ShenzhenMay 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Themed “AI Search Insights • Winning in the GEO Era,” an event hosted by PR Newswire was successfully held in Shenzhen. The event attracted over 80 industry representatives and more than 1,000 online participants. Distinguished guests including Wang Jia, Vice President of PR Newswire China Business; Matthieu Danielou, Founder of Trajaan; Maria Bersteneva, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Cision; Wu Wenjia, Director of International Communications at ZTE; Yan Shijie, Overseas Marketing Director of Horion Brand at KTC; Li Huiran, Director of Media Monitoring & Insights, Asia Pacific at PR Newswire; and Liu Yinglu, Head of Customized Communication Services at PR Newswire, engaged in in-depth discussions on cutting-edge topics such as Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), AI search insights, and brand AI visibility.
With the rise of generative AI, the way users access information is shifting from “keyword search” to “directly asking AI questions.” Data shows that AI overviews now occupy the primary visible area of search results, with click-through rates for traditional search links dropping by over 70%, and the proportion of “zero-click” searches across the web exceeding 50%. Against this trend, the goal of brand communication has fundamentally changed: it is no longer just about being “found” but about being “understood,” “cited,” and “recommended” by AI. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) has emerged to help brands embed their information into answers generated by large models in an authoritative and trustworthy manner.
Understanding GEO: Being Cited, Recommended, and Insight-Driven
Opening the event, Wang Jia, Vice President of PR Newswire China Business, delivered a speech titled “Understanding GEO to Seize the AI Communication Opportunity,” outlining three strategic goals and execution paths for GEO.
First, Being Cited – Becoming a Direct Source. Brands should adopt an “answer-first” structured content approach, stating the core answer within the first 50 words; cite precise data, charts, executive quotes, and verified user reviews—such press releases are three times more likely to be cited than ordinary text; and distribute through high-authority channels (e.g., PR Newswire, which ranks 12th on the overseas top LLM citation domain list) using multimodal formats to maintain content freshness.
Second, Being Recommended – Influencing AI Answers. Brands need to build a multi-channel communication strategy, integrating earned media, paid media, owned media, and shared media to form a consistent brand image. For example, by partnering with PR Newswire to release structured market data and multimedia content, the New York Stock Exchange increased its backlinks from 2.6 million to 3.3 million, significantly enhancing its status as an authoritative source in AI responses to capital market questions.
Third, Being Insight-Driven – Mastering Deeper Trends. Leverage AI-powered smart search monitoring and insights to uncover consumers’ unexpressed deep-seated needs, thereby dynamically adjusting communication strategies.
Deep Dive into AI Search Insights: Reputation Management Through the Red Bull Case
Matthieu Danielou, Founder of Trajaan, and Maria Bersteneva, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Cision, jointly presented “Deep Dive into AI Search Intelligence.” Matthieu pointed out that brands must proactively understand how AI search operates, and Trajaan can unlock consumer insights from vast search data, providing brands with strategic and narrative recommendations.
Matthieu vividly demonstrated the practical value of AI search insights through the Red Bull case: AI had erroneously associated Red Bull with “anxiety/suicide” risks. Through pain point monitoring and source tracing analysis, the team identified specific unfriendly media as the primary source. They then increased the weight of Red Bull’s official website and authoritative sources, successfully correcting the AI’s responses.
Maria further summarized four major application scenarios for AI search insights. She stated that search data can help companies: Protect reputation and shape narratives – receive timely alerts about new negative content displayed by Google and large language models to searchers; Enhance content and campaign effectiveness – align content, messages, and campaigns with real customer intent, and assess campaign impact; Improve efficiency and resource allocation – optimize time, budget, and resource investment across different markets; Predict demand and market changes – quantify and forecast demand size in any market, and identify trending product attributes.
Panel Discussion: From Experimentation to Practice – Action Paths to Win in the GEO Era
The panel session was moderated by Liu Yinglu, Head of Customized Communication Services at PR Newswire, with participation from Wu Wenjia, Director of International Communications at ZTE; Yan Shijie, Overseas Marketing Director of Horion Brand at KTC; and Li Huiran, Director of Media Monitoring & Insights, Asia Pacific at PR Newswire. The guests engaged in an in-depth discussion on the core changes brought by GEO, practical challenges, and how to avoid common pitfalls.
Regarding core changes and challenges, Wu Wenjia noted that the focus of brand communication has shifted from “making users see” to “making AI and users understand.” In practice, challenges mainly stem from cross-language, cross-platform customized communication, and how to simplify technical content for broader audiences. Yan Shijie, from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises, emphasized the importance of “combining brand and performance.” He stated that companies need to move from simply selling hardware to offering solutions (e.g., education, meeting scenarios), building the underlying logic of GEO through authoritative endorsements like white papers and partnerships, and demonstrating to management the business conversion driven by marketing. Li Huiran added that algorithms are reshaping brand reputation, with the competitive focus shifting from ranking battles to winning AI recognition. She warned that if a brand lacks high-impact assets across the web, it may be “silently blocked” in AI responses.
Regarding the fundamental difference between SEO and GEO, the panelists believed that SEO is a multiple-choice game of “grabbing positions,” relying on keyword stuffing and pursuing short-term results; while GEO is a fill-in-the-blank game of “earning trust,” requiring long-term accumulation of stable, authoritative, and mutually validating brand assets. Common misconceptions include: applying SEO thinking while neglecting content consistency; evaluating effectiveness based on scattered questions with insufficient sample sizes; and lacking organic connections between owned media and paid media.
Regarding performance evaluation, the panelists suggested focusing on three dimensions: Visibility (the natural mention rate of a brand under specific questions), Source Analysis (the types of sources preferred by different large models), and Narrative Audit (the labels and emotional tendencies AI assigns to the brand). In terms of organizational coordination, large enterprises need PR, SEO, technology, compliance, and global teams to form a closed loop; small and medium-sized enterprises should focus on the linkage between management, product, and sales teams, using frontline cases to feed content development.
Winning the “Trust” Battle in the AI Era
As AI search becomes the primary gateway for users to access information, GEO has become an indispensable part of brand communication strategy. The key to winning user choice lies in “trust” – brands must shift from passive exposure to proactively building long-term trust relationships with AI. By deploying high-quality, structured, and multimodal content, brands ensure they are accurately understood, credibly cited, and preferentially recommended by AI. This is essentially a long-term process of building brand assets, not a short-term traffic game.
The successful hosting of this event provided a high-quality exchange platform for brand communicators exploring new paths in the AI era. PR Newswire will continue to focus on this field, offering comprehensive support for brands from insights to practice.