illustration: DALL-EFor companies, this means one thing: classic SEO is no longer enough. Users no longer need to browse dozens of pages and compare reviews. Today, it’s enough to ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Google AI Overview. The answer? A condensed analysis of brands, models, prices, and features - tailored to budget and needs. McKinsey’s study shows that:
- 50% of users consciously choose AI as their main shopping tool,
- 44% name it as their preferred source of information (by comparison: only 31% choose traditional search engines).
This shifts the decision-making point much earlier - before the consumer visits a website or clicks on an ad.
Time for GEO, not just SEO
Classic positioning is not enough. Companies must invest in GEO - gen AI engine optimization. It’s a new approach to visibility in a digital world that is changing faster than ever. McKinsey recommends four actions:
- Presence analysis - checking where the brand appears in AI results and what it’s missing.
- Content adjustment - creating materials not just for the website but also for external publications.
- Language optimization - clarity, specificity, timeliness - that’s what AI expects.
- GEO team - companies should appoint a dedicated team combining marketing, SEO, and data.
For now, only 16% of companies track their visibility in AI. This is a huge opportunity for those who start now. The report`s authors - Elizabeth Silliman, Kelsey Robinson, and Julien Boudet - emphasize: AI has already changed consumer behavior. Soon, it may be making purchase decisions on its own. Brands that invest in visibility will gain an edge. Those that don’t - will vanish from users’ radar.
Visibility in AI is not a coincidence
AI does not work like a classic search engine. Algorithms draw from a wide range of sources - including forum content, articles, affiliate sites, and user reviews. As a result, even market leaders may not appear in AI-generated answers at all. According to McKinsey’s report:
| Type of content source | Share in AI results |
|---|---|
| Brands’ own content | 5-10% |
| External content (forums, reviews, affiliations) | 90-95% |
Lack of presence in these sources poses a real risk of losing customers. It’s worth noting that in many industries - such as finance, hospitality, or electronics - even the biggest brands do not appear in Google AI Overview answers, despite dominating in SEO.
Full analysis available at www.mckinsey.com
COMMERCIAL BREAK
New articles in section Media industry
Who trusts articles written by artificial intelligence? Results of a study from China
Krzysztof Fiedorek
Young readers trust machines more than human writers. When they consume news, they prefer the cool objectivity of algorithms over human emotions. They believe that articles created by AI are objective. As they interact with these texts more frequently, they rarely notice any harmful biases in them.
Who really controls the news on the internet? A study from Spain
Krzysztof Fiedorek
Analysis of more than thirteen thousand articles reveals behind-the-scenes mechanisms of spanish digital media. Left-wing portals are responsible for 50.33 percent of texts on lobbying. The energy lobby generates 63.41 percent of publications. Only one daily newspaper evaluates pressure groups positively.
Children and artificial intelligence. The generation of a global experiment is growing
Joanna Sokołowska, UNICEF Polska
A UNICEF analysis based on new data from 10 countries shows that at least 20 million children have already used artificial intelligence (AI). Many of them are ahead of adults, adopting these technologies at a pace more than three times faster.
See articles on a similar topic:
Media in the Balkans and Turkey
Michał Kuźmiński
The Balkans have long been referred to as a “melting pot,” and for good reason. This region is highly diverse and quite unstable. Consequently, the media landscape here is varied as well. In some places, such as democratic Greece, a member of the European Union, the media market is stable and easy to navigate.
Reading Industry Magazines in Poland 2024: PBC Report
Sylwia Markowska
76% of readers of industry magazines are responsible for purchasing decisions in their workplace. To deepen the understanding of the role of industry press and how it is read, PBC surveyed 2051 respondents from 5 different sectors, gaining the latest insights into the reading habits of this segment of the press in Poland.
The Deadliest Year for Journalism. 124 Fatalities in 2024
Krzysztof Fiedorek
The year 2024 was the deadliest for media professionals since the Committee to Protect Journalists began tracking these statistics. The tragic figures, published in CPJs latest special report, reached record highs in most monitored categories.
Repression Against Media: Committee to Protect Journalists Report for 2024
Krzysztof Fiedorek
In 2024, at least 361 journalists worldwide were imprisoned, often for exposing the truth. In China, reporters are tracked using advanced facial recognition systems, in Israel, Palestinian journalists are jailed without trial, and in Myanmar, journalist Shin Daewe received a life sentence for... a drone.





























