“Gen Optimization” Is the New SEO
What Green Brands Need to Know About AI Search in 2025
In 2025, search looks different, and that means traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is evolving fast. With AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude shaping how people get their answers, a new field is emerging: Generative Engine Optimization. For purpose-driven brands, understanding how AI chooses what to cite is essential.
Your next customer, investor, or policymaker might not be Googling; they might be asking ChatGPT. And whether your brand shows up in that answer depends on what AI has read and what it chooses to cite.
A new report from Muck Rack, Generative Pulse 2025, breaks down how generative AI selects sources, and why your brand’s visibility in AI-generated answers might depend more on earned media than meta tags.
AI Shapes Its Responses Around Sources
When citations are enabled in AI responses, they fundamentally change the answer itself. This means the sources AI chooses to use are extremely influential in its responses.
If AI pulls from a journalistic story that covers your sustainable solution, that piece could shape what thousands of people read as “the answer.”
Earned Media is Everything
More than 95% of AI citations come from non-paid sources. Of those, 27% are journalistic articles. That means authentic press coverage, thought leadership, and industry features are now some of the most valuable assets you can have –– both for human readers, and for the AI that’s “reading the internet” on everyone’s behalf.
If you land coverage in credible, niche-appropriate outlets, it increases the odds that AI will pick up and cite your story.
Pie Chart showing where AI citations come from.
Recency + Authority = Visibility
OpenAI’s models favor recent stories and high-authority domains. That means outdated blog posts or PR coverage won’t help your Generative Engine Optimization rankings.
56% of journalism cited by OpenAI was published within the last 12 months.
✅ Keep your media mentions fresh. A steady stream of relevant news coverage helps ensure your message stays at the top of the search. We can help you build a ready-made media kit to make it a breeze for journalists to pick up your story. Contact us here.
How to Ask
How a question is asked matters. When users seek opinions or creative input, AI leans more on user-generated content or blogs. But when the question is fact-based or news-driven, journalism is cited.
Graph showing where AI obtains its information based on how a user asks a question
To be cited, be recent, relevant, and reliable in your industry press.
Top sources that is used for AI providers Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT
TL;DR
In the era of AI-driven search, showing up in ChatGPT matters as much as showing up on Google. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is all about being cited, and citations come from earned media, not paid ads. To stay visible, green brands need fresh, credible, journalistic coverage that AI trusts and users ask for. Be recent, relevant, and reliably featured in the press: that’s the new SEO.
