How Brands Can Build Authority in the Age of Generative Search

By Matt Serra, Mulberry Marketing Communications 

Key Takeaways:

• SEO is no longer enough. B2B brands need to consider whether they are visible in AI-generated answers, not just traditional search results.
• GEO is about building authority. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) strengthens the content, expertise, credibility and digital signals that can help AI systems understand and reference a brand.
• Third-party credibility matters. Earned media, expert commentary, original research, customer success stories and other authoritative sources can strengthen the information ecosystem surrounding a brand.
• PR and thought leadership have a growing role in AI visibility. They help establish the external authority and validation that brand-owned content alone cannot provide.
• Start by measuring your current AI visibility. Determine whether your brand appears for important buyer questions, how you compare with competitors and where authority gaps exist before developing a GEO strategy.

For years, B2B marketers have worked to make their companies more visible in Google search results. Today, that is no longer enough.

Business buyers are increasingly asking AI platforms questions that once would have sent them to a search engine. Who are the leading providers in this category? What companies should I consider? What is the best solution for my organization? How does Company A compare with Company B?

And increasingly, AI is providing the answer.

Forrester reported in 2026 that 87% of B2B buyers consider generative AI conversational search a meaningful interaction in their buying journey. Its research also found that generative AI searches are becoming a starting point for B2B buyers researching products and services.

Gartner found that 45% of B2B buyers used generative AI during a recent purchase, primarily to gather information about vendors and products. Those buyers used an average of seven information sources during the purchase process.

For B2B companies, it is no longer enough to rank. Your brand needs to become a source AI systems recognize, trust, cite and recommend.

What Is AI Visibility?

AI visibility is the degree to which a company, its expertise, products, executives and point of view appear accurately and prominently in answers generated by AI platforms. Traditional search typically gives users a list of links to explore. Generative AI can incorporate information from multiple sources and provide the user with an answer directly.

Pew Research Center found that when Google users encountered an AI summary, they clicked a traditional search result only 8% of the time, compared with 15% when an AI summary wasn’t present. Only 1% clicked a source directly within the AI summary.

And the behavior continues to become mainstream. In 2026, Pew found that 60% of U.S. adults say they read AI summaries at the top of search results.

For marketers, the priority is shifting from getting clicks to ensuring a brand is part of an AI answer.

What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of improving a brand’s visibility, authority and likelihood of being referenced within AI-generated answers.

AI systems select from competing sources, and topical relevance, completeness, evidence and other trust signals can affect which sources ultimately make their way into generated responses. Many established B2B companies already possess significant expertise but have comparatively weak authority signals outside their own websites. That creates a potentially costly disconnect where a company can be a genuine industry leader without looking like one to AI.

GEO vs. AEO vs. SEO. What’s the Difference?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is primarily concerned with improving the visibility and ranking of web content in traditional search results.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) focuses on making content easier for search and answer engines to understand and use to directly answer questions. FAQs, structured information, concise answers and clearly organized content all play a role.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) goes further by focusing on whether a brand develops enough authority across the broader information ecosystem to become visible within AI-generated responses.

SEO and AEO help content get found. GEO helps companies become trusted sources AI systems can reference and recommend.

Why Traditional SEO Alone Isn’t Enough

A company’s website remains important. But AI visibility isn’t determined solely by what a company says about itself.

Generative systems can gather and combine information from multiple sources. That makes the larger digital footprint surrounding a company increasingly important. This includes media coverage, research, executive commentary, association content, expert citations and exposure though other independent sources.

A company can publish hundreds of pages telling the market that it is innovative, trusted or a leader in its category. But those are still claims coming from the company. When respected trade publications interview its experts, customers validate its results, industry associations feature its research and independent sources repeatedly connect the company with its area of expertise, those signals create something authority which is much harder to manufacture. That is why GEO shouldn’t be viewed simply as a technical marketing exercise. It is an authority-building strategy.

What Helps a B2B Brand Become More Visible to AI?

There isn’t a secret piece of code that suddenly makes a company an AI favorite. Nor can anyone legitimately guarantee that a particular brand will appear in every AI-generated answer.

The stronger strategy is to build a consistent body of credible, useful and verifiable information around the topics your company wants to own.

For B2B brands, that means focusing on several interconnected areas:

• Earn third-party credibility. Pursue media coverage, contributed articles, expert commentary, association opportunities, awards and other credible external validation.
• Develop recognizable experts. Put executives and subject matter experts into the conversations buyers care about through interviews, articles, research, speaking opportunities and commentary.
• Create original evidence. Proprietary research, surveys, benchmark reports, customer data and case studies give other sources something substantive to reference.
• Answer buyers’ real questions. Build useful content around the questions buyers ask during discovery, evaluation and comparison, not simply the keywords with the most search volume.
• Make expertise easy to extract. Use clear headings, definitions, statistics, FAQs, comparisons and concise explanations that make important information understandable to people and machines.
• Build customer proof and advocacy. Case studies, customer stories, testimonials and partner participation strengthen the evidence surrounding marketing claims.
• Maintain consistency. Your website, executives, earned media, social channels, customer stories and sales materials should reinforce a clear set of topics and messages.

Think Beyond Content. Build an Authority Ecosystem.

An effective GEO strategy shouldn’t be a standalone campaign assigned exclusively to SEO, PR, content or digital marketing. Those disciplines need to work together.

We think about authority across four interconnected areas:

Lead the Conversation. Establish your company and experts as recognized voices around the issues that matter to your market through thought leadership, media relations, research and industry participation.

Build Buyer Trust. Give buyers evidence that supports your claims through customer success stories, consistent positioning and independent third-party validation.

Accelerate Demand. Turn authority into business opportunities through reports, webinars, high-value content and sales enablement that helps buyers move from research to action.

Expand Advocacy. Encourage customers, employees, partners and industry experts to amplify the company’s expertise and reputation.

Together, these activities create a larger ecosystem of authority signals rather than relying on the company’s website alone.

How Should B2B Companies Measure AI Visibility?

GEO measurement is still evolving, and companies should be wary of anyone promising a single definitive “AI ranking.”

A more useful approach is to establish a baseline and monitor visibility across the questions that matter most to your buyers.

Start with questions such as:

Does our company appear when AI platforms recommend providers in our category? How often are competitors mentioned instead? Which sources are influencing those answers? What topics does AI associate with our brand? Are our executives recognized as experts? Are AI-generated descriptions of our company accurate? Where are competitors earning authority that we are not?

Then track changes over time. The goal is to increase your share of authority around the topics that influence buying decisions.

The Companies That Build Authority Now Will Have an Advantage

The transition from traditional search to AI-assisted discovery isn’t happening sometime in the future. It is already changing how B2B buyers research companies, evaluate solutions and build shortlists. That doesn’t mean SEO is dead. It means visibility has expanded beyond the search results page.

B2B brands now need to think about whether their expertise is sufficiently visible and credible across the broader information environment from which AI systems and buyers draw their conclusions.

The companies positioned to succeed will be those that connect expertise, third-party validation, thought leadership, useful content, customer proof and digital visibility into one sustained authority-building strategy.

Is Your Brand Visible to AI?

Mulberry helps B2B companies assess how they appear across AI-driven search and build the authority signals that can strengthen their visibility with buyers and generative platforms.

Our approach is human-led and AI-supported, combining PR, thought leadership, content, digital visibility and advocacy to turn real expertise into recognizable market authority.

Frequently Asked Questions about AI visibility

What is AI visibility?
AI visibility refers to how frequently and accurately a brand, its products, expertise and executives appear in answers generated by AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity.

What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?
Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of improving a brand’s visibility and authority within AI-generated answers. GEO focuses on creating the content, expertise, third-party validation and digital authority signals that can help AI systems understand and reference a company.

How is GEO different from SEO?
SEO focuses primarily on improving a website’s visibility in traditional search results. GEO focuses on improving a brand’s visibility within AI-generated responses. The two complement one another, but GEO extends beyond a company’s website to include earned media, thought leadership, customer proof, expert commentary and other credible third-party sources.

Why is GEO important for B2B companies?
B2B buyers are increasingly using generative AI to research products, vendors and potential solutions. If a company isn’t represented in the sources and conversations informing those answers, competitors with stronger digital authority may be more likely to appear during the buyer’s research process.

Does PR help improve AI visibility?
PR can support AI visibility by increasing credible third-party references to a company and its expertise. Earned media, expert commentary, contributed articles, research coverage and industry recognition can expand the authoritative information available about a brand beyond its own website.

How can a B2B company improve its AI visibility?
Start by understanding how the brand currently appears across major AI platforms. Then identify the topics and buyer questions the company should be associated with and build authority around them through expert-led content, earned media, proprietary research, customer success stories, thought leadership and clear, well-structured website content.

How do you measure AI visibility?
B2B brands can monitor whether and how they appear in AI-generated answers for strategically important buyer questions. Useful measures include brand mentions, citations, competitive share of voice, sentiment and accuracy, source visibility, topic association and changes in visibility over time.