The moment McConnell knew everything about the search had changed, the Paris Olympics came last summer. Her parents, freely and without prompting, were drawn to both Chat GPT Planning your day’s activities in the French capital. The AI recommended specific tour companies, restaurants and attractions — businesses that had won a new kind of visibility lottery.
"It was almost as intuitive an interface that older people were as comfortable using as younger people." McConnell retracted that in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. "I could only see the business being recommended now."
This observation has now become his foundation Geostera Pear VC-backed startup that is racing to help businesses navigate what may be the most significant shift in online discovery since Google was founded.
The company, which recently emerged from Stealth with impressive early customer traction, is betting that the rise of AI-powered search represents a significant opportunity for how companies are found online. Global AI Search Engine Market It is projected to grow to $43.63 billion in 2025 by 2032 alone.
Already the fastest growing company The newest group of perksGeoster is approaching $1 million in annual recurring revenue in just four months — with just two founders and no employees.
Why Gartner Predicts Traditional Search Volume Will Decline 25% By 2026
The numbers tell a stark story of disruption. Gartner predicts that traditional search engine volumes will A reduction of 25% by 2026largely due to the rise of AI chatbots. Google’s AI reviews are now underway Billions of searches Monthly. Researchers at Princeton University have found that optimization for these new AI systems can increase visibility Up to 40%.
"Search used to mean you had to please Google," McConnell explained. "But now you have to optimize for four different Google interfaces — Traditional Search, AI Mode, Gemini, and AI Review — each with different criteria. And then ChatGupt, Cloud, and Trouble each do different things on top of that."
This piece is creating chaos for businesses that have spent decades perfecting their Google search strategies. A recent one The Forrester Study It found that 95% of B2B buyers plan to use generative AI in future purchasing decisions. Yet most companies remain ill-prepared for this shift.
"Anyone who isn’t on it yet is missing out," Sayhan Tas, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Geoster. "We see that lawyers now get 50% of their clients through ChatGPT. It’s just such a big change."
How language models read the web differently than search engines do
what Geoster And the growing group of competitors represents a fundamental departure from generative engine optimization or geo-traditional search engine optimization. Where SEO focused primarily on keywords and backlinks, SEO requires an understanding of how larger language models analyze, understand, and synthesize information across the web.
The technical challenges are strong. Every website should now work as a TAS "Its own little database" Comprehensible by dozens of different AI crawlers, each with unique requirements and preferences. Google’s systems pull from their current search index. Chat GPT Highly dependent on structural data and specific material forms. Anxiety shows a significant preference for Wikipedia and authoritative sources.
"Now the strategy is actually being concise, clear and answering the question, because that’s what AI is directly looking for," TAS explained. "You’re actually tuning in to an intelligent model that makes decisions the way we make decisions."
Consider schema markup, the structured data that helps machines understand web content. Although only 30 percent of websites currently implement comprehensive schema, research shows that pages with proper markup are 36 percent more likely to have AI-infused summaries. Yet most businesses don’t even know what schema markup is, let alone how to implement it effectively.
Inside Geoster’s AI agents that continuously optimize websites without human intervention
Geoster’s solution is a broader trend in enterprise software: the rise of autonomous AI agents that can take action on behalf of the business. The company embeds what is called "Environmental agents" Directly in client websites, constantly improving content, technical configurations, and even creating new pages based on patterns learned across its customer base.
"Once we learn something about how content performs, or how to perform technical optimizations, we can then syndicate that change to other users so that everyone in the network benefits," McConnell said.
for redshifta cybersecurity company, saw a 27 percent increase in AI mentions within three months from this approach. In one case, Geoster identified an opportunity "Best DMARC Vendor," A high-value search term in the email security space. The company’s agents created and optimized content that achieved first-page rankings on both Google and ChatGPT within four days.
"We are working as an agency that charges $10,000 a month," McConnell said, adding that GStar’s pricing ranges from $1,000 to $3,000 a month. "AI creates a situation where for the first time, you can act like an agency, but you can measure like software."
Why non-branded links matter more than ever in the AI era
The implications of this shift go far beyond technological reform. In the SEO era, a mention without a link was essentially useless. In the age of AI, this calculus has been reversed. AI systems can analyze vast amounts of text to understand sentiment and context, meaning that brands on Reddit, in news articles, or in social media now directly influence how AI systems describe and recommend companies.
"If the New York Times mentions a company without contacting it, that company will actually benefit from it in the AI system." McConnell explained. "AI has the ability to analyze large amounts of text at scale, and it will understand the sentiment surrounding that mention."
It has created new vulnerabilities. Research from the Indian Institute of Technology and Princeton has found that AI systems exhibit a systematic bias toward third-party sources over brand-owned content. A company’s own website may be less influential in shaping perceptions of AI than what others say about it online.
The changing landscape also disrupts traditional measures of success. Where SEO focused on rankings and click-through rates, GEO must account for what researchers call impression metrics.
A growing market as SEO veterans and new players race to dominate AI optimization
Geoster is hardly alone in recognizing this opportunity. Companies love it Brand Lightfor , for , for , . deepand Goody All are racing to help businesses navigate the new landscape. SEO industry, approximately cost 80 billion globallyis adapting, with established players such as Simrush and AHREF racing to add AI exposure tracking features.
But the company’s founders, who previously called and sold Y-Combinator-backed e-commerce optimization startup Montobelieve their technical approach gives them an edge. Unlike competitors who provide massive dashboards and recommendations, GStar’s agents proactively implement changes.
"Everyone is taking the same solution that worked last time and just saying, ‘We’ll do this for AI instead,’" McConnell argued. "But when you think about what AI is really capable of, it can actually work for you."
The stakes are especially high for small and medium-sized businesses. While large corporations can afford to hire specialized consultants or build in-house expertise, smaller companies run the risk of becoming invisible in an AI-mediated search. Geostar sees this as its primary market opportunity: Half of the 33.2 million small businesses in the U.S. invest in SEO. Of the roughly 418,000 law firms in the U.S., many spend Between $2,500 and $5,000 On monthly search optimization to stay competitive in local markets.
From Kurdish Village to Prex: Unexpected Partnerships Building the Future of Exploration
For TAS, whose journey to Silicon Valley began in a small Kurdish village in Turkey with just 50 residents, the present moment represents both opportunity and responsibility. His mother’s battle with cancer prevented him from finishing college, leading him to teach himself programming and eventually partner with McConnell.
"We’re not just copying and pasting a solution that already existed," TAS emphasized. "This is something that is different and was possible today individually."
Looking forward, search change appears to be rapid rather than stable. Industry observers predict that search functionality will soon be incorporated into productivity tools, wearables, and even augmented reality interfaces. Each new level is likely to have its own optimization needs, and will further complicate the landscape.
"Soon, the search will be in our eyes, in our ears," McConnell predicted. "When Siri breaks out of its prison, whatever Juniio and OpenEye are building together will be like a multimodal search interface."
Technical challenges are met with ethics. As businesses influence AI recommendations, questions arise about manipulation, manipulation, fairness and transparency. There is currently no oversight body for GEO, nor has it established best practices, creating what some critics describe as a wild west environment.
As businesses grapple with these changes, one thing seems certain: The era of merely optimizing for Google is over. In its place is emerging a far more complex ecosystem where success requires understanding not only how machines index information, but how they think about it, synthesize it, and ultimately decide what to recommend to humans for answers.
For the millions of businesses whose survival depends on online discovery, mastering this new paradigm isn’t just an opportunity—it’s an existential imperative. The question is no longer whether to optimize for AI search, but whether companies can adapt fast enough to be visible while accelerating the pace of change.
McConnell’s parents at the Olympics were a preview of what is already becoming a norm. They did not look for tour companies in Paris. They didn’t scroll through results or click on links. They simply asked the chatbot what to do – and the AI decided which businesses deserved their attention.
In the new discovery economy, the businesses that win won’t be the ones with the highest rankings. They will be the ones who recommend AI.