Less than a year ago, generative engine optimization (GEO) felt like an emerging discipline that marketers were beginning to experiment with. Today, it is rapidly becoming a core component of beauty’s digital strategy as consumers increasingly turn to AI-powered search engines to research products, compare brands, and make purchasing decisions.
That evolution was the focus of BeautyMatter’s latest webinar, GEO 2026: How Beauty Brands Get Chosen by AI, where BeautyMatter founder and CEO Kelly Kovack spoke with John Morabito, SVP of Search & Innovation at digital media and market agency Stella Rising, about how AI is fundamentally changing search and what brands need to do to remain visible. “AI doesn’t rank brands,” Morabita said. “ It selects them.”
The conversation opened with a reminder of just how quickly AI adoption has accelerated. According to Morabita, ChatGPT has grown from roughly 400 million weekly active users to more than 900 million in less than a year, while 2 billion people each month now interact with Google AI Overviews. AI is no longer an emerging technology; it now has the power to reshape how consumers discover brands.
Citing research from Boston Consulting Group and WWD, Morabita noted that 25% of beauty consumers now consider AI their primary source for product research, while 75% have used AI to research beauty, wellness, or longevity in the past month. Among male beauty shoppers, 40% already use AI to build personalized skincare routines.
The commercial impact is becoming increasingly clear. Adobe Analytics data cited during the webinar found AI referral traffic has increased 393% year over year, with visitors arriving from AI platforms converting at higher rates than many traditional traffic sources.
One of the biggest misconceptions the webinar addressed was the relationship between search engine optimization (SEO) and GEO. While both aim to improve discoverability, Morabito argued that AI search operates fundamentally differently from traditional search engines.
Rather than matching pages to individual keywords, AI systems expand each query into multiple related searches before synthesizing information from numerous sources into a single recommendation. Brands therefore compete not only for rankings but also for inclusion within AI-generated answers themselves.
"It's not just about ranking once. It's about ranking 10 times across these fan-outs. We need to understand not just the one search term, but all of the search terms related to that," Morabito explained.
“The overlap between Google and ChatGPT has increased,” he said. “But I’m not interested in leaving the rest to chance.” The implication is significant. Optimizing for AI requires marketers to think beyond keywords toward broader topical authority, contextual relevance, and comprehensive content that answers multiple consumer questions simultaneously.
Perhaps the webinar’s most important takeaway was the growing value of earned credibility. According to Stella Rising’s analysis, roughly 95% of AI citations come from third-party websites rather than brand-owned channels. Editorial coverage, affiliate publishers, retailer content, expert commentary, and creator recommendations increasingly shape whether AI systems recommend a brand. That elevates PR from a communications function to a search strategy. “It’s not enough for you to say you’re the best; AI seeks third-party validation,” said Morabito.
Rather than relying solely on brand messaging, marketers need independent voices consistently reinforcing their differentiators across the wider digital ecosystem. "The sheer number and volume of chatter around your brand is incrementally, if not exponentially, more valuable than it is in the traditional ranking world." Media coverage, retailer partnerships, and creator relationships are becoming critical inputs into AI visibility.
"It's important for brands to be thinking about how they're engaging with the media, how they're engaging with sponsored opportunities, and how they're engaging with the places these answers are coming from."
While much of the industry continues to prioritize short-form social content, Morabito believes brands may be overlooking one of AI search’s most influential formats. According to Stella Rising’s analysis, 94% of AI video citations originate from long-form YouTube content, making YouTube one of the most underutilized opportunities for improving AI visibility. The key is creating educational, search-led content rather than purely promotional videos.
“The title is everything,” Morabito said. Brands producing straightforward content around topics such as ingredient education, skincare routines, or shade matching are significantly more likely to be surfaced within AI-generated answers than campaigns focused solely on launches or brand storytelling.
The strategy also reflects broader shifts in consumer behavior, with nearly half of consumers now actively using YouTube as a search engine. "So many brands view their social platforms almost like where the ads sit. There isn't an approach to genuinely educating ... the brands doing best are creating content that's incredibly straightforward,” said Morabito.
As AI increasingly answers consumer questions without requiring clicks, traditional digital marketing metrics are becoming less reliable indicators of success. Rather than focusing exclusively on rankings or traffic, brands will need a broader framework for evaluating AI performance.
"We have to be thinking about brand share of voice, the volume of citations, referral traffic, branded traffic, and actual conversions together,” said Morabito.
To support that shift, Stella Rising has developed ChatTrack and SearchTrack, tools designed to measure visibility across AI platforms, traditional search, retail sites, and social search. The tools reflect a broader evolution in digital marketing: Success is no longer defined solely by where brands rank, but by whether AI chooses to recommend them.
If last year’s conversation was centered on preparing for AI search, this year’s discussion suggests the industry has already crossed an important threshold. Consumers are increasingly asking AI which moisturizer to buy, which ingredient matters most, or which skincare routine suits their skin before they ever visit Sephora, Ulta Beauty, or a brand website.
As Google rankings matter less and less, the future belongs to the brands that become a part of AI’s answer.
