Answer engine

Also called: answer engines

An answer engine is an AI tool like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, or Google's AI Mode that gives one direct answer or recommendation instead of a list of ten blue links. Optimizing to be that single answer is called generative engine optimization, or GEO.

Answer engines change the goal of being found online. Instead of competing for a click among ten results, a firm competes to be the one answer the engine names. The engine reads the web, decides which sources it trusts, and synthesizes a response, often recommending two or three firms by name.

For a law firm, that means visibility now depends on being legible and credible to the model: a clear entity, structured data, and citable answers to the questions clients ask.