Google just rebuilt the engine your business runs on. Customers are searching more than ever, but the way they find and choose brands has fundamentally changed. The brands that adapt fastest will take market share from those that do not. Here is what that means for your revenue and customer acquisition, with input from Andreas Keifer, SEO and GEO Expert at Curamando.
What changed at Google I/O 2026
Search agents now monitor the web around the clock on behalf of your customers, tracking products, prices and new launches without them ever having to search again. Agentic capabilities are rolling out across bookings, shopping and local services, meaning Search increasingly handles the research, comparison and decision on the customer’s behalf. If your brand is not visible in those agent-generated answers, you are not in the consideration set. There is no page two to fall back on.
What your business needs to do differently
Being visible in AI-driven answers is not automatic. It requires deliberate action across content, authority and measurement. We asked Andreas Keifer, SEO and GEO Expert at Curamando, what businesses need to do differently to stay visible and relevant as Google moves deeper into the AI era.
What does it take for AI to recommend your brand?
“Clear, specific claims combined with verifiability. AI systems look for sources, data, methodology and recency. Strong E-E-A-T signals matter too: expert senders, transparency and trust. Beyond that, structure is more important than people realise. Headers, definitions and lists make content extractable. It is essential to follow web content best practices.”
How can structured data and entity optimization increase a brand’s visibility in AI-generated answers?
“It simplifies how AI understands who you are and what you do, reducing ambiguity. It helps agents match you to the right intent and context, and increases the likelihood that you are correctly described and cited. Sites that stay close to their core topic and business are consistently rewarded over sites that cover ten loosely connected subjects.”
Why does your reputation across the web matter more than your own website in the AI era?
“AI and agents actively seek independent confirmation. Third-party mentions function as social proof and validation of your claims, the same way external links and mentions have always worked for SEO. Distribution and reputation across the web is becoming a bigger part of acquisition than onsite SEO alone.”
What measurement mistakes do most businesses make when it comes to AI visibility?
“Most brands are still only measuring clicks, rankings and impressions. They have no baseline of prompts and no ongoing test methodology. They are not tracking the quality of how their brand is described, whether it is being cited, or which competitors are being recommended instead. The clearest difference from before is sentiment. It is no longer just about appearing most often. It is about how your brand is described when it does appear.”
Andreas Keifer, SEO and GEO Expert at Curamando
The window to act is open, but it will not stay open
Google has not replaced search. It has made it more powerful, more personalised and more agentic. Every week without a GEO strategy is a week your competitors can use to build visibility you will have to fight to recover.
The businesses that move now will not just protect their current customer acquisition. They will gain ground on the ones that wait.
If you want to understand what this means specifically for your business, that is exactly the conversation we have with our clients every day. Reach out and let’s make it concrete for you.
Want to hear more about how AI is changing customer acquisition? Listen to our feature in the podcast “Dagens e-handel” where we cover what the shift from SEO to GEO means for e-commerce businesses today.
Curious what this means for your business specifically?
We help organisations figure out where they stand in AI-driven search today, and how to increase their visibility from there. Contact us and we’ll walk through it together.
