There’s a brand new game in town, and everyone is hopping on the bandwagon. No, not pickleball. We’re talking about generative engine optimization (GEO)—digital marketing focused on increasing your firm’s visibility in AI engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Today, we’re publishing new research that shows that professional services firms are rapidly adopting strategies to ensure they don’t become digitally invisible. In September 2025, Scribewise surveyed 205 executive leaders and marketing managers working at US-based professional services firms to gauge their GEO readiness—to our knowledge, the first research study to focus exclusively on the GEO efforts of professional services firms. To qualify for the survey, respondents were required to be familiar with their organization’s content creation and digital marketing strategy. 

The clear takeaway from our study is that professional services firms are aggressively adopting GEO strategies, shifting budgets as needed.

• 55% of marketers and firm leaders told us that their GEO strategies are “advanced.”
• Of those who aren’t quite there yet, 72% say that their GEO strategies will be up and running within six months.

Firms that haven’t yet pivoted to focusing on GEO risk falling behind. Catching up will be a costly, time-consuming process, akin to the firms that decided back in 2010 that it was finally time to embrace SEO.

As longtime proponents of courageous marketing, we applaud the aggressiveness marketers are showing by embracing GEO. There is a realization that the first-mover advantage in AI search is real. We suspect this is because marketers understand that AI search is far superior to traditional search—the experience of chatting with an AI engine and getting nuanced answers sourced from across the internet is exponentially better than ten blue links, eight of which paid to be there.

AI search is much harder to game than traditional search. There are no shortcuts or tricks. That is frustrating for us marketers who understood how to demonstrably get ahead of our competitors over the last quarter century.

• 39% of our respondents told us that the fact that traditional success metrics will no longer apply is one of their biggest concerns about the AI search era.
• Another 45% said they’re concerned that AI engines are “more obtuse” to optimize for when compared to traditional search engines.

One other point of concern: One out of five respondents told us that “GEO is just the next evolution of SEO.” All evidence suggests that this is far too simplistic. 

Yes, traditional SEO tactics can have a positive impact on GEO, but the way in which AI engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity surface answers to queries is far more nuanced. Search engines could, to a certain extent, be bludgeoned into submission through sheer quantity of content, a bunch of backlinks that no human ever paid attention to and a few best technical practices on your website. AI search is proving to be far more dynamic. The discovery engines are constantly mining the internet for deep dive content that demonstrates expertise. This is proven by research from others that shows a minimal overlap between Google SERPs and AI responses. Marketer, beware.

These are exciting times for marketers at professional services firms. We have been handed an exciting new distribution channel that is different from everything that has come before it. We hope this research report provides you with guidance as you do the necessary work to ensure that your firm stays visible into the future.