Article
Oct 2, 2025
Guilherme Hortinha
Will AI Search Optimisation Give Me an Advantage Over My Competitors?
Yes. Investing in AI search optimisation today will give you a measurable advantage over your competitors. Because we are still in the very early stages of generative engine optimisation (AI SEO), any brand that acts now builds a time advantage. As AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity increasingly shape customer journeys, the businesses that optimise their content and technical foundations first will dominate visibility.
You are early → if you’re reading this, you’re ahead of most of your competitors.
AI creates a virtuous cycle → early mentions build authority, leading to more mentions.
Small businesses benefit most → larger competitors are slower to adapt.
History proves it → early SEO adopters like Amazon and Zappos became market leaders.
Why acting early matters
The first point is simple: it’s still early in the game. Most companies haven’t yet invested in AI SEO. A 2025 Gartner survey found that 64% of marketers have not prepared their content strategies for AI-driven search. If you’re considering it now, you’re already ahead.
Once you start, even if your competitors eventually catch up, you’ll always have a time advantage. This matters because AI search visibility compounds. The longer you are cited, the more signals you send to models that you are a trusted, authoritative answer. Competitors who wait a year before investing will have to fight uphill to dislodge you.
AI mentions create a virtuous cycle
AI visibility works like compound interest. The more you optimise your site for AI crawlers and align your content with the way models answer questions, the more often you’ll be cited.
Those citations:
Boost your perceived authority with customers.
Drive organic mentions across forums, reviews, and social media.
Signal further trust to AI models, leading to even more citations.
According to BeeBy Clark Meyler, AI models weigh authority and trust signals heavily in deciding which brands to recommend. That means once you’re in the cycle, you stay in. Therefore, it follows that the earlier you start, the harder it is for competitors to catch up.
Neil Patel has also argued that AI-driven content visibility follows a snowball effect, where early movers establish trust loops that latecomers can rarely replicate.
Why small businesses have a golden window
For small and medium businesses, the opportunity is even bigger. Larger enterprises tend to be slower in adoption, tied down by bureaucracy, legacy systems, and long procurement cycles.
A 2025 BrightEdge report found that only 36% of enterprise brands have taken active steps to adapt to AI search. That gives small businesses a 6–12 month window to dominate AI search categories before mass adoption kicks in.
Once large competitors start investing heavily, the organic AI space will become much harder to win.
Lessons from history: early SEO winners
The story of conventional SEO offers a roadmap for AI SEO today. Brands that invested early in search visibility ended up owning categories.
Amazon → By focusing on SEO from the late 1990s, Amazon built an unparalleled search footprint. As Moz documents, their early optimisation allowed them to dominate e-commerce search queries, locking in growth before competitors adapted.
Zappos → One of the earliest adopters of content-driven SEO. According to Search Engine Journal, Zappos used SEO to scale rapidly in the 2000s, building authority around long-tail product queries and turning organic visibility into brand dominance.
HubSpot → By heavily investing in SEO and inbound marketing early on, HubSpot became synonymous with inbound strategy. According to HubSpot, their organic traffic leadership created the credibility that powered their SaaS growth.
Expedia → Travel brands like Expedia thrived by building SEO moats early. As Ahrefs analysed, Expedia’s early investment in structured SEO content made it nearly impossible for later entrants to compete in organic search.
The pattern is clear: those who adopt search optimisation early set the benchmark that competitors must chase.
Early vs late adoption of AI SEO
Here’s how the competitive advantage plays out depending on when you act:
Factor | Early Adoption of AI SEO | Late Adoption of AI SEO |
|---|---|---|
Visibility | Start appearing in AI answers within weeks, building authority signals over time. | Enter crowded AI results where competitors already dominate citations. |
Authority | Gain trust with AI models early, creating a compounding cycle of mentions. | Harder to break in once competitors are entrenched in AI responses. |
Customer Perception | Seen as a leader and innovator, setting the category standard. | Risk being viewed as a laggard that customers only discover after competitors. |
Cost of Investment | Lower, as fewer competitors are optimising now. | Higher, as you’ll need larger budgets to displace established players. |
Small Business Opportunity | Can dominate niches before large brands mobilise resources. | Lose the window; once large competitors invest, niche dominance is difficult. |
Historical Parallel | Like Amazon, Zappos, HubSpot, Expedia gaining SEO dominance early. | Like late adopters in SEO who struggled to gain traffic even with investment. |
Tracking competitors in AI search
A common question is: “If my competitors also invest, won’t I just fall behind again?”
The answer is no, but only if you:
Track their visibility → Regularly test queries in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
Run AI visibility audits → Tools like Indexed Lab’s AI Visibility Audit benchmark you against competitors.
Monitor external signals → Watch forums, Wikipedia, and review platforms where AI models source their answers.
Keep building authority → Content, citations, and structured signals must be a continuous effort.
Real-world validation
This dynamic has already played out with Indexed Lab’s clients. For example, Wandr, a healthy café in Dubai, went from invisible in AI answers to becoming the top recommendation in Gemini for “healthy food JLT Dubai.” Larger competitors eventually started optimising too, but Wandr retained the first-mover advantage because AI models already trusted their authority (read full case study here).
Counterarguments and potential nuances
Some argue that AI SEO levels the playing field. After all, AI models want the “best” answer, not just the earliest. While true in theory, in practice authority is path dependent. The earlier you build signals and earn citations, the more you are reinforced in retraining cycles.
Others worry about the speed of change in AI models. While models do update, the trust signals they rely on (structured data, backlinks, content quality) have remained consistent. According to Semrush’s July 2025 AI Overviews study, brands with strong structured data were 2.7x more likely to be cited, which is a durable advantage for those who act early.
Even Cloudflare confirms that GPTBot and other AI crawlers are scaling rapidly, with GPTBot traffic rising over 300% year-on-year in 2025. That means the data you publish today will quickly influence how AI models represent your brand tomorrow.
Frequently Asked Questions
If my competitors start AI SEO tomorrow, will I lose my edge?
No. Your early signals compound, making it difficult for competitors to displace you quickly.
How do I know what my competitors are doing in AI SEO?
Test queries, run audits, and track citations in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Tools can benchmark your relative visibility.
Is this only for big companies?
No. Small businesses benefit most right now. Large competitors are slow to adapt, giving you a narrow window to dominate.
Try it a home
If you’re running a business today, ask yourself. Have you tried prompting Gemini, ChatGPT, or Perplexity about your category? Does your brand show up? If not, now’s the time to start thinking about AI visibility, because your customers are already searching there.
If you are interested in knowing more about how to make your brand show up on AI models, I recommend you watch my video above talking about the basics so you can get started!
Still feeling overwhelmed?
At Indexed Lab we are here to help you make sense of everything, just book a free call with us!
Conclusion
So, will AI search optimisation give you an advantage over your competitors? Absolutely. By acting now, you build a time advantage, start a virtuous cycle of mentions, and create trust signals that compound over time. History shows that early adopters of SEO, the likes of Amazon, Zappos, HubSpot, Expedia, became category leaders. The same is happening now with generative engine optimisation. Those who move first will set the standard that everyone else must chase.