Generative engine optimization (GEO)
The practice of getting a brand named and cited inside answers written by AI assistants, rather than ranked in a list of links.
Search engines return a list of links and let the reader choose. Generative engines write one answer and name a handful of brands inside it. GEO is the work of being one of those brands.
The mechanics differ from SEO in a way that matters for where you spend effort. A ranked list rewards the page. A generated answer rewards the sources the model retrieved before writing, which are frequently not your pages at all. Reviews, comparison roundups, forum threads and documentation carry the answer, so GEO work often means changing what third parties publish about you rather than what you publish yourself.
The discipline is young enough that the vocabulary is unsettled. Some teams call it answer engine optimization, some call it AI visibility, some fold it into SEO. The measurement problem is the same under every name: rankings do not tell you whether you were in the answer.