With the rise of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) – a brand optimising their online content to appear more frequently in AI search – conversation has centred around optimising written content and html. Less discussion has focused on the optimisation of brand assets and images. Costanza Ghelfi, Chief Product Officer at digital marketing company Making Science delves into this subject and explains how creativity is becoming more grounded in usefulness.
Search is being rapidly transformed, and Google’s AI Mode is the clearest sign of what comes next. Signalling a move away from standard keyword-driven search models toward intent-driven discovery, it acts like an all-in-one answer engine that blends text, images, and video.
Beyond upgraded features, it also brings the arrival of generative engine optimisation, or GEO, and a new set of considerations to already complex digital media strategies. Instead of preparing content for pages of blue links, brands must now consider how to effectively optimise for AI systems that decide, in real time, which assets will help provide the most value for users in fluid, ongoing conversations.
That is a profound threshold for anyone who works on search performance, including not just technical experts, but also over-pressured marketing teams.
Creativity with Utility at Its Core
Marketers are already facing a growing creative dilemma. As the media landscape expands, they face the tough task of producing content for an endless array of platforms in multiple formats, which is unsurprisingly seeing many spread themselves perilously thin.
The evolution of search will amplify these challenges by adding a further dimension to creative development. If they want to maintain strong performance, each asset will have to align with the dynamics of AI conversations. A product image that works well on a landing page may be too broad for a thumbnail-sized citation. A short, clear tutorial may outperform a longer promotional video because the AI can identify the relevant chapter and surface it as a direct response.
This turns creativity into a discipline rooted in usefulness. The role expands from producing a single hero image or flagship video to assembling a library of modular elements that match the wide range of questions an AI can generate; Google already allows up to eleven images for a single product in its shopping listings. That is a small taste of the volume and granularity now required, and an indication of the need to find ways of enhancing content production scale and speed.
Video follows the same pattern. Information needs to arrive early, because AI seeks efficiency. Chapters must be clearly marked, with each one standing on its own as an answer to a potential sub-question.
AI rewards clarity, structure, and precision. When assets meet those criteria, they travel further inside conversational search flows.
Building for AI, Not Only for Users
The new GEO architecture also requires content that the AI engine can parse without friction. Images must be explicit in what they depict. Text must map cleanly to the topics the brand wants to be associated with. Ambiguous descriptions, vague labels, and overly stylised visuals can limit the likelihood of being cited.
This has a strategic implication for operations. Brands need tighter collaboration across SEO, SEM, content, and creative teams. A unified view of user intent, product attributes, and conversational queries is now essential.
In the past, these functions often operated independently. In the age of GEO, that distance weakens performance because the engine draws from all signals at once. Siloed inputs lead to fragmented outputs.
The Rise of the Strategic Creative Architect
As the volume of required assets rises, so does the need for creative agility and control. To help AI algorithms learn the right patterns for representing their brand, marketing and creative teams must take charge of setting them. This means going beyond simply relying on the automation abilities offered by walled gardens and establishing an owned layer of AI optimisation.
As part of that, they will also need to embrace a new professional profile: the strategic creative architect. The role combines user understanding, data insight, and visual thinking. It requires anticipating what people will ask about a product and designing assets that satisfy those questions while providing room for follow-up. The objective is to keep the user engaged inside the brand’s informational orbit, even if the conversation takes place through an AI interface.
A More Integrated Future for Search
The future of search will demand integrated strategies, intelligent asset design, and creative systems built for modularity. Very soon, GEO will not be a niche practice. It is the natural evolution of how people explore information when the interface becomes conversational.
AI will not replace creativity. It elevates the requirements for it. Brands that invest now in useful, precise, and adaptable assets will find themselves better positioned as conversational search becomes the default user experience.
