How Can My Brand Show Up in AI Search? 5 Things to Know
The future of search is here and it's not a new tool or an algorithm update. It's a bold leap into something entirely new, propelled by soaring AI use. The SEO playbook we've all relied on for the past three decades? It's time for a major rewrite and a new name - GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).
What is GEO? And why does it matter?
GEO goes beyond keywords and favors clear, useful content that helps generate accurate and comprehensive responses to user prompts. It prioritizes context so heavily that the old rule, "content is king" is quickly fading; context is now claiming the throne. So, what are the rules of this new era? The only sure way to know is to look at the data.
How are people using AI search, and what insights can brands learn from it?
We analyzed data on AI prompts to uncover how users interact with AI, the types of things they are looking for, and what it might mean for brands. The findings are rich (we hope you agree!)
1. Why Should Brands Care About What People Ask AI?
Nearly 60% of all AI prompts are informational in nature, meaning users are actively trying to learn, explore, or understand a topic. This kind of curiosity often reflects early-stage interest or even intent. After all, people typically ask questions about things they care about or need. For example, a prompt such as "How can video analytics improve safety?" isn't just about knowledge; it signals interest in potential solutions.
What's especially important for brands: roughly 30% of prompts are commercial. These queries involve direct product or service research, things like "best video analytics for airports" or "compare video analytics systems for 5,000+ cameras." This signals a clear shift. Here, we instantly notice that AI is becoming a powerful top-of-funnel discovery engine.
Takeaway: If you're not optimizing for AI discoverability, you're most likely missing where real consumer curiosity is happening.
2. How Are People Talking to AI - and What Does It Mean for My Content?
Language patterns reveal a heavy use of directive verbs ("explain," "list," "provide") and superlatives ("best", "top"). Consumers are no longer going from search result to search result trying to build the answer they need; they're telling the AI exactly what they want, and expecting a clear answer, often one that ranks or compares.
What this means is that your content strategy needs to answer superlative-driven queries with clarity and confidence.
Takeaway:If your product or service is the "best," you'll need the proof and a format that AI can parse and deliver e.g., question-based content, structured lists, and ranking blogs.
3. What’s the Tone of Most AI Prompts - and Why Should Brands Care?
Approximately 49% of prompts carry a neutral tone, while 43% are positive, often polite or enthusiastic. Our data shows that only 7% had negative sentiment, typically in the form of complaints or frustration.
This paints a clear picture: users approach AI with a collaborative mindset. They treat it more like a trusted advisor than a customer service chatbot (who has patience for those?).
Takeaway: Tone matters. You may want to review and update your brand tone of voice to make sure what you’re putting out there is approachable, solution-oriented, and helpful, even when dealing with pain points or challenges.
4. Do AI Users Still Type Keywords - or Ask Full Questions Instead?
About 39% of prompts are phrased as questions, and 19% as direct commands (e.g., "List 5 alternatives to Zoom"). The remaining 42% are statements or fragments, e.g., "best content calendar tools". They are keyword-rich but conversational in structure.
Takeaway: It's a good idea for brand content to align with natural language queries, beyond keyword stuffing. As mentioned in #2 above, this can include question-based content, lists, and comparisons.
5. What Topics Do People Ask AI About Most Often?
When we cluster prompts semantically, six major themes emerge:
General knowledge (over 50% of all prompts): broad range of informational queries.
AI & tech help: programming, computing best practices etc.
Business & marketing advice: market research, business plans, strategy etc.
Finance & investment questions: the stock market, investing etc.
Career and education: resume tips, job interview tips, career guidance and the like.
Product research & comparisons: commercial investigational queries - this is where words like 'best', 'top' or 'alternative' come into play.
Navigational and web queries: safety of links, summary of web pages etc.
Final thoughts: AI search is where consumer intent is real
More and more users are turning to AI search because it strips away the noise of traditional engines: no clickbait headlines, no cluttered results, no sponsored detours. Users enjoy expressing raw, unfiltered intent via natural language. And what that intent shows is simple: people want super fast, super clear, and super trustworthy answers (though AI still has work to do on that last part).
For brands, this is a massive opportunity. But it’s also a fresh challenge: once again, your content needs to evolve. It has to perform when AI summarizes, compares, or ranks it. Your message must be clear, your brand value obvious.
In our next posts, we'll get into the details of what it takes for your brand to become the answer when consumers ask.
Questions? Comments? Write to us at answers@limy.ai. We’re not as fast as an AI search engine, but we’re working on it.
Your questions on GEO and AEO, answered:
What is AEO?
Answer Engine Optimization. The goal here is making your content easily understood, surfaced, and selected as the best quick answer by AI-driven answer engines such as Google’s featured snippets, Bing Chat, or even voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa.
What is the difference between AEO and GEO?
GEO is a broader evolution targeting generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, OpenAI and others. Whereas GEO synthesizes, summarizes, compares, reasons and optimizes across sources to generate full responses, AEO optimizes for concise answers.
AEO helps search engines such as Google or Bing achieve concise, structured answers in the form of snippets or voice assistant replies. It relies on FAQs, schema markup, and short, direct content to come up with answers to specific questions.
We can say that AEO is about offering the exact answer while GEO is about being part of the AI’s reasoning when it creates the answer.
Why is GEO becoming more important now?
The way people search for information and things is changing fast. AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and others are becoming everyday go-to tools for many users. Instead of clicking through a bunch of search result links, people are asking direct questions and expecting direct answers.
Are GEO and AEO the end of SEO?
Think of SEO as the roots of the search tree, and GEO and AEO as the branches that reach out by turning your content into answers. In that sense, no, we are not getting rid of SEO yet.
What does the data say about AI search?
Our data shows some really interesting patterns: ~60% of prompts are informational, ~30% are commercial. This makes AI search a powerful top-of-funnel discovery engine.
What kind of language do users use with AI? What does that mean for my brand?
People very often use verbs such as "explain," "list," "compare" and ask for "best" or "top" options. This means your content needs to match that tone: clear, direct, and structured in a way that answers these superlative-driven questions.
What does the shift from regular search to AI search mean for my brand?
It means getting discovered is just the start. Now, you need to earn the AI's recommendation. Unlike traditional search, AI doesn't just show a list of links: it summarizes, compares, and ranks. If your content is clear, credible, and useful, AI is more likely to include it in its answer.
Do users still use keywords in AI search?
Yes, but it's more natural now. Around 39% of prompts are actual questions, 19% are direct commands, and the rest are keyword-style phrases, but written conversationally e.g., "best calendar tools for teams".
What's the difference between SEO and GEO?
SEO is about helping your content get found by search engines using popular and relevant keywords, backlinks, meta descriptions and meta tags. GEO is about helping AI understand and recommend your content. For this to happen, your content must be clear and helpful, and answer real user prompts, especially those asked in natural language.
What's the general tone of AI prompts? What does that mean for my brand?
Surprisingly upbeat!
49% of prompts are neutral.
43% are positive-polite, curious, or enthusiastic.
Only 7% are negative or frustrated (it's totally forgivable, isn't it?)
We can confidently say that people see AI as a trusted advisor, not a support rep they want to yell at. So you might want to use an approachable, helpful, and solution-focused tone for your brand.
How should I optimize my content to appear in AI-generated responses?
Start by:
Writing content that directly answers questions your customers might ask.
Using formats like lists, comparisons, and how-tos.
Focusing on clarity, structure, and helpful tone.
Making sure your value proposition is obvious even when summarized by an AI.
If you need help doing all this, just write to us: answers@limy.ai
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