How GEO really works
A conversation with one of the people at the forefront of understanding how AI search engines find information: Josh Blyskal of Profound.
The first time I spoke with Josh Blyskal, the head of answer engine optimization at Profound, I could tell he was playing pro-level GEO (generative engine optimization) while I was still poking around the farm teams. Josh has been studying and reverse-engineering AI answer engines since before anyone was paying attention to them, so it makes sense that he’s forgotten more about GEO than most people will ever know. I made it a point to stay in touch and interview him for The Media Copilot podcast so more people could benefit from his acute understanding of how GEO works—and how it breaks everything we knew about search.
Check out the conversation below, and to stay ahed of the curve on GEO, be sure to sign up for The Media Copilot’s GEO Dinner Series, which kicks off on April 21 in Manhattan. You can get tickets right here.
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Meet the man unpacking how AI search engines think
Search is no longer just about blue links and ranking on Google. More and more, people are getting their answers directly from AI tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and other answer engines that summarize information, pull citations, and decide what gets surfaced in real time. That means visibility is changing, and so is the value of content.
Listen or watch:
In this episode of The Media Copilot podcast, Pete Pachal speaks with Josh Blyskal, who leads answer engine optimization (AEO) research at Profound, a company focused on tracking how brands appear inside AI generated answers. Their conversation explores what AEO (a.k.a. GEO, or generative engine optimization) really means, how it differs from traditional SEO, and why specificity, utility, and structure now matter more than ever.
Josh shares how answer engines build responses, how citations are selected, why Reddit and forums still matter, and what brands, publishers, and media companies should be paying attention to as AI becomes a bigger gatekeeper between information and the audience.
What we cover
What generative engine optimization (GEO) is and why it is not just SEO with a new label
How AI tools break prompts into fan out searches behind the scenes
Why answer engines favor utility, clarity, and highly specific content
The role of citations, consensus, and diversified source portfolios in AI answers
How Google, ChatGPT, and other models differ in the sources they pull from
Why Reddit, forums, and user generated content still influence AI visibility
How brands can monitor narrative shifts and emerging sentiment in answer engines
The growing tension between publishers, AI discovery, and the value of being cited
What Josh sees as the biggest opportunity and biggest risk in the next phase of AI powered media
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