Rogerwilco's Charné Munien: Brands in the new age of answering machines

Charne Munien is the strategy director at Rogerwilco. Source: Supplied.

This creates a fundamental problem for brands that are still optimising for clicks when they should be optimising for citations. In South Africa, where organisations are still getting to grips with AI strategy, early movers have a rare opportunity to shape how their categories are understood before competitors realise the game has changed.

From search results to synthesised truth

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is about making your brand visible and credible to the AI systems that answer questions on behalf of users who are also your potential customers. While Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) focused on being found in a list of search results, GEO is about being cited as the answer. Traditional search asked users to evaluate options. Generative engines remove that step entirely, synthesising information and presenting what appears to be a neutral, authoritative response.

A case study of GEO work from Rogerwilco.

Why does this matter in 2026? Because the infrastructure is catching up to the hype. Multi-platform AI adoption is reaching critical mass as consumers increasingly turn to social media such as TikTok, as well as voice assistants for brand and product discovery.

What brands need to do to be ready

Most brands create content for people first and platforms second. Machines, if considered at all, come third. The problem is that AI systems cannot work with what they cannot access or interpret.

The bigger challenge is where brands store their most valuable content, often behind gates in internal strategy decks, PDFs and paywalled publications. This creates a credibility paradox. Brands invest heavily in thought leadership, then lock it away from the systems now mediating consumer decisions. If your content is designed for campaigns rather than clarity or locked behind systems AI cannot access, you are not just invisible, you are being defined without your input.

There is also an ethical dimension. Generative AI personalises responses based on user psychology and past behaviour. Two people can ask the same question and receive entirely different answers. For brands, reputation is no longer fixed, it is fluid, contextual and constantly being reshaped by AI

Three predictions for 2026

1. Brands need to speak machine language

Generative engines increasingly learn from structured feeds, transactional data and partner APIs. If a model cannot process a reliable dataset about your brand, it will not recommend you. Brands must publish machine-readable feeds and align CRM systems, email templates and support documentation to use consistent, standardised language. Ownership of your brand dataset becomes the single biggest determinant of AI visibility. If you are not structured, you are not discoverable.

2. The first AI citation is worth 5-10x a click

AI systems show very few explicit sources per query. The objective is no longer to rank in search but rather to own the AI answer slot. Brands must identify the 50 to 200 high-value prompts most relevant to their industry and convert top-performing content into short, evidence-dense answer snippets. Metrics shift from click-through rates to citation rates, first-slot share and prompt coverage. Being mentioned by an AI engine may not result in an immediate click, but it builds trust at the exact moment of decision.

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3. AI-powered commerce will rewrite the customer journey

AI assistants are beginning to recommend and transact in a single flow. Instacart has launched instant checkout inside conversational interfaces and PayPal has integrated with OpenAI's shopping research tools. For brands, this means ensuring commerce systems are AI-compatible. Product feeds must be real-time and API-ready. Inventory, pricing and shipping data must be accessible to the engines making recommendations. Winning the AI recommendation will directly influence sales and brands that are not technically integrated will be functionally invisible.

The strategic road ahead

GEO represents a mindset shift rather than a tactical adjustment. As machines become part of the audience, brands that succeed prioritise clarity over volume, recognising that interpretation without intention is where reputational risk emerges and strategic opportunity is created.

GEO is still emerging in South Africa, creating space for leadership. Early adopters will define their category narratives before AI does it for them. In a world where machines increasingly answer on our behalf, the question is not whether AI will speak about your brand. It is whether it will speak accurately, ethically and in your favour.