article April 03, 2026 Inc.

Inc.: 21 business leaders on GEO — and one of them calls it out perfectly

"I love the buzzwords people come up with and then frame as a completely new idea... AI search will use and cite sources based on consistency, relevancy, brand authority, and structure. We've been writing and structuring content for the digital space for years based on this."

Inc. surveyed 21 business leaders on how they're approaching GEO. Most gave predictable answers about AI tools and content strategy. But Kim Bode of 8THIRTYFOUR said the quiet part out loud: GEO is content and thought leadership reframed through an AI lens. The fundamentals — consistency, relevance, authority, structure — are the same ones that have driven search visibility since the beginning.

Another respondent put it slightly differently: you have to be the source, not the echo. That's not a GEO insight. That's the oldest SEO insight there is. The articles and posts declaring GEO a revolution are mostly selling consulting retainers. The practitioners actually doing the work know it's the same job.