Answer Engine Optimisation and Generative Engine Optimisation are new names for a real change: a growing share of searches now end in an AI-generated answer rather than a click. The acronyms are noisier than the shift, but the shift is genuine and worth planning around.
What stays the same
Most of it. AI systems draw heavily on the same signals that determine conventional rankings: crawlable, indexable pages, topical authority, credible sources, clear structure. Every AI citation I have earned for a client sat on top of solid conventional SEO. There is no separate channel to buy.
What genuinely changes
Three things. First, entity clarity matters more: machines need to know unambiguously who you are, which means consistent naming, organisation schema, and an about page that states plainly what the business does. Second, extractability matters: content structured so a clean answer can be lifted from it, with the question as a heading and the answer immediately beneath. Third, citation-worthiness matters: original data, clear definitions and genuinely better explanations, because a machine has no reason to quote a rewrite of what already ranks.
What to measure
Track whether AI Overviews appear for your money terms and whether you are cited. Watch for the pattern of impressions holding while clicks fall, which is the signature of answers being consumed without a visit. Then judge branded search and direct traffic, because citation without a click still produces demand that shows up elsewhere.
The strategic question nobody wants
Whether to allow AI crawlers at all. For most businesses being cited is worth more than being withheld, since the alternative is your competitor being the one quoted. But it is a real decision with a real trade-off, and it should be made deliberately rather than by default.
What to do this quarter
Fix entity signals, restructure your top ten commercial pages into answer-shaped format, add or verify schema, and publish one thing containing information nobody else has. That is the whole of AI search optimisation today, and the field is early enough that doing it competently is still an advantage in most industries.