To succeed in AI-powered search and discovery, brands need to provide richer, higher-quality data to platforms such as Google, Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic. These platforms increasingly rely on structured information to understand businesses, products and services – and ultimately determine which brands are surfaced in AI-generated responses.
The challenge is that the more data brands share, the more influence platforms gain over how those brands are represented.
When Search Becomes Answers
The shift is already underway.
Traditional search experiences built around pages of SEO-optimised links are rapidly evolving into AI-generated answers. Instead of browsing multiple websites, users ask a question, receive a tailored response and continue the conversation without ever leaving the platform.
This is the experience users have already become familiar with through ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
That does not mean traditional search is disappearing. However, it does mean the customer journey is fundamentally changing.
Rather than navigating between search results and websites, consumers increasingly engage in conversations. In many cases, just two or three prompts provide a more relevant answer than a conventional search ever could.
For consumers, this creates a faster, more intuitive experience.
For brands, it introduces a new challenge.
Driving traffic to owned channels becomes more difficult, and opportunities to influence the customer throughout the journey become fewer. Instead of multiple touchpoints, brands may only have one opportunity to become part of the recommendation.
Data Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
How do brands earn that recommendation?
With better data.
AI models evaluate significantly more variables than traditional search engines. They compare products, understand intent, assess customer needs and recommend solutions based on a much broader set of signals.
If brands want to appear in those recommendations, their products and services need to be easy for AI models to understand.
This is where Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) becomes increasingly important.
Where SEO focused on ranking in search results, GEO focuses on becoming part of the answer itself.
Success is no longer defined solely by clicks. Increasingly, it is about relevance, visibility and inclusion within AI-generated recommendations.
More Data. Less Control
This creates an inevitable tension.
Brands have long invested in building owned channels and controlling their customer experience. Yet AI-driven discovery requires communicating in formats that platforms can easily interpret.
The more structured and comprehensive the data shared with these platforms, the better the chances of being recommended.
However, that also means giving platforms greater influence over how products, services and brands are presented.
At the same time, competition for visibility is likely to become more intense, making inclusion in AI-generated responses both harder and potentially more expensive.
Maintaining a narrow focus on traditional performance metrics such as clicks, traffic and CPC may no longer provide a complete picture of success.
As AI increasingly mediates discovery, brands will need to rethink how value is measured.
Three Actions to Consider Today
As AI-powered discovery continues to evolve, organisations should focus on three priorities:
Evaluate your AI visibility
Review how your website, products and services are interpreted by AI models. Is your content structured in a way that makes it easy for generative engines to understand?
Strengthen your data foundations
Assess your product feeds, metadata and structured content. Rich, accurate and consistent data will increasingly determine whether your brand appears in AI-generated recommendations.
Define your AI data strategy
Be deliberate about what information you share with AI platforms, where you choose to retain control, and how you will measure success in a world where visibility may matter more than website traffic.
The Real Trade-Off
AI rewards brands that are easiest to understand.
That creates a genuine strategic dilemma.
Share more, and platforms gain greater influence over your brand.
Share too little, and you risk becoming invisible in the moments that matter most.
The future of discovery will not be won solely through rankings or traffic. It will be shaped by which brands AI chooses to recommend.
