Evertune in The New York Times: AI Chatbots Are the New Influencers

For decades, marketers have obsessed over what consumers think of their brands. Now, rather inconveniently, they must also worry about what the machines think.

Last week, The New York Times confirmed what a growing number of CMOs are quietly panicking about: AI chatbots have formed opinions about brands. The question is whether those opinions are any good.

The story opens with athenahealth CMO Stacy Simpson, who in late 2024 had the mildly alarming experience of asking ChatGPT about her own company — and receiving answers that were outdated, incomplete and delivered with the full confidence of something that had no business being confident. The chatbots, it turned out, had been learning from sources that hadn't been updated in years.

Her response was methodical. athenahealth partnered with Evertune, published 250,000 words of precisely targeted content and set about educating the AI. The result: measurably better representation in relevant queries. "This is one of the single biggest shifts we've seen in decades," Simpson told the Times. 

This is the new discipline — Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO — and it rewards substance over sizzle. As one industry observer put it in the piece: "Vibe is not going to cut it here." Evertune understands the importance of data science and sample size, and uses it to understand what the AI is saying, fill messaging gaps and turn intelligence into action.

The window to get ahead of this is real, but finite. "The first-mover advantage is going to be short," Simpson noted. The brands that act now will find that a considerable comfort later.

Read the full New York Times feature →

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Evertune is the Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) platform that helps brands improve visibility in AI search by analyzing responses at scale and delivering actionable insights. Evertune works with leading brands across all verticals, including Finance, Retail and E-Commerce, Automotive, Pharma, Tech, Travel, Food and Beverage, Entertainment, CPG and B2B.