AI search was a black box.
Now it's a retail channel.
GEO and AI commerce, built for retailers. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews now answer shopper queries directly, citing the brands and retailers behind the recommendation. We help retailers earn those citations and turn them into measurable revenue.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of structuring your brand so AI models can understand it and cite it in answers.
AI answers are taking share from traditional search
In most product categories, answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews now take traffic that once went to search results. Source: State of AI Search 2026.
Tested monthly across the five AI assistants buyers actually use
60%
of US adults now use AI to discover products and services
State of AI Search 2026
$144B
in AI-driven ecommerce projected by 2029
eMarketer 2026
50%+
decline in traditional search referral traffic for top retailers
State of AI Search 2026
63M
shoppers actively using AI tools to research purchases in 2026
eMarketer 2026
Why mapou
GEO from the ad-tech side,
not the SEO side.
Most GEO agencies came from SEO and content. mapou came from retail media, attribution, and two-sided marketplaces. The same shape that built Amazon Ads, Instacart, and connected TV is now building AI shopping. Retailers need a partner who has worked that stack before.
01
Built inside two-sided marketplaces
Most GEO consultancies come from SEO. mapou comes from ad tech and commerce media. Fifteen years inside the platforms brands try to win on, not the agencies optimising for them. AI search is a marketplace problem, not a content problem. The shape is already familiar.
02
Measurement is the default, not the upsell
Closed-loop sales measurement was the day job. Vendor frameworks tying advertising to retailer transactions. Multi-screen attribution across linear, streaming, and digital. The biggest gap in GEO right now is connecting visibility to revenue, and the muscle was built years before mapou existed.
03
Retail media is the layer underneath AI shopping
mapou's founder helped activate retail media partnerships with Topsort, Instacart, and Koddi against billions in off-site demand. AI shopping is the next layer of that same stack. When an assistant recommends a product, the economics start to look a lot like a retail media network with a different interface.
Founded by Arvin Nundloll. Previously Director of Strategy and Business Development at Comcast Advertising, with prior roles at NBCUniversal, Amazon, and DIRECTV. MBA, William & Mary. Based in New York.
Read the long version →The Shift
The rules of search changed fast. Most brands are still running the old playbook.
AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews now answer product queries directly, naming specific brands rather than showing a list of links. Traffic goes to whoever the AI cites, not whoever spends the most on ads.
If your brand isn't structured to be cited, you're invisible to buyers who now start with AI instead of a search box, and that group is growing fast. Your competitors may already be filling the gap.
Read the full market analysis →Before: Traditional Search
Links → clicks → bounce. Low attribution, anonymous traffic.
Now: AI Answer
“Based on cushioning, durability ratings and expert reviews, Brooks and HOKAare the top choices for long-distance running in 2026. Available at...”
Direct citation → high-intent buyer → attributable conversion.
What a citation is worth
The difference a citation makes
When a buyer asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for a recommendation, one brand wins. The rest are invisible. GEO determines which side you're on.
Illustrative examples. GEO outcomes depend on category, brand baseline, and execution. The highlighted brand in each "After" scenario represents a client whose entity architecture we rebuilt.
Original research from mapou
We measure how AI search recommends brands. Monthly.
36 segments. 740 brands. 5 AI engines. 12 buyer personas. 720 fixed buyer-intent prompts. The largest first-party AI personalization research panel published. Methodology is open and the dataset is committed to a public-readable schema. Anyone can reproduce.
The macro report
State of AI Search 2026
Eleven quantified findings across all 36 segments. AI engines disagree, personalization shifts the leaderboard, the shopping frame conditions which brand AI calls #1. Open methodology, on-the-record predictions.
Read the report →
Interactive tool
Persona Explorer
Pick a brand, pick a buyer persona, see exactly how AI's recommendation changes. The leader brand flips in 20 of 22 categories under at least one buyer signal. Find the personas where your brand wins and loses.
Try the explorer →
The panel
MVIP roster
Every brand on the panel: 740 brands across 36 segments, current MVI score and behavioral stage badge for each. Tracked monthly across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok.
See the roster →
Also new this month: Emerging brands AI is starting to cite · Engines field guide · For CMOs
Services & partnerships
Six services, built for retailers
From a two-week AI visibility audit to full retail-media-aligned GEO programs. Each service is scoped to a concrete deliverable. Brands and agencies welcome too.
01
AI Visibility Audit
Benchmark your retail brand's current presence in AI answers across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews. Category-level share of voice, prompt-by-prompt gaps, competitor citations, and the actions that will close them.
02
Catalog & Citation Architecture
Structure product data, PDPs, and entity graphs so AI systems cite your retail brand as the authoritative answer when shoppers ask for the best product in your category.
03
AI Commerce & Retail Media
Connect your retail brand to ChatGPT Shopping, Perplexity Shopping, and the retail media networks underneath them. AI-sourced discovery, closed-loop conversion, and the same playbook used to scale Amazon, Instacart, and connected TV.
04
First-Party Data for Retailers
Most retailers are still running on third-party data that's already half-gone. We map your first-party gaps, prep the catalog, and stand up the infrastructure AI-native attribution and retail media activation actually require.
05
Attribution & Measurement
Most retailers can't yet connect an AI citation to a basket. We build the attribution pipeline that links AI-sourced traffic to downstream revenue, so you can measure what GEO earns and optimise from there.
06
Agency Partner Program
White-label GEO for agencies and consultancies serving retail brands. We deliver AI visibility diagnostics, citation strategy, and measurement infrastructure under your brand.
The journey
From fragmented SEO to agentic commerce
Most brands are stuck in stage 1. Stage 3 is where AI-attributed revenue becomes real and measurable.
Generative Engine Optimization
Structured for AI citation
AI systems have learned which brands to trust in your category. Your entity data is structured, your citations are building, and Share of Voice is measurable. You're in the answer, not the link list below it.
Key metrics at this stage
AI Revenue Calculator
Estimate your AI visibility opportunity
Most brands currently earn around 5% of what AI search could send them. Set your targets below to see what a higher Share of Voice is worth. Numbers are illustrative, not a forecast.
Baseline assumption: AI currently drives ~5% of search-influenced revenue for most brands. Move the sliders to model your own targets.
Monthly AI-influenced revenue
Estimated uplift vs today
+300%
Additional revenue
$15K/mo
How we work
Three engagement models
Fixed-scope sprints or ongoing advisory. No open-ended statements of work. No junior hand-offs after the pitch.
Not sure which tier fits?
Your competitors are getting cited. You should be too.
Every week without AI citations, a competitor is earning the mentions you should own. Start with a diagnostic. Two weeks, concrete findings, a roadmap you can act on.