Influencer talent agency Viral Nation is launching a new offering that aims to help brands shape the signals that ultimately influence how AI systems understand and recommend products.
Dubbed AI Discovery, this social-first Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is meant to help brands compete for attention not only from users on social media but from AI agents as well.
Viral Nation said in a recent statement that product discovery is no longer a matter of high search rankings, as consumers are now starting to turn to AI platforms for answers, asking the latter to compare options and recommend the most relevant brand.
It then becomes paramount to be part of the AI platform’s shortlist, since brands that are not mentioned, are inaccurately described, or are miscategorized may lose the chance to be considered even before the consumer makes a choice.
“We are helping brands shape how AI understands them,” said Joe Gagliese, who co-founded Viral Nation in 2014.
“AI learns from signals, and those signals are increasingly shaped by content, creators, communities, authority, culture and conversation. For more than a decade, Viral Nation has helped brands influence how they are perceived, discussed, trusted and understood across digital environments. AI Discovery does not represent a departure from our business; it validates it,” he said.
Viral Nation says its AI Discovery combines technical optimization, content strategy, creator ecosystems, community engagement, authority building, social intelligence and measurement into one integrated operating model.
AI Discovery starts by getting a baseline of a brand’s AI visibility, which is then scaled and optimized based on relevant findings and client priorities. Ultimately, Viral Nation said AI Discovery is designed to be integrated with a brand’s broader digital and social strategy as opposed to being a standalone function.
Before launching AI Discovery, Viral Nation said it built and tested the methodology on itself over the past year and a half, which, among other results, led to a 256 percent growth in AI referral traffic and $17 million in directly attributed pipeline.
