Adobe’s LLM Optimizer: Why Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Matters for Enterprises

Adobe’s June 2025 launch of the LLM Optimizer is more than just another product announcement, it highlights a critical inflection point for digital marketing. At PAC, we believe this release signals the beginning of a structural shift through the rise of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) as a strategic discipline. While many observers have framed this purely as a technological advancement, PAC considers that the real story is about why GEO matters for an organizations brand, what challenges it raises, and how organizations must respond.

Why GEO cannot be ignored

Generative AI is quickly becoming a new channel of engagement through which consumers discover products, services, and brands. Unlike search engines that return ranked lists of links, LLM-powered interfaces provide synthesized responses to natural language questions. This shift means that companies are no longer in control of how their brand is represented, AI systems act as the intermediary. If enterprises do not actively optimize for GEO, they risk ceding influence over their brand narrative and visibility to algorithms they do not control. This lack of visibility could result in lower brand recognition, weaker trust, and lost revenue opportunities.

Adobe’s data underscores the urgency because, between July 2024 and May 2025, U.S. retail sites saw a 3,500% increase in traffic from generative AI sources, while travel sites recorded a 3,200% increase. It is clear to PAC that generative discovery is not an edge case anymore because it rapidly growing in relevance, especially with younger generations.

A new marketing imperative

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) isn’t just a trendy term, PAC advocated that it marks a paradigm shift in digital marketing strategy. Just as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) transformed online visibility and brand discovery two decades ago, GEO now compels marketing teams to tailor content for AI-driven discovery platforms. These systems, such as AI chat interfaces and generative answer engines, require content that’s structured, authoritative, and contextually rich to be surfaced directly in synthesized responses, rather than merely ranked on traditional results pages. In this way, GEO is ushering in a new era where brands must be discoverable not by human search but by AI interpretation.

For further reading, see the blog by Dan Bieler, Principal Analyst at PAC, where he discusses how GEO will fundamentally reshape how customers encounter brands. This matters because if companies fail to adapt, they risk being invisible at the very moment when customers are making decisions.

While still not a fully formed field, GEO is emerging as an engagement channel rather than a transactional one.Today’s generative interfaces are not designed to take customers seamlessly from discovery to purchase. For enterprises, this means that while tools like Adobe’s LLM Optimizer help monitor and improve visibility, the bigger strategic challenge is defining how generative interfaces can support commerce, trust, and customer relationships.

Contextualizing Adobe’s LLM Optimizer

While Adobe describes its product in terms of visibility monitoring, optimization guidance, performance attribution, and workflow integration, enterprises should see this not just as feature lists but as stepping stones to address operational risks. In short, Adobe’s Optimizer is not the end point but the starting step in operationalizing GEO, helping to translate conceptual risks into concrete, manageable actions:

• Visibility monitoring is not about vanity metrics. It’s about understanding how an AI intermediary presents a brand versus competitors.
• Optimization guidance matters because without alignment to AI’s relevance criteria, your brand risks being filtered out entirely.
• Performance attribution is not just ROI tracking. It is vital for proving that GEO is worth board-level investment.
• Workflow integration is crucial because GEO will not succeed if siloed. It requires marketing, IT, and strategy alignment.

The evolving role of GEO in future customer journeys

Enterprises should also anticipate how GEO will evolve. As generative AI becomes more agentic, PAC expects AI agents to act as shopping aggregators, navigating offers and recommendations on behalf of consumers. This will expand GEO’s role, because companies will not only need to ensure visibility but also design their engagement strategies around AI-mediated negotiations.

Furthermore, as the predominant user interface for generative AI is text based, today’s conversational interfaces will need to continue evolving into richer and multimodal experiences. This means that how brands are represented in GEO contexts will also shift, requiring ongoing adaptation and proactive experimentation.

Why it matters now

PAC believes that ignoring GEO is not just a missed opportunity but both a short- and long-term strategic risk. Companies that fail to adapt may:

• Lose control of their brand voice to generative platforms.
• Miss critical customer touchpoints as AI becomes the first (and sometimes only) source of product discovery.
• Fall behind competitors who are already optimizing for generative visibility.

The message for enterprises is clear in that GEO is not optional because PAC believes it will become a core marketing discipline, and those who invest early will build trust, visibility, and competitive resilience.

At PAC, we see Adobe’s LLM Optimizer as an important catalyst in this evolution. It does not solve every challenge, but it puts GEO on the operational agenda for enterprises. For organizations navigating digital disruption, this is not about technology for technology’s sake, it is about ensuring relevance, trust, and competitiveness in an AI-mediated marketplace.

We will continue to explore GEO’s role, its challenges, and its opportunities in upcoming PAC Horizons events in London, Munich, and Frankfurt. For enterprises, the imperative is clear: engage now, experiment now, and prepare for GEO to shape the customer journeys of tomorrow.