Search is no longer just search.

AI-powered engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot are quickly becoming go-to destinations for users looking for answers—not just links. And the shift is happening faster than most marketing teams realize.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is how brands earn visibility inside these new experiences. It’s not a replacement for SEO. It’s a parallel opportunity. And for companies that move quickly, it’s a chance to unlock a serious competitive advantage before the rest of the market catches up.

What is AEO?

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the practice of improving your brand’s visibility in AI-powered answer engines—tools that generate conversational responses instead of listing search results. Unlike traditional SEO, which targets keywords and rankings, AEO focuses on earning mentions, citations, and direct inclusion in AI-generated answers.

When a user asks ChatGPT or Perplexity a question like “best payroll software for small businesses,” these models pull from their training data and real-time browsing capabilities to generate answers. The brands that show up in those responses are seeing new traffic, trust, and conversions.

Case studies it’s already happening—that companies across B2B and B2C are earning visibility in these engines leading to growth, despite (in some cases) seeing declining traditional traffic. NerdWallet, for example, grew revenue by 35% in 2024 even as their organic traffic dropped 20%.

That’s not a fluke. That’s a new channel in action.

Why AEO Matters Right Now

The user behavior shift is well underway:

• 400M+ people use OpenAI’s tools weekly (TechCrunch)
• Bing app downloads increased tenfold after AI integration (TechCrunch)
• 25% of organic traffic is projected to shift to AI chatbots and agents by 2026 (Gartner)

This isn’t about chasing shiny tech—it’s about meeting your buyers where they’re already looking for answers.

As more users skip traditional search entirely and go straight to AI platforms, brands that aren’t optimized for these engines will simply be left out of the conversation. If you’re not cited, you’re invisible.

How AEO Drives Growth

The promise of AEO is simple: discoverability, credibility, and conversion—at scale.

By being present in authoritative answers across AI engines, your brand earns:

• First-mover visibility in a channel still in its early stages
• Increased trust from being included in responses users perceive as objective and curated
• Referral traffic and leads from users who are ready to act on those recommendations

And while tracking performance is still maturing, you can already start to measure mentions, citations, and traffic from answer engines—especially if you build AEO into your analytics framework.

What Winning Teams Are Doing

Smart marketing teams are treating AEO like a strategic initiative, not a side experiment. They’re:

• Auditing their current content for conversational relevance
• Structuring content clearly with lists, headers, and data-backed insights
• Earning authoritative backlinks and citations across third-party sites
• Investing in schema markup and optimizing their digital footprint
• Tracking AEO-specific performance metrics alongside SEO and paid

Most importantly, they’re aligning AEO efforts with the larger goals of visibility, pipeline, and brand authority.

Because in a world where discovery is moving beyond the SERP, answer engines are quickly becoming one of the most important surfaces for buyer influence.

My Takeaway

AEO isn’t hype. It’s a high-leverage channel that’s already reshaping how people find and trust brands.

Companies integrating AEO into their strategy today aren’t just getting discovered more; they’re setting themselves up for sustained growth as AI-powered experiences become the norm.

The window for early advantage is open—but it won’t stay that way for long.

Catalyst is here to help.