I recently came across a fascinating discussion at the Adobe Summit, where Alexis Zamkow and Sandhya Ranganathan Iyer from IBM highlighted the urgent need for brands to modify their approach to SEO. As AI revolutionizes the way brands are discovered, IBM has developed a 12-part GEO playbook that every brand should consider to remain visible in AI-generated decisions.
The evolution of search is something I’m experiencing firsthand. AI tools now answer questions, compare products, and recommend brands without users even needing to visit a website. This means that if my brand isn’t included in this AI-generated narrative, I’m potentially out of the picture when decisions are made.
To stay relevant, merely updating tactics won’t suffice. A holistic system, namely a GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) playbook, is key. During their presentation, aptly named ‘Adapt or Disappear: How Brands Win with AI-Powered Search,’ Zamkow and Iyer emphasized this shift.
Embracing the AI Shift: Marketing to Machines
I’ve realized that AI agents now mediate the interaction between me and my customers. They simplify complex markets and often represent my brand to potential customers.
- As Zamkow aptly put it, “These machines are disintermediating the brand experience.”
In this new landscape, consumers heavily rely on AI for research and decision-making, businesses are quick to adopt AI solutions, and many searches conclude without any clicks.
Zamkow estimates that in the next couple of years, AI agents could account for 75% of search visibility, highlighting the importance of being included in the AI-generated answers themselves.
The GEO Playbook: 12 Essential Components
To navigate this shift, the speakers unveiled a 12-part playbook focusing on content, technology, and operations. It starts with creating a strategic content foundation which ensures that my messaging is clear and consistent across all platforms, building trust for both users and machines.
Ensuring my content meets retrieval-grade passage standards is crucial. Since AI extracts answers rather than ranking webpages, content clarity is key. I need to present information in concise, easy-to-understand sections.
Technical foundations can’t be ignored. It’s essential that my content is machine-readable with clean HTML, structured data, and pages that load content directly to maximize AI extraction.
I started by optimizing my on-site search to align with GenAI, making sure it can easily find relevant answers — a foundation for external AI search visibility.
Equally important is the AI search citation qualification model. Not just being mentioned, but cited by AI, boosts trust and credibility through consistent messaging and recognized expertise.
Through extraction optimization, I ensure my content is structured and rich in context to be easily pulled by AI tools.
Understanding that 85% of mentions come from external domains, I focus on a third-party strategy involving content mentioned across platforms like Reddit and social media, recognizing that PR and social teams are critical for search success.
Tracking new KPIs, such as AI mention frequency and citation locations, becomes essential, shifting my focus from mere traffic to AI recommendations.
I implement SOPs to maintain consistency in how my content is written, structured, and published, preventing confusion for AI systems.
With searches becoming conversational, I adopt prompting best practices, crafting content that aligns with users describing their queries in a more natural way.
Managing change across the entire organization involves training, goal alignment, and breaking down silos, emphasizing that this evolution is more than a marketing update; it’s transformational.
Continuous governance and versioning are critical. AI and competitor content change rapidly, making it vital to monitor, update, and maintain ownership of content changes.
From SEO Tactics to Comprehensive GEO Systems
We’re moving beyond traditional SEO, transitioning from keywords to prompts, links to citations, and from traffic-based metrics to validating our presence in AI answers. Importantly, it’s about building a system to continuously supply AI with accurate information.
A Leadership Issue
This transformation is rapidly becoming a leadership concern. As shared by Zamkow, this is no longer solely a matter for the SEO team; it’s a priority for CEOs, who need to recognize the importance of brand visibility in AI-based recommendations.
Adapt or Disappear
The AI-driven world is reshaping brand discovery. It’s trusted by consumers, utilized by businesses, and expanding quickly. Brands prepared with a comprehensive GEO playbook are poised to maintain visibility, while others risk being invisible in the digital landscape.
Inspired by this post on Search Engine Land.
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