Why SEO alone won't win AI recommendations

As consumers increasingly turn to AI answer engines for product recommendations, brands will need to rethink how they build visibility, according to a new report by VaynerX and Profound.

The report, "The CMO's AEO guide: Winning brand discovery in the recommendation era", analysed thousands of brand recommendations across six major AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. It found that AI-powered brand discovery is increasingly shaped by third-party content rather than brand-owned messaging.

According to the report, social, creator and user-generated content are becoming a growing share of the information AI systems rely on when generating recommendations. Across five of the six AI answer engines studied, citations from social and user-generated content increased over the past six months, with YouTube emerging as one of the fastest-growing sources of authority.

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The report said this signals a broader shift away from traditional web search towards what it describes as a "recommendation era", where consumers ask AI questions directly instead of browsing search results.

However, it cautioned that social visibility alone does not guarantee recommendations. Instead, the brands most frequently surfaced by AI are those with broad authority built across multiple sources, including publishers, review sites, creator content, community discussions and owned channels.

Among the findings, the report highlighted that each AI platform builds trust differently. Google's AI products draw heavily on YouTube, while ChatGPT relies more on Reddit and review platforms. Microsoft Copilot, meanwhile, increasingly incorporates signals from Microsoft's wider ecosystem, including LinkedIn.

As a result, the report argued there is no universal AI optimisation strategy, with marketers needing to understand where influence exists within each platform's ecosystem.

Creator-led educational content is also becoming increasingly valuable. Rather than citing brand advertisements or promotional messaging, AI systems were found to favour reviews, comparisons, tutorials, how-to guides and creator recommendations that explain or evaluate products.

According to the report, these independent sources help establish the credibility AI systems increasingly rely on when recommending brands.

The study also found AI incorporates new information at a far faster pace than traditional search. The median time between publication and first citation was just 6.8 days, while 90% of content was cited within approximately 37 days.

As a result, the report said brands should move away from campaign-led publishing cycles towards an always-on content strategy, arguing that consistent publishing is becoming a competitive advantage as AI continuously updates its understanding of brands.

Looking ahead, the report predicts AI recommendations will play a growing role in purchase decisions over the next 12 to 18 months. Creator authority is expected to become even more influential, while AI visibility could emerge as a core marketing KPI as recommendation positions become harder to displace.

“AI recommends the brands it understands best, and it builds that understanding from content: the reviews, tutorials, comparisons, and creator coverage spread across the internet. The brands investing in that content footprint now are teaching AI what to recommend later.” Said Zubin Mowlavi, EVP of digital commerce at VaynerX.

In tandem, James Cadwallader, co-founder and CEO of Profound said, "For years, marketers optimized to be found. The harder truth now is that AI decides what to recommend based on what the entire internet says about your brand, not what you say about yourself. It's forming that judgment continuously, in days rather than quarters. The brands building that authority now are the ones that will be hardest to displace later."

The findings add to growing industry scrutiny over how brands are represented in AI-generated responses. Recently, a report from Burson, conducted in partnership with Profound, found that while many brands are succeeding in securing visibility across AI answer engines, visibility alone is no longer enough.

Analysing more than 55,000 AI-generated responses across seven major AI platforms, the study found that the next phase of generative engine optimisation will hinge on credibility, with AI increasingly rewarding verifiable proof and third-party validation over brand positioning alone.

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