The competition for brand visibility has moved to AI search

Are you destined to lead a brand that can no longer be found by the systems your customers trust most? The traditional digital discovery landscape has shifted so fundamentally that many established marketing playbooks now read like ancient history. As consumers continue to adopt AI-based search tools over traditional search methods, the risk of losing visibility in an already crowded marketplace is more top of mind than ever. 

Conductor’s recent research shows that nearly one-third of digital marketing leaders now prioritize generative engine optimization (GEO) as the most critical performance hurdle for digital growth in 2026. What’s more, 97% of digital leaders surveyed already report a positive impact from their GEO efforts, hinting at both an immediate opportunity and a race to capture visibility while it remains available.

The CMO’s new strategic mandate

CMOs’ strategic priorities have shifted rapidly. According to the research, an average of 12% of 2025 digital budgets was allocated to GEO initiatives, while 32% of digital leaders declared GEO their top priority for 2026. This investment growth also outpaces increases in paid channel allocations.

It’s not simply about riding the wave of the next big thing. It’s a strategic effort to capture AI market share while the door remains open. CMOs are beginning to recognize that answer engines act as gatekeepers, presenting only the brands they deem worthy in synthesized responses.

Strategic shifts of this magnitude require more than moving budget lines on a spreadsheet. Forward-thinking leaders are taking the following steps to maintain relevance:

• Securing AI market share before competitors become the default answer.
• Transitioning organizational focus from raw traffic volume to high-quality conversion attribution.
• Abandoning fragile, noncompliant scraping-based monitoring in favor of stable, API-based visibility insights.
• Establishing the brand as the source of truth for LLMs by prioritizing exclusive first-party data over generic content.

This new mandate is a race for dominance and the gap between leaders and laggards is likely to widen significantly.

Dig deeper: Why AI visibility is now a C-suite mandate

GEO is being insourced more than SEO was

Brands have traditionally relied on SEO agencies and external consultants to improve organic search performance. They are approaching GEO differently. From a tactical standpoint, enterprise teams are undergoing significant internal transformation. 

Rather than depending on outside agencies for specialized expertise, 93% of leaders are developing these capabilities in-house, 64% plan to upskill existing employees and 29% are recruiting for highly specialized AI roles. This signals a growing consensus that AEO and GEO expertise represent a long-term competitive advantage too valuable to outsource.

Executing this strategy requires a disciplined content approach that balances machine readability with human authority. Despite enthusiasm for AI search, creating AI-optimized content at scale was cited as the top challenge. Producing more words isn’t enough. Content must be technically structured for extraction. Teams are prioritizing the following must-haves:

• Robust implementation of structured data and schema to help LLM bots interpret content intent.
• Development of authoritative long-form guides that demonstrate deep topical expertise to AI crawlers.
• Publication of original research and first-party data that AI models can cite as primary sources.
• Continuous monitoring to ensure LLM bots do not encounter crawl errors that render content invisible.

In addition to a strong GEO strategy, a fully developed approach requires several tactical components. While distinct from some traditional SEO methods, it reflects the same blend of technical precision and strategic creativity.

Dig deeper: The new buyer decision cycle happens across SEO and GEO

Vanity metrics give way to quality-focused measurement

The concept of rankings shifts in an AI search-dominated landscape, leaving many traditional brand visibility and SEO metrics without clear GEO equivalents.

This shift is forcing brands to rethink how they measure marketing performance. Vanity metrics such as high-volume organic traffic and generic rankings are losing relevance as zero-click behavior increases. Leaders increasingly recognize that, while AI referral traffic is often lower in volume than traditional search traffic, those visitors convert at higher rates because they enter the decision-making process later. The result is a shift from a volume-driven to a quality-driven model.

Measuring this quality-focused funnel requires a new set of KPIs. With data quality cited as the top technology pain point, standard dashboards are no longer sufficient. More mature organizations are prioritizing the following metrics to assess their AI presence:

• Direct conversions and leads attributed specifically to AI search referral channels.
• Total AI search market share across major engines such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
• Brand sentiment within AI-generated responses to ensure narrative accuracy.
• Competitive benchmarking of brand mentions and domain citations against key industry rivals in AI outputs.

While SEO isn’t disappearing, the metrics used to measure success in traditional search will not fully translate to an AI-first environment.

Dig deeper: GEO isn’t a fad — but most GEO tactics won’t survive

A fast-closing window of opportunity

Brands without a head start risk falling behind quickly. High-maturity organizations are already spending nearly twice as much as lower-maturity peers on GEO, widening a visibility gap that may soon become difficult to close. 

Dependence on fully integrated GEO platforms is also increasing. Already, 79% of high-maturity organizations have moved beyond piloting point solutions, such as manually checking what ChatGPT says about their brand. If you are still “piloting” ChatGPT with branded queries, competitors are moving ahead.

The next stage of success in this new era of competition for brand visibility centers on four key trends marketing leaders should prioritize:

• The continued dominance of genAI tools such as ChatGPT as primary gateways for AI-driven brand discovery.
• Widespread adoption of API-based monitoring to capture visibility data that exists behind closed LLM interfaces.
• The rise of technical discoverability as a core competency across digital marketing teams.
• A shift toward source of truth status, with brands positioning themselves as definitive data sources for answer engines.

While the window remains open, brands that fail to invest adequately in GEO strategies and supporting tactics may face a headwind that is difficult to overcome.

Dig deeper: 5 ways to strengthen your brand in the age of AI

The path to becoming the default answer

AI search adoption has accelerated, fundamentally changing how consumers discover brands and products. As a result, GEO has become a primary objective for leaders seeking to gain AI search share and position their brands as trusted sources of truth. Implementing an effective GEO strategy requires building in-house expertise and maintaining disciplined content processes, including structured data, schema implementation and engine-readable long-form expert guides.

Success is now measured by quality-focused KPIs such as direct conversions from AI search and total AI market share. Brands must act quickly to implement integrated strategies or risk falling behind high-maturity competitors that are already investing at significantly higher levels. Organizations that delay major moves until later this year may find themselves playing catch-up. Winning the race for digital visibility requires aligning internal expertise, authoritative content and fully integrated technology.

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