The trend: Brands are ramping up generative engine optimization (GEO) efforts to ensure maximum visibility this holiday season.

The tactics: Brands and retailers are flooding the internet with as much content as they can produce in the hopes of influencing genAI suggestions.

• Companies that once produced three to four blog posts or articles per month are now aiming for 100 to 200 pieces in the same period, Brian Stempeck, CEO of GEO optimization platform Evertune.ai, told Reuters.
• Others are building entire websites that can only be seen by AI scrapers, to maximize the amount of available information on their brands and products.
• Brands like Brooklinen are paying influencers to promote their products on social channels like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok, knowing that the text and audio transcripts will be scraped by AI crawlers, the company’s COO Rachel Levy said.

And if these organic initiatives fail, brands now have more opportunities to pay for advertising within AI search results.

• Walmart is the latest company to explore adding ads to AI search results, per The Wall Street Journal. The retailer briefly tested various formats in its Sparky chatbot, including sponsored prompts that served click-to-buy ads beneath its responses.
• Amazon is also offering advertisers the option to use sponsored prompts, brand- or product-specific. For now, the format is a free extension of traditional sponsored campaigns, per Ad Age.
• Google is testing ads in AI mode, in line with similar efforts by Microsoft and Perplexity.

Why it matters: While AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity currently account for a sliver of overall traffic to brand and retailer sites, they are beginning to exert more influence on the shopper journey.

• Nearly half of consumers (48%) plan to or have used AI to help with holiday shopping, per Adobe.
• Shoppers who are directed to a retail website from an AI platform are 30 times more likely to make a purchase, showing that consumers both trust and respond to genAI suggestions.

Our recommendation: GEO is a strategic imperative for brands looking to remain discoverable as more shopping research migrates to AI platforms.

• While this can be daunting for marketers, particularly those still developing the skills and understanding needed for GEO best practices, some tactics—like influencer partnerships—fit squarely with existing brand strategies.
• Given the opportunity, companies should also experiment with AI search ads to see how shoppers interact with the format and whether these promos drive purchases or reduce trust in AI recommendations.

Go further: Read our recent report on Generative Engine Optimization in 2026.