How GEO is Changing the Tech PR Playbook

Kersa Haughey

Generative AI is changing how people find and evaluate information. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Mode to “compare the top network security providers” or “name the leading data observability platforms,” AI tools don’t serve a list of links like traditional search. Instead, they compile information from across their training data and the web into a single, conversational answer.

Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, is the emerging practice of improving how your company is represented within these AI-generated responses. It combines elements of technical SEO, structured content and public relations to help AI tools surface your company accurately and competitively.

For B2B tech companies, GEO matters because these tools are already shaping high-intent buyer research moments. According to Forrester, 89 percent of B2B buyers use generative AI during every stage of the purchasing journey.

As AI becomes a core part of the B2B tech buying process, it’s shaping buyers’ first impressions of brands. When potential customers ask AI tools for vendor recommendations, the results they see and how companies are described are often blindly trusted. That’s why it’s critical for companies to ensure accurate and consistent representation across AI tools to avoid being mischaracterized, overlooked, or left out of the conversation entirely.

What drives B2B tech visibility in AI-generated responses

Through INK Communications’ AI visibility/GEO audits for SaaS and managed services companies across sectors such as cybersecurity, fintech, supply chain and digital transformation, we’ve identified several controllable levers that B2B tech brands can use to influence how they show up in AI-generated responses to lower-funnel queries. We focus on lower-funnel queries because AI has compressed the traditional customer journey. By the time a buyer reaches your website, they’ve already entered the transactional phase, making these marketing levers mission-critical for driving sales impact.

Website

AI models rely on your website to understand your company’s identity, offerings and credibility. Some of the most frequently cited parts of B2B tech brand websites for lower-funnel queries include:

Core pages + product pages: AI consistently cites homepages, About pages and product or solution pages for information about a specific company.

Owned Content: Blogs, case studies and ungated assets are cited by AI for more in-depth detail on a company’s approach, differentiators and association to certain topics, markets, capabilities, competitors and audience challenges and priorities. For branded and category-level queries, the most highly cited formats include comparison- and listicle-style blogs, “how we work” blogs, value-driven pieces, customer stories and FAQ-style content.

Optimizing your website for AI discovery requires thinking about both what your pages say and how they are built. The clearer and more structured your pages are, the easier it is for AI tools to extract and reuse the information they contain.

More ways to improve AI search discoverability include using semantic URLs that reflect topic intent (e.g., /top-threat-intelligence-platform instead of /product123), adding clear metadata, aligning copy with the queries you want to show up for (e.g., “What is a data observability platform?”), and writing in extractable sections that could stand on their own as short answers.

Top business directories cited in B2B tech queries.

Business directories

Directory-style websites offer AI tools structured, concise and easy-to-reference data about specific companies, their market categories and how they rank within their space. AI tools rely heavily on company profiles, category lists and round-up style articles from sites like this when answering “top,” “best” or “leading” company/product queries.

Some top tips for increasing your brand’s influence via business directories include claiming your company profiles on highly cited directories, updating them (e.g., adding accurate company info, category tags and backlinks), encouraging verified reviews and considering a paid “verified” profile.

Analyst and research mentions

Inclusion in analyst reports and research can be a key GEO signal for B2B tech, often more so for companies that play in legacy or highly competitive market categories. AI tools often reference market research to confirm which companies lead a category or represent emerging technologies.

Top analyst and research firms cited in B2B tech queries.

To strengthen AI visibility through analyst relations, focus on expanding both participation and amplification. Beyond large firms, some niche analyst groups are also frequently cited by AI tools and can meaningfully influence how your brand is categorized. When your company is included in an analyst report, amplify that mention through an AI-friendly blog or press release that summarizes the inclusion and references the report’s language. Because most analyst research is gated and inaccessible to AI crawlers, these follow-up pieces ensure your company’s recognition is discoverable and registered as a credible third-party signal.

Top media sources cited in B2B tech queries.

Earned media

Earned media validates your expertise, authority and market relevance for AI tools, which view news coverage as a trust multiplier. This is especially true when articles highlight company news like funding, partnerships, product innovations, customer wins, leadership hires and other milestones.

To increase the impact of your earned media on GEO rankings, pitch momentum-based stories that signal growth and leadership to outlets that AI often cites. Then, to increase the discoverability and value of earned coverage, republish articles as AI-optimized blog posts on your website, linking to relevant product or solutions pages and to the original media hit.

Press releases

Press releases are one of the most direct and controllable ways to feed AI tools timely information about your company. They help you establish a clear growth narrative for AI tools by creating a documented timeline of company progress, scalability and milestones.

The increasing importance of AI discoverability gives press releases new value and changes when and how you might write them. Some examples of new tactics to optimize press releases for GEO include publishing releases for all material updates (not just the ones that are newsworthy to media), using structured, query-aligned formatting and publishing self-hosted releases optimized for AI (like you would for your other web content) in addition to pushing across the wire.

Partnership content

In AI search, partnership content drives credibility by association. Connecting your company to established and well-regarded brands send signals of trust and relevance to AI tools and gives context for where your company fits into its ecosystem.

To drive these kinds of credibility-building signals in AI search, look for opportunities to publish joint content such as blogs, reports, press releases and case studies with partners or customers.

The GEO mindset for tech brands

Generative Engine Optimization is about feeding the right information to the systems your buyers now use. In many ways, you’re marketing to AI search engines to influence how they surface and recommend your brand. Think of AI as a new stakeholder.

For B2B tech brands, that means creating content and digital signals that work together to tell a consistent and strategic story to the AI tools shaping how people discover, compare and choose you.

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Kersa Haughey leads marketing, business development and AI strategy at INK Communications Co.