AEO vs. GEO

As AI systems evolve beyond simple search and chat, brands face a new optimization reality: not all AI engines behave the same way.

Some generate answers. Others take specific actions.

This distinction has given rise to two emerging—but fundamentally different—optimization disciplines:

• AEO: Agentic Engine Optimization
• GEO: Generative Engine Optimization

Understanding the difference is critical if you want your content to be read, trusted, and acted on by AI systems.

What Is AEO (Agentic Engine Optimization)?

Agentic Engine Optimization focuses on making your site legible, usable, and trustworthy for AI agents that perform tasks—not just generate text.

Agentic systems don’t just answer questions. They:

• Navigate websites
• Compare options
• Execute workflows
• Select products, links, or actions on behalf of users

Think:

• AI shopping agents
• Travel-booking agents
• Enterprise copilots
• Workflow automation agents
• Tool-using LLMs with browser or API access (like Claude for Work, etc)

AEO ensures your site can be understood and operated by machines.

Core goal of AEO

Enable AI agents to reliably interpret, navigate, and act on your content.

What AEO optimizes for

AEO is primarily about structure and machine trust, not prose.

It optimizes for:

• Explicit meaning (not implied meaning)
• Predictable structure
• Clear affordances (what can be clicked, bought, booked, compared)
• Machine-readable signals of intent and capability

Common AEO tactics

• Schema & structured data - Product, Offer, Organization, FAQ, HowTo, Review, Availability‍
• Clean information architecture - Deterministic URLs, consistent page types‍
• Action clarity - Clear CTAs, pricing, availability, constraints‍
• Entity consistency - Same product names, attributes, and descriptions everywhere‍
• Performance & accessibility - Agents fail fast on slow, broken, or ambiguous sites‍
• LLM-readable formatting - Tables, lists, predictable layouts

If an AI agent is deciding what to do, AEO determines whether your site is usable at all.

What Is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?

Generative Engine Optimization focuses on shaping how AI systems describe, explain, summarize, and recommend your brand or category.

Generative systems don’t perform actions directly. They:

• Synthesize information across sources
• Produce narratives, summaries, and explanations
• Answer open-ended or exploratory prompts

These systems are Generative Engines:

• ChatGPT
• Claude
• Gemini
• Perplexity
• Google AI Overviews

GEO is about influence, authority, and narrative control.

Core goal of GEO

Ensure AI systems understand your brand correctly and represent it accurately in generated outputs.

What GEO optimizes for

GEO optimizes for:

• Conceptual clarity
• Topical authority
• Consistent positioning
• Comparative context

It’s less about can an agent use this page and more about how does the model talk about us.

Common GEO tactics

• Topic clusters and semantic coverage
• Consistent language and definitions across pages
• Strong brand/entity signals
• Clear differentiation vs competitors
• High-quality explanatory content
• Internal coherence (no conflicting claims)
• Citability and trust signals

If an AI is explaining what something is or who to choose, GEO determines whether you’re included—and how you’re framed.

Why This Distinction Matters

Most brands today are:

• Over-indexed on GEO-style content
• Underprepared for agentic systems

That creates real risk.

Without AEO:

• AI agents can’t confidently transact on your site
• Your products aren’t selectable by automation
• You’re invisible in agent-driven commerce and workflows

Without GEO:

• AI explains your category using competitors’ language
• Your brand gets flattened or misunderstood
• You lose mindshare even if your site is technically usable

The future belongs to brands that are both understandable and operable by AI.

How AEO and GEO Work Together

They solve different layers of the same problem.

• GEO shapes a user's understanding
• AEO enables a user's action

In practice, GEO gets you mentioned and discovered. AEO gets you chosen and purchased. As AI systems evolve from “answering” to “doing,” AEO will become the gating factor—while GEO remains the differentiator.

Where Format for AI Fits In

Format for AI is built specifically for this new optimization stack.

We help brands:

• Diagnose agent readiness (AEO)
• Improve machine readability and structure
• Align schemas, entities, and site logic for agents
• Identify gaps between brand intent and AI interpretation (GEO)
• Benchmark AI-readiness against competitors

In short: we help brands move from AI-visible to AI-operational.

Final Takeaway

SEO optimized for humans.
GEO optimizes for AI understanding.
AEO optimizes for AI action.

The brands that win next won’t just rank or get mentioned—they’ll be the ones AI systems can confidently work with.

‍