Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is the practice of making your brand visible and citable inside AI generated answers: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google’s AI Overviews. For premium service brands it matters now, not later, because your buyers ask AI assistants exactly the questions your website should be answering.
Is AI search actually sending traffic?
Yes, and it is growing fast. AI referred sessions grew several hundred percent year on year through 2025, and AI Overviews now appear on roughly half of Google queries. The buyers arriving this way are further along: they have already had their comparison shaped by the answer engine before they ever reach a website.
How AI decides who to cite
Research on generative engines finds the biggest visibility gains come from content that quotes identifiable experts, uses concrete statistics, and cites sources. Roughly two thirds of AI citations point at third party sources rather than a brand’s own site, which means digital PR and off site authority now do double duty. In short, the answer engines reward the same things discerning humans do: named expertise, specific numbers, verifiable claims.
What premium brands should do this quarter
Answer real buyer questions in plain language on your own site, one question per section. Put numbers in your content, your numbers, not industry filler. Attribute your content to a named expert. Keep your structured data clean so machines can read who you are, what you do and where. Then earn mentions in the third party sources the engines already trust.
Should you buy GEO as a separate service?
Be sceptical of anyone selling GEO as a standalone product. The methods that win AI citations are the methods of strong search work generally, done with more discipline about evidence and authorship. It belongs inside your growth retainer, not bolted on beside it.
Sam Howard, PhD, is the founder of Howard Lee, a growth company for premium service brands operating across London, Dubai, Bangkok and New York.