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AEO vs GEO vs AI SEO: what's the difference?

EasyFound · · 7 min read

TL;DR

AEO (answer engine optimisation), GEO (generative engine optimisation) and AI SEO overlap heavily: the basics of getting your business named in AI answers are largely the same under each label. AEO comes from the voice-search era, GEO from a research paper, and AI SEO is a looser label that can also mean using AI tools. In EasyFound's tests of ChatGPT through OpenAI's API, 'AEO Malaysia' and 'GEO Malaysia' on their own mostly drew customs and geography, while questions comparing the terms got the AI-search meanings, so we suggest spelling the terms out.

One agency in KL pitches you AEO. Another sells GEO, and a third AI SEO. AEO, GEO and AI SEO overlap heavily: all three aim to get your business named, with the right facts, when customers ask AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews. The names differ mostly in origin and emphasis.

In Malaysia there's a twist. Asked just "AEO Malaysia" or "GEO Malaysia", ChatGPT mostly asked what we meant and offered a customs scheme or geography. Put the terms side by side and it almost always read them as AI search (our data).

What is the difference between AEO, GEO and AI SEO?

AEO, GEO and AI SEO differ in origin and emphasis, not in the basic work. AEO grew out of voice search, GEO out of research on AI-written answers, and AI SEO is the loosest label.

AEO, GEO and AI SEO compared (compiled by EasyFound from the sources below, read 1 October 2026)
AEO GEO AI SEO
Stands for Answer engine optimisation Generative engine optimisation No fixed expansion
Where the name came from Search marketers, 2017–18, in the voice-search era A 2023 research paper by researchers from IIT Delhi, Princeton University and elsewhere No single origin; an industry label
What it first meant Being the single answer read out or shown on top Being cited inside answers that generative AI writes from several sources Either optimising for AI answers or using AI tools to do SEO
The basics you actually do Let AI crawlers in, state facts plainly, answer real questions, check the answers Largely the same The same, if it means AI answers

Definitions: what AEO means for a Malaysian business, how to do GEO step by step and what AI SEO is.

Where did the names AEO, GEO and AI SEO come from?

AEO was in use by 2018: Search Engine Watch wrote that February that "This strategy has come to be known as AEO, or 'answer engine optimization'", reporting a webinar on voice search1. SEO consultant Jason Barnard, who spoke at that webinar, says he first put the idea forward in 20172.

GEO's authors wrote: "we introduce Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), the first novel paradigm to aid content creators in improving their content visibility in generative engine responses"3. It was first posted in November 2023.

AI SEO has no inventor we could find. Google's own guide names AEO and GEO but never uses "AI SEO"4.

Is the work for AEO, GEO and AI SEO actually different?

The basic work for AEO, GEO and AI SEO is largely the same. Google's guide treats AEO and GEO as SEO4 (we cover that in what AI SEO is), and its AI features page says: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary."5

Some writers draw sharper lines. Onely ties AEO to "featured snippets, voice assistant responses, and zero-click search results", GEO to AI chatbots, and calls AI SEO "the umbrella term". It says the writing differs too: "AEO content tends toward concise Q&A pairs. GEO and LLMO content tends toward comprehensive depth."6

Our reading: for a Malaysian clinic or renovation firm, the checklist is the same under any label; the differences are in format.

ChatGPT mostly agreed. Of 24 answers to questions comparing the terms, 19 called them overlapping and 2 "related, but not identical". One called them different, reading AEO as customs; two in Bahasa Malaysia gave no verdict (our data).

What do AEO, GEO and AI SEO mean to ChatGPT in Malaysia?

In Malaysia, ChatGPT reads the bare acronyms as something else, and as AI search once they're compared. Six answers per bare term, from our 1 October test and a 26 September probe:

  • "AEO Malaysia" drew the customs programme, Authorised Economic Operator, or a clothing brand. Answer engine optimisation wasn't offered in any of the six.
  • "GEO Malaysia" drew geography or geo-targeting, with ChatGPT asking what we meant each time. Generative engine optimisation appeared by name once, as one option in a list.
  • "AI SEO Malaysia" drew using AI tools to do SEO, or a menu of tools and agencies, never as getting named in AI answers.

Comparison questions fixed most of this. AEO was read as answer engine optimisation in 20 of the 21 answers that defined it; "AEO vs GEO Malaysia" once turned it back into customs. GEO was read as generative engine optimisation in all 21. AI SEO was given both meanings, including using AI tools, in 5 of the 19 answers that defined it.

The customs reading matches our September test (details).

Which term should I use when I brief a Malaysian agency?

Any term works, but not the bare acronym alone:

  1. Spell it out, or pair it. Our suggestion: type "answer engine optimisation" or compare two terms ("AEO vs GEO"). Bare "AEO Malaysia" never got that meaning in six answers.
  2. Ask which AI SEO they mean. Optimising for AI answers and writing content with AI tools are different services (more on the two meanings).
  3. Compare what agencies will change, not what they call it. Our guide to hiring an AEO agency or doing it yourself lists the questions to ask.

What can't our test tell me about AEO, GEO and AI SEO?

  • The ChatGPT app. We asked through OpenAI's API with no chat history.
  • Other AI tools. We tested ChatGPT only, not Google's AI Overviews or Gemini.
  • Spelled-out terms. We didn't test them on 1 October.
  • A trend. Three to six runs per question is a snapshot.

Whatever it's called, how do I know if AI names my business?

Whichever label you pick, the useful question is the same: when customers ask AI who to choose, does it name you?

  1. Request EasyFound's free check. See what ChatGPT says about your business today, then go through it with us on a free call.
  2. Ask your customers' questions, spelled out, logged out of ChatGPT and more than once.
  3. Ask any agency that pitches a label: what exactly will you change on my pages?

We describe EasyFound as an AI SEO service for Malaysian businesses, covering AEO and GEO. We check what six AI tools tell customers in English, Malay and Chinese, then fix the pages they read. The free check is below.

Whatever it's called, does AI name you?

Skip the label debate. See what ChatGPT tells customers about your business, then go through it with us on a free call.

Frequently asked questions

Does ChatGPT think AEO, GEO and AI SEO are the same thing?

Mostly, it calls them overlapping. In EasyFound's 1 October 2026 test of ChatGPT through OpenAI's API, 24 answers to questions comparing the terms called them overlapping in 19, 'related, but not identical' in 2 and different in 1, the answer that read AEO as Malaysia's customs scheme. Two answers in Bahasa Malaysia gave no verdict. ChatGPT still gave each term its own focus.

Does AEO only mean optimising for voice search?

It started there, but not any more. Search Engine Watch described answer engine optimisation in February 2018 as a response to voice assistants and featured snippets. Today it's also used for AI answers from tools such as ChatGPT and Google's AI Overviews, and Google's own guide lists it alongside GEO as a term for work on AI search visibility.

Who came up with the term GEO?

Generative engine optimisation was introduced in a research paper by Pranjal Aggarwal and colleagues from IIT Delhi, Princeton University and independent researchers. It was first posted in November 2023 and presented at the KDD 2024 conference. The paper describes GEO as a way to help content creators improve their visibility in the answers that generative AI search engines write.

What should I type instead of 'AEO Malaysia' to find AI search help?

Our suggestion is to spell the term out, for example 'answer engine optimisation Malaysia', or name it next to another term, such as 'AEO vs GEO'. In EasyFound's tests of ChatGPT through OpenAI's API, 'AEO Malaysia' drew the customs programme or a clothing brand in all six answers, never answer engine optimisation. On 1 October 2026, questions comparing AEO with GEO or AI SEO got the answer engine optimisation meaning in 20 of the 21 answers that defined AEO.

Sources

Our data: EasyFound, What ChatGPT reads into AEO, GEO and AI SEO in Malaysia, 33 answers, 1 October 2026: 11 questions in English and Bahasa Malaysia, each asked three times through OpenAI's API with web search available, location Malaysia, model gpt-5.4-mini, no chat history, each answer coded by hand. Download the results (CSV). Bare-term totals add three answers per term from our 26 September probe (same set-up, included in the CSV). This is not the ChatGPT app.

Other sources:

  1. Search Engine Watch (Rebecca Sentance), The rise of Answer Engine Optimization: Why voice search matters, 7 February 2018, read via the Internet Archive (link)
  2. Jason Barnard, The Birth of Answer Engine Optimization, the author's own account (link)
  3. Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, first posted 16 November 2023, KDD 2024 (link)
  4. Google Search Central, Google's Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search, updated 10 July 2026 (link)
  5. Google Search Central, AI Features and Your Website, updated 10 December 2025 (link)
  6. Onely (Bartosz Góralewicz), GEO vs. AEO vs. AI SEO vs. LLMO, 1 December 2025 (link)

The test data is shared under CC BY 4.0: you're free to reuse it, with credit to EasyFound.

ChatGPT changes often; treat these figures as a dated measurement.

Research by Janice Pang, EasyFound.