Milena Traikovich is a powerhouse in the demand generation space, widely recognized for her ability to transform complex data into high-quality lead-generation machines. As an expert in performance optimization and analytics, she has spent the last few years navigating the seismic shift from traditional search engines to AI-driven answer engines. In an era where the search result is often the final destination for a buyer, Milena has pioneered integrated strategies that bridge the gap between PR, SEO, and content creation. Today, she shares her insights on why Generative Engine Optimization is no longer an optional tactic but a weekly survival requirement for modern brands.
With zero-click searches reaching 68% and AI summaries drastically reducing traditional website traffic, how should brands redefine what success looks like in their search strategy?
Success in this new landscape is no longer about winning the click; it is about winning the mindshare within the AI’s response itself. When we look at the data showing that users click a traditional search result only 8% of the time when an AI summary is present—compared to 15% when it isn’t—the reality of the “answer engine” becomes very clear. We have to treat the AI summary as the brand’s new homepage. This requires an emotional shift for marketers who have spent decades obsessing over session counts and bounce rates. Now, we must focus on whether our brand is the one being cited and how the AI describes our expertise. If 68% of users are getting their answers without ever visiting a website, our goal is to ensure that the information they receive is accurate, authoritative, and positions us as the primary solution.
You have argued that the traditional “handoff” model between PR, SEO, and content teams is fundamentally broken. How are you restructuring these teams to pull from a single starting point?
In the past, these departments operated like a slow-moving assembly line where SEO would pass a keyword brief to content, and PR lived in an entirely different building, focused on traditional media hits. We have completely dismantled that siloed approach to ensure all three teams pull from the same live data. Specifically, we use internal tools to surface the actual prompts that buyers are typing into Claude and ChatGPT during their research phases. This allows the PR team to know exactly which reporters or publications to approach because they see which third-party sources the AI engines are currently leaning on for citations. Simultaneously, the SEO and content teams use those same prompts to rebuild site architecture so it answers buyer questions directly. It creates a feedback loop where a PR placement today influences an SEO rebuild tomorrow, ensuring no one is guessing independently anymore.
The transition from quarterly planning to a weekly rhythm sounds quite demanding for a large organization. Can you walk us through what a typical weekly loop looks like for a high-performing GEO team?
It is a fast-paced, newsroom-style cadence that completely replaces the old, stagnant quarterly meetings. Early in the week, the team gathers to review what is fresh, looking at new prompts surfacing in the category and any sudden shifts in how the AI is interpreting the market. This immediate insight shapes the pitching and content calendar for the next few days. By mid-week, we are in a state of synchronized execution: PR is placing pieces with media outlets that AI engines trust, while SEO is updating on-site content to reflect the specific angles those media pieces are highlighting. Writers are producing assets tied to a single, core narrative rather than three disconnected pieces of collateral. It feels much more like a living, breathing operation than a standard marketing department, as every action is a direct response to how the engines are behaving in real-time.
Monitoring seems to be a major hurdle for many organizations still relying on old metrics. Why is logging live search results manually or through specialized logs superior to the automated dashboards most marketers use?
Automated dashboards are often too blunt an instrument to capture the nuance of a generative AI summary. We have found that live searches only become actionable monitoring when you log them with a high degree of detail. Every week, we record the answers produced by specific prompts, identifying which brands were named, what order they appeared in, and the specific language used to describe them. This allows us to recognize patterns and shifts in near real-time that a standard dashboard would miss. For instance, if we see our brand’s spot move, we can immediately tell if it is because of a new piece of third-party coverage the engine is favoring or if a competitor’s page now answers the question with more clarity. That specific “why” then becomes the primary focus for our team’s strategy the following week, allowing for a level of agility that was previously impossible.
How does the shift toward AI-driven answers change the way content is actually written and edited compared to the traditional keyword-focused approach?
We have moved away from the era of writing for algorithms and returned to the necessity of writing for human beings, which is exactly what modern AI engines are trained to reward. The old model of SEO writing keyword-heavy briefs that felt robotic just doesn’t work when the goal is to be the definitive answer in a summary. Our editors work side-by-side with the SEO and PR teams to ensure that every piece of content reflects a consistent narrative across all sources. Authority is built through this consistency—if your own website, a major news outlet, and a trade publication all reinforce the same expert perspective, the AI will treat your brand as a primary reference. This requires writers to focus on building a unified “source of truth” that stays consistent over months of work, rather than just chasing the latest trending keyword.
What is your forecast for the evolution of brand authority as AI engines become the primary interface for consumer research?
I believe we are entering a “Consensus Economy” where brand authority will be determined by the strength and consistency of your digital footprint across the entire web. In the coming years, we will see AI engines become even more refined in how they choose their citations, likely narrowing their sources to only the most reputable and consistently mentioned experts. The gap between companies that actively manage their GEO with a weekly rhythm and those that stick to traditional, siloed SEO will become an unbridgeable chasm. Brands will no longer be able to “buy” their way to the top of a summary; they will have to earn it through a synchronized effort of being helpful, being cited by others, and being consistently present in the prompts that real people are using to make life-changing purchasing decisions.
