A fundamental shift in consumer behavior is underway: users are increasingly directing product and purchase questions to AI assistants like ChatGPT instead of traditional search engines such as Google. This rapid change is forcing brands to rethink long-established digital marketing strategies, driving explosive demand for new tools that help companies understand and influence how AI models present them. Berlin-based Peec AI has emerged as a leader in this space, and its newly announced $21 million Series A round reflects how quickly the market for AI search visibility is expanding.

The Rise of AI-Driven Discovery

Peec AI’s growth has been fueled by a simple but powerful trend—AI answers are becoming the new first impression for consumers. Instead of browsing multiple links, users now rely on ChatGPT-style responses to shape their purchasing decisions. This shift has created a visibility challenge for brands that previously focused on classic SEO tactics built around keywords and ranking systems. Peec AI fills that gap by helping marketing teams monitor how their brand appears inside AI-generated answers and, more importantly, what influences those results.

The startup analyzes prompts, sentiment, source weighting, and voice-of-customer patterns, offering marketing teams the same type of strategic clarity they once had with search analytics—but tailored to the fluid and opaque nature of AI models. This forms the foundation of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), a nascent field that may become the next major frontier in digital marketing.

Rapid Expansion and Intensifying Competition

Peec AI’s traction has been remarkable. In just ten months, the company surpassed $4 million in annual recurring revenue and onboarded more than 1,300 clients, ranging from consumer brands to global publishers. Its customer base is growing by roughly 300 new sign-ups per month, propelling the company to a valuation reportedly above $100 million. The fresh funding will be used to hire 40 employees, grow its Berlin hub, and open a U.S. sales office in New York City.

The broader market is also heating up, with competitors such as Profound and OtterlyAI racing to establish their positions in the GEO category. As AI assistants continue to dominate product discovery, Peec AI aims to differentiate through ease of use, a proprietary data pipeline, and a dashboard built around prompts—not keywords—reflecting how users actually engage with AI.

What’s Next as AI Reshapes Brand Visibility

As AI-driven search expands across both consumer and enterprise use cases, companies will increasingly compete on an entirely new battleground: the answers generated by large language models. Brands that adapt early may build lasting advantages, while others risk disappearing from the AI-driven discovery journey entirely. The coming year will likely determine which marketing teams master this new reality and which fall behind as AI reshapes the future of digital visibility.