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Core concept · AI Search Infrastructure

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Definition

Generative AI refers to AI systems capable of producing new content — text, images, code, or audio — in response to prompts. The LLMs powering modern AI search tools are a form of generative AI: they generate novel responses rather than retrieving and returning existing documents. Generative AI fundamentally changes the discovery model. Instead of directing users to sources, generative AI synthesizes a response and optionally cites sources. This shifts the optimization target from “rank in the list” to “be cited in the synthesis.” Every brand optimizing for AI search is optimizing for generative AI output.

LLM

RAG

AI Overviews

Generative engine results

LLMO

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