GEO/AEO Vendor Landscape: 2026 Industry Analysis for Evaluators

Updated: February 17, 2026

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) have matured rapidly as AI-overview snippets and conversational answers reshape discovery across Google/Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and vertical assistants. This refreshed edition highlights what’s changed since last year: broader coverage of multimodal answer surfaces, faster algorithmic churn, tighter brand/governance requirements, and growing demand for experiment-proof ROI.

What’s New Since the Last Edition

• Broader surfaces: More assistants now surface citations, image cards, and inline actions (buy, book, compare), making measurement and attribution more complex.
• Faster volatility: Answer sets refresh more frequently, increasing the value of continuous monitoring and controlled experiments over point-in-time audits.
• Governance first: Legal, compliance, and brand teams have become primary stakeholders; tools now compete on policy controls, auditability, and content provenance.
• From “rank” to “coverage”: Teams track “share of answers,” “share of citations,” and “brand sentiment in answers,” not just positions.

Categories of GEO/AEO Tools

1) Simple Visibility Trackers

Purpose-built scrapers or sensors that check whether your brand, product, or content appears in AI answers across engines and queries.

• Strengths

- Lightweight, fast to deploy, low cost.

- Clear binary visibility signals and basic trendlines.