The digital marketing industry is witnessing its most significant disruption in two decades. Traditional search engine optimization—a $68 billion global market built on Google’s dominance—is facing an existential challenge from AI-powered search engines that don’t just rank websites, but synthesize information and make direct recommendations.
At the center of this transformation is GrackerAI, a San Francisco-based startup that has formalized an entirely new category: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on climbing Google rankings, GEO measures and improves how AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google Gemini discover, evaluate, and recommend brands when millions of users ask for solutions.
The market opportunity has attracted strategic backing from some of technology’s biggest names. GrackerAI has secured support from NVIDIA’s Startups Program, Microsoft for Startups, and Cloudflare, alongside partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic (makers of Claude), and Amazon AWS. These aren’t typical venture relationships—they’re infrastructure partnerships that position GrackerAI as a foundational player in how AI search evolves.
The Market Shift That Caught Everyone Off Guard
“Most marketing teams are still optimizing for a world that’s rapidly disappearing,” explains Deepak Gupta, CEO and co-founder of GrackerAI. “They’re celebrating #1 Google rankings while their prospects are asking ChatGPT for vendor recommendations. That disconnect is costing companies millions in lost pipeline.”
The numbers tell a compelling story. Gartner projects traditional search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026. ChatGPT has already captured 4.33% of the search market despite launching less than two years ago. Google’s own AI Overviews now appear in 16% of all searches. And critically, 40% of B2B buyers now use AI assistants to research solutions—with particularly high adoption among technical decision-makers like CTOs and CISOs.
This isn’t a gradual transition. It’s a fundamental rewrite of how buyers discover and evaluate vendors.
Why Traditional SEO Strategies Are Failing in the AI Era
The core problem: companies optimized for Google’s algorithm are invisible when AI engines generate recommendations. A B2B SaaS platform can rank #1 for “best API management tools” on Google, yet never appears when prospects ask ChatGPT or Claude the same question.
“The rules are completely different,” says Govind Kumar, CTO and co-founder of GrackerAI. “We’re not optimizing for algorithms that rank web pages based on backlinks. We’re optimizing for AI systems that evaluate source credibility, synthesize information across hundreds of data points, and make recommendations based on trustworthiness signals.”
This creates what GrackerAI calls the “visibility gap”—the growing disconnect between traditional search rankings and AI citation frequency. Companies investing heavily in SEO may be dominating Google while remaining completely absent from AI-generated recommendations that influence 40% of B2B buying decisions.
The GEO Infrastructure Play
GrackerAI’s platform addresses both sides of the equation: measurement and improvement. The system provides real-time tracking of brand mentions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews—offering the first standardized metrics for AI search visibility.
Companies receive weekly GEO scores showing how often AI engines cite their brand versus competitors, which prompts trigger mentions, citation quality, and context, share of voice in AI-generated recommendations, and visibility trends over time.
But measurement alone doesn’t solve the problem. GrackerAI’s platform automatically generates content optimized for AI citation patterns, a critical capability given the sheer volume needed to establish authority across dozens of categories and hundreds of use cases.
For cybersecurity and B2B SaaS companies—GrackerAI’s initial focus—the platform integrates with over 200 authoritative data sources, including the National Vulnerability Database, MITRE CVE Database, and industry-specific intelligence feeds. This ensures auto-generated content maintains technical accuracy while optimizing for AI citation patterns.
Early Results Demonstrate Quantifiable Impact
While the GEO category is nascent, early adopters are seeing measurable results within 60-90 days. According to company data, clients have achieved:
- 60% average increase in AI visibility scores
- 40-80% growth in AI-referred signups and conversions
- 100-200% increases in organic traffic from quality content
- 3-5x higher conversion rates from AI search visitors versus traditional organic traffic
- 18% conversion rates from programmatic portals versus 0.5% from traditional blog content
“The velocity of impact surprised us,” notes Kumar. “Once AI engines recognize you as an authoritative source, citation frequency compounds. You get recommended repeatedly, which reinforces your authority, which increases future citations. It’s a flywheel effect.”
For investors and strategic partners, this demonstrates a critical insight: GEO isn’t a marginal optimization strategy. It’s a foundational infrastructure requirement for the next decade of digital marketing.
The Early Mover Advantage Window
Perhaps the most compelling aspect of GrackerAI’s thesis is timing. AI platforms are establishing citation preferences now—training their models to recognize certain sources as authoritative. Sources cited frequently in 2025-2026 will have effectively trained AI systems to prefer them in future recommendations.
“We’re in the equivalent of 2004 for SEO,” Gupta observes. “Early movers who invest in GEO now will dominate AI search visibility for years. Companies waiting for proof will find competitors have already captured mindshare with AI engines.”
This creates a winner-take-most dynamic. Unlike Google SEO, where new content can gradually climb rankings, AI citation patterns have longer-term persistence. Once an AI engine establishes a source as authoritative for a category, that recognition compounds across millions of future queries.
The Convergence Driving Adoption
Multiple trends are accelerating the shift from SEO to GEO:
Zero-Click Search Dominance: 60% of searches now end without a click to any website. Traditional click-through rate metrics are becoming obsolete.
AI Assistant Ubiquity: ChatGPT reached 100 million users faster than any consumer app in history. Perplexity processes 230+ million queries monthly.
B2B Buyer Behavior Shift: Technical buyers increasingly trust AI-synthesized information over traditional marketing content.
Trust-Based Discovery: Unlike search engines that rank based on backlinks, AI engines evaluate source credibility through expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness signals.
Platform Availability and Market Position
GrackerAI offers a free tier allowing companies to analyze current AI search visibility, with paid plans scaling from growth to enterprise tiers. The platform integrates with existing marketing infrastructure including WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, and custom CMS platforms.
Implementation typically shows initial visibility improvements within 4-6 weeks, with significant citation increases by month three. Companies can analyze their current positioning at portal.gracker.ai.
Strategic Implications for the Marketing Technology Stack
For marketing technology investors and corporate development teams, GrackerAI represents a critical infrastructure layer. Just as SEO tools became essential components of the marketing stack in 2005-2010, GEO platforms are positioned to play a similar foundational role for the next decade.
The difference: AI search is evolving faster than traditional search did, creating a compressed timeline for market leadership. Companies that establish authority with AI engines in 2025-2026 will benefit from compounding advantages as these platforms scale to billions of users.
As Gupta frames it: “The companies thriving in 2027 won’t be the ones with the best Google rankings. They’ll be the brands AI assistants recommend when millions of buyers ask for solutions. GEO is how you become that brand.”
About GrackerAI
GrackerAI is a San Francisco-based B2B SaaS company pioneering the Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) category. Founded by cybersecurity veterans Deepak Gupta (LoginRadius founder) and Govind Kumar (AI/ML expert), the company helps B2B SaaS and cybersecurity firms measure and improve their visibility in AI-powered search engines. The company is backed by strategic partnerships with NVIDIA, Microsoft, Cloudflare, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Amazon AWS.
Website: gracker.ai
Platform: portal.gracker.ai
Press Contact: media@gracker.ai