In this blog, Whiteoaks’ Associate Director, Zachary Harford, explores:
- Why GEO should become a board-level issue for B2B organisations
- How AI-led discovery is changing the way buyers research and validate suppliers
- How PR investment can help strengthen brand visibility in AI-generated answers
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) has quickly become one of the topics every marketing team is expected to have a view on, but for today’s B2B organisations, the implications go beyond marketing. Buyers are changing how they discover, compare and validate suppliers, and AI-led discovery is becoming part and parcel of that process.
Gartner predicts traditional search volume could fall by 25% by the end of 2026, and with around 60% of traditional searches already ending without a click, brand visibility shouldn’t be judged by website traffic alone.
Senior leaders need to know whether their organisation is present and credible in the answers buyers see on AI search tools, before those buyers ever reach a company website or social media profile. GEO and AEO are about whether a brand is associated with the right problems, expertise and market conversations, which is precisely what makes them a board-level issue rather than a marketing one.
The problem with selling GEO as new SEO
One of the quickest ways to lose senior attention is to frame GEO as another technical marketing discipline. The technical elements are incredibly important, including website structure, content clarity and authority signals, while much established SEO practice remains relevant in generative AI search.
But “new SEO” language makes GEO sound like a channel project: narrow, tactical and easy to delegate.
If AI tools are shaping how people understand markets and vendors, GEO becomes a question of visibility, reputation and competitive positioning. Are we surfaced when buyers ask about the problems we solve? Do AI-generated answers reflect our view of the category and our media thought leadership, or do we rely too heavily on our own website?
These are business questions, not technical ones.
What C-suite actually cares about
Most senior leadership teams do not need a detailed explanation of prompts, algorithms or AI crawler behaviour. They do, however, need to understand what is at stake if their organisation is absent or misrepresented in the answers buyers are now relying on.
The first issue is risk. If AI-generated answers are influencing how buyers understand a market, there is a reputational risk in not being visible. There is also a messaging risk if the content surrounding the brand is inconsistent, outdated or too product-led. For B2B tech organisations, where solutions are often complex and buying decisions involve multiple stakeholders, that can affect how clearly the value of the business is understood.
The second issue is opportunity. GEO gives brands a chance to build authority around the questions that buyers are asking online before they enter a sales conversation. That’s important because prospects are not only comparing suppliers but also trying to understand business challenges, assess different approaches, manage internal risk and justify change.
The third issue is competitive advantage. AI visibility is as much about whether the brand appears in AI-generated results as it is about the context in which it appears. If a competitor is consistently associated with innovation, trust, expertise or market leadership, while your organisation is missing from those answers, that gap can start to shape perception long before a shortlist is created.
Lastly, measurement. Leadership teams are very unlikely to buy into GEO just because it sounds like the hottest topic of the year. They will buy into it when there is a clear view of where the organisation stands today, where competitors are gaining ground and what progress should look like over time.
How Performance PR supports GEO
GEO is often discussed through a search lens, but PR plays a major role in strengthening the signals AI systems may draw from. That is because AI-generated answers do not rely only on what a brand says about itself on the homepage of its website. They are influenced by the wider information environment around a company, topic or category. Think earned media, analyst commentary, executive thought leadership, owned research reports and credible third-party mentions – they all help shape the public evidence base around a brand.
Authority is rarely built through owned content alone though. A company can publish helpful explainers on its website, but if the wider market and media conversation does not support its position, its visibility may be limited. Investing in long-term PR helps create that broader authority by placing expert views in trusted publications on a consistent basis, connecting spokespeople to timely issues and building credible associations between the brand and the problems it helps solve.
This is also where GEO links naturally to existing communications activity. It should never sit in isolation from PR, content, SEO or social media strategy. The strongest PR programmes bring these disciplines together and around the same business goals.
Building the business case for GEO
For marketers trying to secure leadership buy-in, the best starting point is not a long explanation of how generative AI works. It is a practical view of current visibility.
An AI visibility audit can help answer the questions leadership teams are most likely to care about, including where the brand and its competitors appear today, which prompts and buyer questions matter most and which sources are being cited.
From there, marketers can build a more focused business case. Rather than asking the board to invest in a broad new discipline, they can show where GEO connects to existing priorities such as brand awareness, demand generation, market education, reputation management and sales enablement.
The key is to keep the measures realistic. Especially given the fact that GEO is still evolving (and fast!) and AI-generated responses can vary. For example, recent research into AI-mediated search has highlighted that source selection and answer consistency can differ across systems and queries. Achieving total control over what AI tools say is therefore impossible, and should never become the end goal. Instead, brands need to work on improving the strength, consistency and credibility of the signals they are putting into the market.
Making GEO actionable
The most effective way to approach GEO is to treat it as an evolution of communications strategy, not a separate workstream competing for attention. That means identifying the questions your audiences are asking, the topics your business has permission to own and the proof points needed to support that position. It also means looking at where your subject matter experts are visible, where your content is being cited and whether your earned media presence reflects the conversations that matter to buyers.
For leadership teams, GEO is not another marketing acronym to monitor from a distance. It is part of how brand authority, buyer trust and competitive visibility are being shaped today. For marketers, the opportunity is to move from tactical experimentation to board-level value: start with visibility, benchmark against competitors, then connect findings to commercial priorities.
In an AI-influenced buying journey, credibility is only valuable if buyers encounter it in the right places. We’re offering a free leadership GEO session to help B2B brands benchmark their AI visibility and build the business case for action. Get in touch with us to discuss more.
