- Brands without Trustpilot accounts only appear in 1% of AI-generated responses
- Review and trust platforms are the second most cited type of source
- Relevance, recency and ranking are essential in a good GEO strategy
Trustpilot claims that businesses could effectively be “invisible” in AI-generated responses if they fail to create visible trust signals through customer reviews and engagement, pointing to a new post-SEO era.
While search engine optimization remains essential, generative engine optimization (GEO) presents even more challenges for businesses looking to survive in 2026 and beyond.
According to Trustpilot research, only people with an active review profile are most likely to appear in AI results, based on analysis of 800,000 responses across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI Mode.
Reviews could revolutionize your business
The alarming data reveals that brands without a Trustpilot presence were cited in just 1% of AI-generated responses. Conversely, those who received more than 80 reviews were cited in more than three-quarters of the responses.
Fortunately, even laying the foundation can create significant elevation. By creating a Trustpilot account, or likely a similar online review account, the company saw businesses mentioned in more than half (53.5%) of the AI-generated responses. More reviews, replies and engagement lead to even higher visibility.
This is all important information for businesses looking to increase their visibility, as more than half (58%) of consumers now use AI to find products and services – a number that is expected to increase.
The report claims that brands increasingly need AI visibility as well as search visibility – not in place of it – as AI-generated answers quickly emerge as the new homepage for businesses.
More broadly, review and trust platforms are playing a larger role in AI discovery. According to the data, they are now the second most cited source type in AI-generated responses, accounting for 14% of all citations.
The availability of new content, detailed information, and signals of audience trust and legitimacy all influence the prevalence of review platforms in AI-generated responses, the company said, summarizing the “3Rs”: relevance, recency, and ranking.
Trustpilot has criticized company web pages as static, professional places for information, while public forums such as review sites offer real-time, conversational, experience-based details to tick the relevance box.
Recency is where Trustpilot sings its own praises, amassing around 200,000 reviews per day in 2025, while a domain authority score of 94/100 gives this website a high ranking for information retrieval by AI engines.
Looking at the industry in general, the report details how AI systems are increasingly combining traditional search indexing (hence the continued importance of SEO), retrieval systems, LLMs and real-time web grounding.
Why responding to reviews is important
While opening a profile can improve AI visibility somewhat, Trustpilot found that responding to reviews and interacting with customers gives businesses the best chance of being visible in AI-generated search results.
It’s unclear why, but the company speculates that the two-way interaction could reduce spam signals and demonstrate accountability.
Live streams also show that a business is still operational, customer support exists, and complaints are being addressed.
“In the era of AI-driven purchasing journeys, trust is a quantifiable and high-value asset for businesses,” commented Alicia Skubick, Chief Customer Officer.
Although Trustpilot’s findings focus on its own business model, the data points to a broader shift in how businesses should reach their customers in the age of AI.
Future discovery strategies must extend beyond SEO to include trust signals, customer engagement, and real-time insights to address the emerging GEO challenge.
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