Agentic AI and Generative Engine Optimization: A Practical AI SEO Framework for Marketers
October 15, 2025
October 15, 2025
Will an AI bot recommend you or your competitor? If that question keeps you up at night, you’re not alone. Cisco (2025) predicts that over 68% of customer interactions may be handled by agentic AI by 2028. Users aren’t just searching on ChatGPT anymore, they’re asking trained AI agents for answers, recommendations, and even decisions. For marketers and brands, this shift poses a hard question: When AI generates the next big answer, will your brand be in it? That’s why you need Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
Generative Engine Optimization is the art and science of making your brand visible inside AI-generated answers. But only those who adopt this early, especially in the era of agentic AI, will dominate the new SEO landscape.
This article breaks down why early adopters win, how agentic AI changes the game, and a practical GEO framework your team can start applying today.
Agentic AI refers to intelligent systems that can reason, act, and make decisions autonomously, beyond traditional chatbots or LLMs like basic ChatGPT. IBM calls them “the dominant innovation narrative for 2025.
A study by McKinsey (2025) for a Banking Institute found a potential 20% to 60% increase in productivity, including a 30% improvement in credit turnaround after they implemented an Agentic AI.
ChatGPT and Gemini answer questions. Agentic AI might schedule your next meeting, optimize an ad campaign, or recommend which hotel you should book. Microsoft (2025) describes the trend as organizations moving to an “AI-first” model where agents + Copilot + human ambition combine.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is how brands make themselves visible inside AI answers, not just on SERPs. It’s a new frontier beyond SEO where optimizing titles, meta details and backlinks are no longer the go-to. Instead, it optimizes prompts, citations, sentiments and AI context.
In the context of AI Agents, Generative Engine Optimization is the most vital element every marketer and brand needs to have configured into their marketing strategy. GEO ensures AI agents “know” your brand, trust it, and use it when generating answers for Agentic queries.
For example:
Forbes (2025) highlights what it calls the “60% Problem”, which means nearly 60% of searches now end without a single click. With the rise of AI-generated answers and Search Overviews, some businesses are already seeing a 15–64% drop in organic traffic for key queries.
More search is being answered before a user ever clicks, and many of those answers are generated by AI agents. If your brand isn’t visible there, you lose.
Right now, most businesses are still playing catch-up with traditional SEO metrics, domain authority, backlinks, and CTRs. Meanwhile, early adopters of Generative Engine Optimization are shaping how AI agents learn about their brands.
Instead of reacting to AI’s output and following the path set by AI, GEO-focused brands influence their narrative by defining it for AI. LLMs learn about you through a process called RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation). They pull information from your brand and what others say about your brand. Early adopters can map out which prompts matter.
An eco-hotel chain, using BrandRadar to optimize its prompt structures and citation strategy, achieved a 40% increase in AI-assistant mentions across platforms like Perplexity and ChatGPT.
Being cited once by an AI system helps the AI “learn” that your content is high quality. Every generative model pulls its context from somewhere, web pages, reviews, social content, news mentions. That increases the chance your brand appears again more consistently. The early edge compounds. It’s also called Snowballing where once you’re regarded as trustworthy, the higher the chances of being referred to in the future. The key step here is to develop content that AI likes. Traditional SEO has always been about originality, creating unique content that stands out. But Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is about context relevance and AI-friendly structure.
AI agents, much like large language models, form associations with your brand based on the sentiments and signals they encounter. Built on Belief, Desire, Intention (BDI) architecture, these systems develop “beliefs” about your brand after scanning thousands of sources, shaping how they respond to user prompts. That means your brand’s digital reputation directly influences AI’s perception of you.
For instance, when using a Generative Engine Optimization tool like BrandRadar, a sentiment score above 50 indicates positive brand trust, while a neutral or negative sentiment can quietly erode your credibility across countless AI-generated answers.
A common misconception is that GEO replaces SEO. In reality, they work together. SEO ensures your content is discoverable on the web. GEO ensures that the same content is interpreted correctly by AI, so an ideal Answer Engine Optimization marketing strategy is a combination of both.
Our GEO specialists created a simple and effective 5-step framework to win Agentic AI as third party businesses looking to be recommended by agents across regions and LLMs.
It all begins with understanding where you currently stand and where you want to go. Start by clearly;
Next, identify what real users are asking AI about your industry. These are your search prompts. Prompts are the backbone of a Generative Engine Optimization strategy, just like how keywords are for SEO.
For example, questions like “best SaaS analytics tools for startups” or “top eco-luxury resorts in Bali 2025” are what generative engines see every day. But over millions of different prompts are being generated daily, and finding the ones that are relevant to your brand is no easy task.
BrandRadar is one of the most advanced Generative Engine Optimization tools in the market that helps uncover trending prompts, competitor ranking, live test variants, and prioritize by relevance and search intent. The goal is to discover and own the prompts that your target audience is actually asking AI, not just what they type into Google.
AI visibility isn’t static, you must track visibility scores and prompt mentions against your competitors constantly. Unlike Google search, ranking on LLMs and AI agent recommendations can change within days or even hours. If a competitor is dominating prompts like “top CRM for SaaS startups” or “best wellness retreat in Southeast Asia,” analyze what’s driving it. Is it better content? stronger backlinks? or more citations?
AI retraining cycles, including RAG updates and model refreshes, can quickly reshape what’s visible and what’s not. That’s why regular audits are essential. You need to refine your prompts, strengthen partnerships with credible sources, and continuously refresh your content to stay ahead.
Content remains the cornerstone of any successful AEO optimization strategy. Once your Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) framework is in place, the next step is creating content designed for AI and humans. Remember, AI comprehension isn’t the same as AI-generated content. Your material should be contextual, verifiable, helpful, and original, just like strong SEO content, but structured for how AI systems interpret and retrieve information.
AI models favor answer-first formats, structured logic, and references from reputable sources. To align your content with this new paradigm, use a cross-platform content generation platform that analyzes your brand, industry, prompts, and goals, and guides you on exactly what to create to stay discoverable in AI-driven search.
Think of your Generative Engine Optimization framework as a continuous loop, not a one-time setup. The AI landscape evolves rapidly, and so should your strategy. For example, if a travel engine like Perplexity starts favoring certain types of destination content, you’ll want to adapt early. Staying agile means regularly monitoring and adapting to shifts in visibility, prompt trends, and trusted citation sources.
Being proactive here means your brand doesn’t just keep up, it stays ahead of algorithmic and conversational shifts in AI-driven search.
As Agentic AI becomes the default interface between people and information, your brand’s presence inside these intelligent systems will define your growth, credibility, and customer reach.
Early adopters of Generative Engine Optimization are already shaping how AI interprets their stories, while others are still optimizing for yesterday’s search engines. GEO isn’t just a marketing upgrade; it’s a strategic imperative for survival in an AI-driven marketplace.
Your next customer won’t be searching, they’ll be asking an AI. Make sure your brand is part of the answer. Discover where you stand in the AI Space! Book a FREE Demo today!
