The internet is undergoing its biggest architectural shift since the smartphone. AI now acts as a gatekeeper to your audiences, and for industrial businesses that can earn its trust, there are immense awareness and reputational advantages.
Trust has always been at the heart of effective communications. Brands earn it by being accurate, consistent and credible — and they lose it when their messages don’t stand up to scrutiny.
What has changed is who is doing that scrutiny. Trust in 2026 is no longer judged only by human audiences. Increasingly, it is assessed first by machines.
For years, you built a website – a digital showroom filled with information about your products, expertise, and values – and then you used search engine optimisation (SEO) to help people find the front door. The goal was to appear as high up on the search results pages as possible to get a person to click a blue link and arrive on your site.
However, in 2026, you also need to focus on generative engine optimisation (GEO) – known alternatively as answer engine optimisation (AEO) or AI SEO – because AI is increasingly acting as a gatekeeper to information on the web. And like any gatekeeper, it prioritises sources it considers credible, consistent and trustworthy.
A July 2025 Adobe study found that 77% of ChatGPT users in the U.S. have used it as a search engine and 24% said they typically start a search on ChatGPT instead of other search engines. This means they are receiving information directly in the chat, not browsing lists of links at all.
And even when people still use Google, AI Overviews bypass traditional results by summarising information at the top of the page. Analysis from Authoritas in mid-2025 showed that even a site previously ranking first for a query could lose up to 79% of its traffic if the link is below an AI Overview.
This is because, whereas search engines are like a librarian that points you to the right aisle, AI tools are a like a research assistant that reads the books for you and hands you a summary. It means that a growing number of visits to websites are not from people at all but from AI.
From being found to being the answer
In the industrial sector, where the research and procurement process is complex and data-driven, this is the perfect environment for AI agents to add value. In the past, an engineer specifying a pump for a new facility might have spent hours browsing the websites of 10 different manufacturers, downloading PDFs, and comparing spec sheets. Today, that same engineer can ask an AI tool: ‘Find me a submersible pump that meets these give technical specifications, is compliant with ISO 14001, and has a proven track record for reliability in the European market.’
The AI will not provide a list of 10 links. It will gather information and deliver a concise, direct answer, likely recommending one or two specific companies. This means that if AI doesn’t recognise your brand as the definitive trustworthy source of information, you will not be in that answer and, therefore, effectively invisible to your audience.
The two demands of your new AI stakeholder
This new AI gatekeeper is diligent, but it is also sceptical. To earn its trust and be included in its answers, you need to provide two things:
1. A definitive ‘textbook’ to read: An AI needs a structured, authoritative, and machine-readable library of your company’s expertise. Often, your most valuable information – such as spec sheets – is locked away in documents, such as PDFs and PowerPoint decks, which an AI can’t easily parse. To be understood, your expertise must be published as native web content on your own site – what we call your ‘single source of truth’. This is your foundational asset.
2. Verifiable, third-party proof: An AI doesn’t just take your word for it – and nor should it. It leaves your website and begins a process of cross-referencing and verification, asking: ‘This company claims to be an authority. Who else says so?’ It looks for corroborating evidence from across the internet. This ecosystem of external signals – media coverage in trade publications or listings on conference programmes, for example — is what we call the ‘web of trust’. It’s third-party endorsement.
From volume to verifiable value
It’s a move from a strategy of volume (how many people can we get to our site?) to a strategy of verifiable authority (is our information the definitive answer?). And for industrial brands, it’s a welcome change.
Think of your sales process. It isn’t driven by casual browsing; it’s driven by specific, technical problem-solving. A hundred unqualified website visitors are less valuable than a single, highly motivated engineer who is actively specifying a solution.
AI filters your leads for you so that the human prospects who do arrive at your site will be pre-qualified, having been directed to you not by chance, but because an AI has already determined you are a credible solution to their specific problem. This respects the time of your sales and engineering teams, connecting them with prospects who are ready for a substantive conversation. It’s more efficient for everyone.
An evolution of our core craft at SE10
Navigating this transition is a fundamental communications challenge, and it’s one we are well positioned at SE10 to solve. It’s not a radical pivot for us; rather an evolution of what we have always done, now viewed through an AI lens.
For years, our journalistic approach has focused on three core skills that are now the bedrock of successful GEO:
1. Translating complexity: We have always specialised in interviewing subject matter experts and translating their deep technical knowledge into clear, compelling narratives. Now, we ensure those narratives are also structured to be machine-readable.
2. Building authority: Our goal has always been to establish our clients as trusted thought leaders in their fields. This is the very definition of GEO’s purpose.
3. Third-party verification: We have always understood that true credibility comes from external validation. Our expertise in media relations is central to building the ‘web of trust’ that AI look for.
Now as we start to work with clients to specifically on GEO, our role is to ensure that the stories we tell are not just compelling to humans, but are also structured, factual, and undeniable to the AIs that now act as the gatekeepers to your audience.
If you’re interested in developing and executing a GEO strategy, we’d love to help. Get in touch with our team to start the conversation.
Hannah Kitchener
Associate Director
About the author
Hannah is an associate director in the UK, leading strategic campaigns for industrial clients across the EMEA region. A professionally qualified journalist (NCTJ), she combines specialist sectoral knowledge in construction, energy, and materials handling with a strong network of trade media contacts to secure valuable coverage. Her expertise in inter-cultural communication, honed by degrees in modern languages and translation, is key to executing campaigns that succeed across diverse European markets.
