When most marketers first start thinking about AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), they naturally focus on visibility. How often is our brand mentioned? How frequently are we cited?
Those are important questions, but they’re only part of the story. A question I’m starting to hear more often is, “It’s great that AI mentions our brand, but what is it actually saying about us?”
That’s where sentiment comes in.
What Is Sentiment Score, Really?
At its core, sentiment score is a measure of the overall tone of the information surrounding your brand. Is the market talking about you positively, negatively, or somewhere in between?
Think of it this way. Imagine you’re considering hiring a consulting partner or buying a new software platform. Before making a decision, you read analyst reports, customer reviews, news articles, case studies, LinkedIn posts, and recommendations from colleagues.
Eventually, you develop a feeling about that company.
Maybe they seem innovative. Maybe they seem trustworthy. Maybe they seem difficult to work with. Maybe they sound like the safe choice, or the risky choice.
AI systems are doing something surprisingly similar. They’re constantly consuming and synthesizing information from across the digital ecosystem and building an understanding of how organizations are perceived.
So when someone asks an AI platform, “Who are the top Sitecore partners?” or “What’s the best customer data platform?”, the answer isn’t driven solely by who gets mentioned the most. It’s also influenced by the overall reputation and narrative surrounding each company.
In other words, AI isn’t just learning who you are. It’s learning what people think about you.
Why Sentiment Matters More Than Ever
In traditional search, it was often enough just to appear on the first page.
In the AI era, you’re no longer competing for a click. You’re competing for a recommendation. That’s a very different challenge.
When an AI platform recommends one company over another, it is effectively compressing hundreds or thousands of information sources into a single answer. If one brand is consistently associated with innovation, customer success, expertise, and positive outcomes, that brand naturally becomes easier for the model to recommend.
Meanwhile, another company may have a strong web presence and plenty of mentions, but if the surrounding conversation is mixed or unremarkable, it may appear less frequently in recommendations.
I’ve seen organizations become fixated on increasing citations when they should really be asking a deeper question: “Are the citations we’re earning actually helping us?”
A hundred neutral mentions may not move the needle nearly as much as a handful of highly positive mentions from trusted industry sources.
Where Does Sentiment Come From?
This is where many brands underestimate the challenge. Sentiment doesn’t primarily come from what you say about yourself. It comes from what other people say about you.
The AI ecosystem pays attention to analyst reports, customer reviews, industry publications, media coverage, awards, community discussions, customer testimonials, expert commentary, comparison sites, and social conversations. That’s why third-party credibility is becoming so important in GEO.
A glowing case study published by a customer often has more influence than ten marketing pages written by your own team. A positive Gartner mention can shape perception far beyond the audience that actually reads the report. Strong reviews on G2 or Gartner Peer Insights don’t just influence buyers directly; they contribute to the larger body of evidence that AI systems use to understand your market position. Over time, all of these signals combine into a story. And every brand has a story, whether they’re actively managing it or not.
So How Do You Improve Sentiment?
The good news is that sentiment can absolutely be improved.
The bad news is that the answer isn’t “publish more content.”
Improving sentiment is really about creating more proof.
The strongest brands in AI recommendations tend to be the brands that can point to a long trail of successful outcomes. They have customers willing to advocate for them. They show up in analyst reports. They’re invited to speak at conferences. Industry publications quote their experts. Review sites contain authentic success stories.
Notice a pattern? Most of that activity is happening outside the company website.
That’s because positive sentiment is earned more through reputation than through promotion. One of the most effective things an organization can do is invest heavily in customer success stories. Every successful implementation, measurable business outcome, or client transformation creates another piece of evidence that reinforces a positive narrative about the brand.
Thought leadership also plays a major role. Huge, reputable brands aren’t viewed as industry leaders simply because they have large marketing budgets. They are viewed as leaders because they consistently contribute ideas, research, perspectives, and expertise that shape industry conversations.
The more your organization is recognized as a source of valuable knowledge, the more likely AI systems are to associate your brand with authority and trustworthiness.
Don’t Ignore Negative Signals
One of the biggest mistakes brands make is assuming they can simply bury negative information. They can’t. AI platforms are remarkably good at identifying both strengths and weaknesses, particularly when negative themes appear repeatedly across multiple sources.
The better approach is transparency. If customers raise concerns, address them publicly. If a product has evolved, document the improvements. If your organization has solved a previous challenge, demonstrate how. The goal isn’t to create a perfect online reputation. That’s not realistic. The goal is to ensure the overall narrative reflects who you are today, not who you were years ago.
The Real Goal Isn’t Visibility
This is perhaps the biggest mindset shift marketers need to make. Many AEO and GEO conversations start with visibility metrics because they are easy to measure. We can count mentions, citations, rankings, and share of voice. But ultimately, visibility is only a means to an end. The real objective is influence.
When an AI platform encounters your brand, does it associate you with expertise? Innovation? Trust? Strong customer outcomes? Industry leadership? Or does it simply recognize your name? Those are very different things.
The Bottom Line
As AI becomes the front door to more buying decisions, sentiment is becoming one of the most important factors that many brands aren’t measuring closely enough. Getting cited is valuable. Getting mentioned is valuable. Appearing in AI-generated answers is valuable. But the brands that will truly win in the age of AI won’t just be the ones that are seen most often.
They’ll be the brands that have built such a strong reputation across customers, analysts, media outlets, industry experts, and professional communities that AI systems can’t help but view them favorably. Because in the end, AEO and GEO aren’t just about teaching AI that your brand exists.
They’re about teaching AI that your brand is worth recommending.
