Right now, someone is asking an AI tool which food brand to buy. Which sauce, which drink, which supplier to call. And the answer they get won’t come from a Google search. It won’t link to your website. It will be a single, confident recommendation from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity and more. If it doesn’t include your brand, you simply don’t exist in that moment.

This is the reality of AEO and GEO for food and drink brands in 2026. The question isn’t whether AI search matters. It does. The question is whether your brand is included in the answer, or whether a competitor got there first.

What Are AEO and GEO?

Most food and drink marketers are familiar with SEO. AEO and GEO are its successors, built for a world where AI tools answer questions directly rather than pointing users to a list of links.

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) focuses on appearing in the AI-powered answer boxes that now appear at the top of Google search results. These overviews resolve the query without the user ever leaving Google. Websites still feed the machine, but getting into the answer requires more than just having a website. If your brand isn’t recommended, you’re not in the conversation.
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) goes further. It covers how your brand is recommended when buyers use standalone AI platforms to research products, compare options or look for suppliers. These tools typically provide a single answer, not a selection. If your brand isn’t mentioned, it isn’t considered.

Think of it as SEO, but for AI. The principles are similar; the stakes are higher, because the responses are less forgiving.

The Scale of the Shift in AI Search

The numbers make a compelling case. ChatGPT alone now processes more than 2.5 billion prompts per day. AI referrals to top websites surged 357% year-on-year between June 2024 and June 2025. That isn’t a trend to watch. It’s a channel that already exists at scale.

At the same time, Google’s AI Overviews have reduced click-through rates for top-ranking organic content by 58% as of late 2025, nearly double the impact recorded just six months earlier. Put those two data points together and the picture is stark. AI is taking the traffic that SEO used to deliver and redistributing it to brands that show up in AI answers.

Food and drink is one of the most-queried categories on AI tools, covering recipes, product recommendations, brand comparisons and buying decisions. Your customers and your trade buyers are using these tools every day. The question is – are they finding you?

Why Food and Drink Brands Are Particularly Exposed

The food and drink sector has always lived or died by recommendation. A chef who trusts a supplier, a consumer who swears by a particular brand, a buyer who knows what sells on shelf. AI is now embedded in that same recommendation chain.

When a procurement manager asks ChatGPT to recommend foodservice suppliers in the UK, or a consumer asks Perplexity which hot sauce is best rated, the AI draws on whatever structured, credible content exists about those brands online. If your brand story isn’t clearly told, consistently published and structured for AI to read and trust, you won’t be recommended.

There’s a harder truth here too. AI tools are already forming a view of your brand, whether you’ve optimised for it or not. They’re pulling from whatever exists online: old press coverage, forum mentions, competitor comparisons, product listings with incomplete information. Without AEO and GEO, you have no say in how that picture is assembled.

What Does It Actually Take to Get Recommended by AI?

AI tools don’t guess. They’re trained on signals, and those signals can be shaped deliberately. There are five factors that determine whether your brand gets recommended – do you know what they are?  Well, we do and jellybean can ensure that you have a deliberate strategy, consistent content production and ongoing optimisation as AI tools evolve to ensure your brand is featured.

What Happens If You Do Nothing?

Every day that passes, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity and more are responding to buying queries without mentioning your brand. That isn’t a future risk. It’s happening right now.

AEO and GEO rankings aren’t static. They compound over time. A competitor who starts building AI citation authority this month will be harder to displace in three months’ time, and significantly harder in six. The brands that move first accumulate the structural advantage of being cited, referenced and validated repeatedly. Those that wait have a bigger gap to close, not just in content volume but in established trust signals.

AI visibility isn’t a one-off project. It’s an ongoing channel, and like any channel, starting early means you build a stronger position. Time is of the essence to gain a competitive advantage if you don’t want to be left behind.

jellybean Helps Food and Drink Brands Get Recommended

With 39 years of food and drink marketing, including 20 in the digital space, jellybean has the category knowledge and expertise to make AEO and GEO work for brands in this sector.

Our approach is not just generic digital strategy applied to food but in-depth food and drink expertise applied to AI search.  From audit through to ongoing optimisation, progress is tracked with AI visibility reporting that measures exactly how often your brand is being recommended and how that changes over time.

Find Out Where You Stand

Getting into AI answers isn’t luck it’s a deliberate strategy, and the time to start is before your competitors do. The earlier you build AI visibility, the harder it becomes for competitors to displace you. The brands that start now will have an advantage.

Andy Wickes, Managing Partner at jellybean, is offering 10 free 30-minute AEO/GEO surgeries on a first-come-first-served basis to senior decision makers in the food and drink sector*. This initial consultation includes a free Surface Audit for your brand, which gives you a top-level view of your current AI search visibility as well as expert advice on your digital marketing.

Following the call, you’ll be offered a deep dive jellybean audit with strategic recommendations on next steps to ensure you leverage AEO and GEO to your advantage. Act now to make sure that your AI reputation is not being written without you and email info@jellybeancreative.co.uk to request your free consultation.

*This offer is only open to senior food and drink brand decision makers, owners and marketers. The 10 slots will be booked on a first come first served basis subject to diary availability. jellybean reserves the right to decline requests from any brands who may pose a conflict of interest with existing client brands or that do not fit the stated eligibility criteria.

 

Andy Wickes
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