The Rise of AI SEO: How Startups Are Revolutionizing Search Engine Optimization

The digital marketing landscape is undergoing a seismic shift as AI search engines like Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT change how consumers find information. Traditional SEO tactics are becoming less effective, with 60% of searches now ending without a click, according to a Bain & Company study. This shift has sparked the emergence of startups like Profound, Bluefish AI, and Athena, which are pioneering Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help businesses adapt.

The AI Search Revolution

• Profound, co-founded by James Cadwallader and Dylan Babbs, uses synthetic prompts to analyze how brands appear in AI-generated answers. Their software tracks brand mentions, sentiment, and page crawls to provide actionable insights.
• Bluefish AI focuses on industries like travel and retail, monitoring AI responses across platforms like Gemini and Perplexity.
• Athena, founded by Andrew Yan, leverages its own AI search model to create dashboards of AI metrics, offering a broader scope than traditional Google SEO.

Why It Matters

• Traffic Decline: Companies like Kayak and Chegg have seen search traffic drop by 10% as AI summaries replace website visits.
• New VIP Customers: Businesses must now optimize for bots, not just humans, as AI systems scrape and summarize content.
• Zero-Click Future: Profound’s Cadwallader predicts a future where consumers interact solely with AI answers, making GEO essential for visibility.

Challenges Ahead

• Dynamic Models: AI responses vary based on prompts and timing, making consistency a challenge.
• Data Sources: Platforms like Reddit are increasingly influential in shaping AI perceptions.

The race to dominate AI SEO is just beginning, and startups leading this charge are redefining how brands connect with their audiences.