These new generative AI touchpoints aren’t just about driving conversions; they’re moments of trust and influence. GenAI is becoming a critical entry point into the customer journey. When customers ask questions, AI often acts as the first guide. However, GenAI has another side: it not only guides, but can also speak about your brand on request. This means your digital footprint and customer feedback matter more than ever. 

With advanced sentiment analysis, GenAI can instantly assess what people think about your brand and surface that in its answers. In other words, brands now need to consider not just how customers perceive them, but also what GenAI knows and communicates about them.

That’s why GXO is becoming increasingly important for businesses. Interest and demand are growing fast because companies are facing three big questions:

• How do we shift our strategy from winning rankings to earning inclusion in AI answers?
• How do we manage our brand's narrative when AI, not us, is becoming the primary storyteller?
• What impact does GEO have on our current SEO skills and efforts within the company?

While the first two questions don’t have straightforward answers, we can already say one thing about SEO: the goal is not to replace it, but to evolve it. SEO remains the technical and content foundation that allows generative systems to understand and integrate a brand’s content into their responses. GEO builds on this foundation by making sure it is accurately understood, trusted, and synthesized by AI models.

Many companies underestimate how complex GEO really is. Typical challenges include the lack of benchmarking and difficult expectation management. It’s easy to assume that GEO is a quick lever for rapid customer growth but that’s not the case. Before chasing new customers, brands need to secure the loyalty of their current customer base. As search and information behaviors shift toward GenAI, the risk of losing visibility and relevance with current customers is real. On top of that, measurability adds another layer of complexity. Classic SEO metrics no longer apply, and new KPIs for visibility in LLM responses must be defined.

Why is this so crucial for the customer experience? Generative AI is becoming a primary gateway for information and decision-making. If a brand is absent or misrepresented in these environments, customers may never encounter it at the critical moment of choice, even if they are loyal. These touchpoints influence perceptions, shape narratives, and set expectations instantly. When integrated thoughtfully, they create seamless entry points into the customer journey, strengthen brand credibility, and ensure consistency across channels. 

Deloitte Digital helps organizations to transform their digital presence for the AI era with a structured, interdisciplinary approach:

The advantage of acting now? A brand positions itself as a leader in a rapidly evolving space, shaping the conversation before GXO becomes mainstream and competitive.