Search is ultimately pushing businesses to provide better customer experience across channels due to multi-source scraping that LLMs do to validate the authority, experience and quality of the company's services. It's a win for the consumers that the overall best services will be showcased for them.
Early adopters across industries demonstrate that GEO can drive real results, from higher visibility (e.g. 40% boosts in AI citation rates ) to new customer acquisition channels. Their experiences underscore the need to be proactive and experiment now, while the field is still young. Meanwhile, investors and technology providers are racing to offer solutions, meaning marketers will have more support and sophisticated tools for GEO in the coming months.
We don't just talk the talk but we walk the walk. We are following the steps we share with others, which has led to Superlines gaining visibility in AI chats such as Gemini, ChatGPT and Perplexity, directly resulting in leads and revenue. -Superlines Growth Lead, Hannes Jersenius
And if you would like to learn more about Generative Engine Optimization or start tracking and optimizing your visibility, contact us at Superlines!
