I’ve just spent a week locked away in our London creative hub at Borough Market with three other UP colleagues. The four of us. Borough Market. Too much coffee. Too much good food, and a whiteboard that didn’t make it out alive.
Dr Robert England, founder of UP FOR LIFE, our life science focus.
Shari Monnes, a brilliant digital content expert from Boston.
Hannah Hutchins, Spain-based Head of Marketing.
And me — Founder of UP.
Four people. Four brains. Four keyboards.
We weren’t there for a client.
We were there because the rules have changed.
Search has changed.
Content has changed.
Influence has changed.
If we didn’t change with it, we’d become very good at playing a game that no longer exists.
For 20 years, we’ve written primarily for one gatekeeper: Google and good ole SEO.
Yes, we always said “write for humans first.” But we optimised for search engines. Keywords. Metadata. Ranking signals.
Now there are three audiences:
Modern web pages must work for all three.
Ignore one, and you weaken the whole.
AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation — focuses on providing clear, extractable answers to specific questions.
Structured. Direct. Concise.
This is what gets pulled into:
AEO is about selection.
If your content doesn’t clearly answer the question, it doesn’t get chosen.
This is answer-first writing.
It requires:
It’s disciplined. Almost clinical.
And it works.
But it’s not enough.
GEO — Generative Engine Optimisation — is different.
While AEO is about extraction, GEO is about synthesis.
Generative AI doesn’t just quote you. It blends you.
It compares. It reframes. It explains.
If AEO gets you visibility, GEO gives you influence.
GEO content supplies structured knowledge that AI systems can reuse and synthesise.
It means:
If your content is thin, vague or generic, it won’t shape how AI explains your category.
It might mention you.
It won’t rely on you.
Brands that rely on AEO alone may gain visibility.
Brands that invest in GEO gain influence.
That’s a profound difference.
And then there’s the third audience.
The one that actually buys.
Humans.
This is where most brands misunderstand the shift.
If you’re only answering questions, you’re helpful.
If you’re shaping explanations, you’re influential.
But if you’re not creating emotion, you’re invisible.
The human layer is about feeling.
Tone.
Conviction.
Energy.
Wit.
Optimism.
AI rewards structure.
Answer engines reward clarity.
Humans reward emotion.
They remember what moved them.
They trust what feels real.
They follow brands that sound like someone, not something.
At UP, we’ve developed our own small rule for writing. We call it WISE-UP.
Witty: Because intelligence and content without personality is forgettable.
Immediate: Because attention is earned in seconds.
Simple: Because complexity kills clarity.
Emotional: Because logic informs, but emotion decides.
UP: Because we are unapologetically positive about our clients, our work, and our ambition.
And in a world increasingly written by machines, the brands that win will be the ones brave enough to sound unmistakably human.
We didn’t go to London to talk theory.
We rewrote everything.
Our service pages.
Our thinking.
Our positioning.
Our rules.
And — slightly meta — we developed those rules with our own chosen LLM sitting in the room with us.
Not to replace our thinking.
But to sharpen it.
We pressure-tested every page:
What does this answer clearly?
What knowledge does it supply?
What would an answer engine extract?
What would a generative engine synthesise?
Where is the human layer?
It forced discipline.
And it exposed fluff instantly.
Most corporate content fails not because it lacks information, but because it lacks structure.
It doesn’t answer clearly.
It doesn’t explain deeply.
It doesn’t engage emotionally.
It sits in a safe, bland, invisible middle ground.
So let’s start off with discussing the new terms to get used to.
Modern web pages need to communicate with three layers.
1. AEO Layer — Clarity
2. GEO Layer — Depth
3. Human Layer — Emotion
The trick isn’t writing three pieces.
It’s knowing what each needs — and where.
Above the fold: clarity.
Mid-page: depth.
Throughout: humanity.
This isn’t a copywriting tweak.
It’s strategic.
If AI becomes the primary interface to information — and it will — then brands that shape AI explanations shape markets.
That means investing in content that:
Not just sells.
The brands that win will be those whose thinking becomes the default explanation in their category.
That’s GEO.
And it’s a far bigger ambition than ranking number one.
Most companies haven’t adapted yet.
They’re still writing as if it’s 2015.
Thin content is exposed instantly.
Generic corporate language gets ignored by both AI and humans.
Keyword stuffing is finished.
The field is open.
But it requires clarity for machines.
Depth for AI.
Emotion for people.
AEO gives you retrievability.
GEO gives you influence.
Humanity gives you resonance.
You need all three.
And that’s why we spent a week in Borough Market rewriting the rules.
Because the times really are changing.
And we’d rather shape that change than react to it.