"As artificial intelligence (AI) search spreads rapidly, the core of brand strategy is shifting from advertising to generative engine optimisation (GEO)."

Aenact CEO Son Seung-wan (손승완) stressed the point on May 14 in Seoul during a presentation at the DigitalToday Companion Meetup titled, "In the AI and zero-click era, how will our company brand survive?"

Son said, "Search has not ended, but clicks are disappearing." He said the search paradigm is shifting from a search engine to an answer engine. He said a zero-click trend is spreading as AI infers and provides a complete answer from multiple search results, leading users not to click links.

The trend is also confirmed in data. OpenSurvey data show that as of last December, the usage rate of ChatGPT in South Korea was 54.5 percent and Gemini was 28.9 percent. ChatGPT monthly active users in South Korea surpassed 20 million in September last year. Son said, "AI search is already affecting all industries including B2B technology, healthcare, education and insurance." He added that news media traffic has also fallen sharply since the second half of 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Son recommended that companies "must invest in GEO right now." GEO is a strategy designed to have AI engines choose and recommend a brand. It consists of three steps: content strategy, technical strategy and external signals.

But Korea faces difficulties shifting to GEO. He pointed to inadequate preparation for search engine optimisation (SEO), which underpins GEO. He said, "Korea was the only market in the world where Naver dominated the search market," and explained that companies focused on exposure within platforms such as Naver blogs and cafes, leaving SEO for their own websites neglected.

An analysis by Aenact of 97 sites across seven categories in South Korea found that as of February this year, only 40 percent were at a level AI could read. Another 26 percent were partially optimised. The remaining 34 percent were not accessible to AI at all. Fashion platforms were the most vulnerable. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) and IT and B2B sites were relatively well prepared.

The importance of owned media, a company-owned channel, is also rising. A full survey by U.S. digital solutions company Yext (YEXT) of 6.8 million AI citations generated on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity in June to July 2025 found that 86 percent of the sources cited when AI generates answers were directly managed by brands, including websites, local listings and review platforms. By contrast, Aenact's analysis found that domestic brand sites accounted for only 10 to 30 percent of citations.

Without official sources, AI pulls brand information from external channels such as community comments and social media, Son said. He defined this as an "anchor gap". He warned, "A brand is mentioned but has no official source, which is like losing its voice," and added, "Our brand message may be being created in community comments."

Son also stressed that AI answers have a powerful branding effect. He explained using the concept of a category entry point (CEP). It is a structure in which, at the decisive moment a consumer thinks of a specific category, AI first suggests a brand suited to the situation. He said, "In the past, consumers had to remember the brand, but in the AI era, AI suggests it first," adding, "AI answers themselves are branding."

Among external signals, Son said the most powerful tool in South Korea is news articles. He said, "GEO is not limited to top search pages," and added that in commerce, the citation rate of content rises to 70 percent after page 8. He added that one in-depth planned feature is more effective from a GEO perspective than many simple promotional articles.

Managing a knowledge graph, which allows AI to understand relationships between a brand and products and categories, is also needed, Son said. He said, "In the AI era, brand competition will be decided not by advertising but by occupying the knowledge structure graph," and added, "Marketers are no longer people who make ads, but people who design it."