GEO hit a tipping point this week. Major platforms launched native tools. The market reached critical mass. Google's update brought unexpected recoveries. Enterprise clients reported game-changing results.
AI search officially moved from experiment to essential. Here's everything that shifted the landscape!
1. AI Search Wars: Who's Winning This Week
- Wix — Launches first-ever native AI Visibility Overview tool for tracking brand citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude. (GlobeNewswire)
- Valuates Reports — GEO services market valued at $886M in 2024, projected to reach $7.3B by 2031 at 34% CAGR. (PR Newswire)
- Google — June 2025 core update completes after 16-day rollout, showing partial recoveries for some sites hit by September 2023 helpful content update. (Search Engine Land)
- Microsoft — Copilot Vision Desktop Share begins rolling to Windows Insiders, enabling AI to see and analyze entire desktop. (Windows Insider Blog)
- Anthropic — Launches Claude for Financial Services with expanded context windows and specialized tools for hedge funds and banks. (PYMNTS)
Also read: Forget Traditional Search As AI Decides Who Gets Found
2. Big Shifts Reshaping AI Search
Wix Becomes First CMS to Offer Native GEO Capabilities
Wix's July 16 launch of AI Visibility Overview marks the first time a major CMS platform has integrated native GEO tools directly into its analytics dashboard.
The tool tracks citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude, monitors brand sentiment, benchmarks against competitors, and measures AI-driven traffic.
Premium eCommerce users also gain access to LLMs.txt management for direct communication with AI platforms. This move validates GEO as essential infrastructure, not experimental marketing. (GlobeNewswire)
OpenAI Unveils ChatGPT Agent for Task Automation
OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Agent, a helper that chooses the right plugin, splits a request into smaller tasks, and completes them without hand‑holding.
Early tests show it can book travel, draft proposals, and update reports while sending clear progress notes.
For builders, an upcoming interface means cheaper live assistants inside apps and less brittle workflow code, cutting setup time by half. (OpenAI)
GEO Services Market Hits Mainstream with $7.3B Projection
Valuates Reports' July 15 analysis reveals the GEO services market has reached $886 million in 2024 and will grow to $7.3 billion by 2031 at a 34% CAGR.
The market segments into structural optimization, language optimization, authority signaling, and synthetic indexing.
Enterprise knowledge retrieval and AI-optimized content marketing drive adoption as businesses shift from traditional SEO to real-time content optimization for AI platforms. (AI Journal)
Google Core Update Brings Unexpected Recoveries
Google's June 2025 core update, completing July 17 after 16 days, delivered partial recoveries for some sites impacted by the September 2023 helpful content update.
Volatility peaked July 11-14, with news publishers seeing zero-click queries rise from 56% to 69% year-over-year. Mail Online's keywords now trigger AI Overviews 68.8% of the time, with 69% ending without clicks.
The update signals Google's evolving approach to content helpfulness evaluation. Citation: Search Engine Land
Anthropic Unveils Claude AI Platform for Financial Services
Anthropic has launched Claude for Financial Services, an enterprise AI platform tailored to banks, hedge funds, and insurers.
Integrated with leading data providers and robust audit functions, the platform supports research, compliance, and custom modeling.
Early adopters include Bridgewater and the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, reflecting growing industry trust in specialized and verifiable AI tools. (PYMNTS)
Microsoft Expands Copilot Vision to Full Desktop Analysis
Microsoft's July 15 rollout of Desktop Share for Copilot Vision enables the AI to analyze entire desktops, not just individual windows.
The opt-in feature (version 1.25071.125+) lets users share their screen for real-time assistance across multiple applications.
Unlike the controversial Recall feature, Desktop Share requires explicit user activation and can be stopped instantly.
Thus, addressing privacy concerns while enabling system-wide AI assistance. (Windows Insider Blog)
AI Office invites providers to sign the GPAI Code of Practice
The AI Office's invitation for providers to sign the GPAI Code of Practice on July 17 creates a framework for demonstrating compliance.
For GEO practitioners, this means ensuring content meets evolving copyright and attribution standards while maintaining visibility across compliant AI systems. (Europa)
Also read: The AI Traffic Surge Nobody Saw Coming
3. Fresh Data Points Every Marketer Needs
- GEO services market valued at $886M in 2024, projected to reach $7.3B by 2031 (34% CAGR) (Valuates Reports)
- Zero-click news queries on Google rose from 56% to 69% YoY after AI Overviews launch (Pressgazette UK)
- Enterprise client achieved 358% increase in AI Overview ownership, 101% growth in AI chat traffic (Onfolio/Pace Generative)
- AI traffic proves 4.4x more valuable than traditional Google traffic for converting users (Onfolio Holdings)
- Google June core update took 16 days and 18 hours to complete (June 30 - July 17) (SERoundtable)
- Desktop still hosts 61% of AI Overview triggers versus 37.5% on phones (Conductor)
- xAI's Grok 4 positioned itself as the "world's most intelligent model" with 44.4% performance on Humanity's Last Exam. TechCrunchTechCrunch
Also read: Hidden Upgrades Push Search from Links to Live Answers
4. Success story: 358% AI Traffic Surge
Pace Generative's Enterprise Client Success
What changed? A publicly traded company worked with Onfolio's Pace Generative from January to May 2025, achieving a 358% increase in AI Overview ownership and a 101% growth in AI chat traffic. Conversion rates improved from 2% to 5%, demonstrating AI traffic's superior value.
Evidence: Third-party data shows AI traffic is 4.4x more valuable than traditional Google traffic. The client's multimodal strategy delivered compound gains across all platforms while Google traffic declined industry-wide.
Takeaway for marketers: Early GEO adoption delivers measurable ROI. Focus on AI-specific optimization rather than traditional SEO metrics, as AI traffic converts at significantly higher rates. (GlobeNewswire)
Also read: Infrastructure Shake-Up in Generative Engine Optimization
5. This Week's Must-Have GEO Tool
Wix AI Visibility Overview
Wix's native GEO dashboard tracks your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude from one interface. Beyond citation tracking, it analyzes sentiment trends, benchmarks against competitors, and quantifies AI-driven traffic.
Premium eCommerce users can manage LLMs.txt files to optimize how AI platforms understand their products. Currently available for English-language Business Manager accounts, with multilingual rollout underway.
It is the first CMS to offer integrated GEO analytics without third-party tools. (Wix Support)
6. 3 Moves to Make Before This Week Ends
- Audit AI visibility immediately - Use Surfer AI tracker until WIX makes the AI visibility tracker to baseline your current citations across all major AI platforms before competitors establish dominance.
- Prepare for post-core-update shifts - Review your site's performance after Google's July 17 completion, focusing on AI Overview presence rather than traditional rankings.
- Enable AI crawler access - Verify robots.txt allows GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and other AI crawlers, then implement structured data optimized for conversational queries.
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