AI Is Changing the Discovery Phase
AI is the biggest talking point in our industry right now. Who's using it, who's refusing to, what it's actually good for, what the detractors get right — it's the conversation you can't avoid in 2026.
One thing we've been watching closely: AI visibility for our clients. And the data is hard to ignore. According to SparkToro, 68% of U.S. Google searches now end without a single click. The answer is delivered on the page with Google AI Overview, and that is good enough. Additionally, according to Bain & Company, 80% of consumers now rely on AI-written results for at least 40% of their searches — a shift they estimate has already cut organic web traffic by 15% to 25%.
For years, the game was SEO: get your client to the top of the search results. But the search results page isn't the destination anymore. The answer is.
AI doesn't just list options. It synthesizes them. It tells the user "this brand/product/entity is good or bad because…" or "this issue matters because…" That "because" is the whole ballgame now. The answer isn’t just a link to your website anymore. It’s a value proposition. A pros-and-cons list. A verdict on why this is better than that.
The discovery phase has changed. It now happens inside the AI's answer, instead of on a search page. Whoever shapes that "because" shapes the decision. And agencies that built their whole playbook around the old discovery phase need to adjust to this one.
Your Narrative Is Your Optimization Strategy
This is the shift from SEO to GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). GEO to us is not just another digital-marketing tool like SEO. Yes, there's an optimization mechanic to it. But what's actually being optimized is your client's narrative — their story, what they are known for, whether they are reputable or not. That's not a marketing task. That's a PR and advertising task. It's messaging, reputation management, and brand positioning, all playing out inside a machine's answer.
Someone researching a product, an association, or a cause increasingly asks an AI — and the AI hands back a curated list. If your client isn't on it, there’s a chance an uninformed member of the public isn’t even aware of them. As Bain's Natasha Sommerfeld put it, brands now "risk losing visibility into their customer journey, and control over their brand positioning, in a world where traditional clicks are disappearing." Being absent from the answer is now being invisible.
AI Visibility Is Also Reputation Monitoring
There's a second aspect to this that we're watching closely in relation to crisis communications monitoring. Tracking how AI engines describe a brand, an industry, or an issue as an early-warning system. The way an AI summarizes a company today can change tomorrow. Watching how AI summarizes clients you can flag a reputational risk and get ahead of a changing story instead of reacting to one. That's crisis communications, done proactively.
The Human Work Still Matters
None of this replaces the human part. Ironically, the more AI enters the picture, the more the human work matters — someone still has to shape the narrative, tell the story, and identify the risks and opportunities that a machine never will. GEO doesn't change who does that. It just makes sure the AI engines like that content too, and carry your client's story the way you'd want it told. This is about meeting modern audiences where they are. AI has become a new way for everyday people to consume information, and we want our clients out in front of their audiences. Wherever those audiences happen to be.
Written by Terrence McCallen
