当美世科（Ameresco）首席营销官莉拉·迪隆（Leila Dillon）要求 ChatGPT 等 AI 答题引擎描述其公司业务时，她对结果感到震惊。这家上市公司是一家能源基础设施提供商，为快速增长的 AI 建设以及军事基地和市政设施提供电力支持。但 AI 聊天机器人的回答过时，经常将其简单描述为清洁技术或可再生能源企业——尽管公司仍在运营这些领域，但已不再是重点——或者引用其多年前参与的小型项目。
When Ameresco CMO Leila Dillon asked ChatGPT and other AI answer engines to describe what her company did, she was shocked by the results. The publicly traded company is an energy infrastructure provider, helping power the rapidly growing AI buildout, as well as military bases and municipal facilities. But the AI chatbots were outdated in their responses, frequently referring to it simply as a cleantech or renewable energy business — areas it still operates in, but are less of a focus — or citing smaller projects it worked on years ago.
“这相当可怕，”迪隆对《CMO Insider》表示。“我们心想，‘那根本不是我们的样子。’”迪隆开始对公司的信息传递及其营销内容的结构进行改造，以更好地反映其业务。这项工作已开始见效。美世科追踪了 AI 聊天机器人在回答潜在客户和投资者可能提出的 50 个问题时提及公司的频率。据该公司称，2026 年它出现在 61% 的回答中，而 2025 年为 43%。
"It was quite horrifying," Dillon told CMO Insider. "We were like, 'That's not at all who we are.'" Dillon set about overhauling the company's messaging and how it structured its marketing content to better reflect its business. The work has begun to take effect. Ameresco tracked how often AI chatbots mentioned the company in response to 50 questions that potential customers and investors might ask. It appeared in 61% of those answers in 2026, up from 43% in 2025, according to the company.
随着越来越多消费者转向 ChatGPT、谷歌的 Gemini、Anthropic 的 Claude 和微软的 Copilot 等平台来研究公司和产品，营销人员正竞相完善其生成式引擎优化（GEO）策略，以确保其品牌在 AI 生成的回答中突出且准确地出现。“我过去会在谷歌上搜索我想了解的一切，”迪隆说。“我现在几乎不再使用谷歌了。我使用 Copilot，并且获得了更好的结果。”
As more consumers turn to platforms like ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, Anthropic's Claude, and Microsoft's Copilot to research companies and products, marketers are racing to hone their generative engine optimization (GEO) strategies to ensure their brands appear prominently and accurately in AI-generated answers. "I used to Google everything that I wanted to know about," Dillon said. "I barely use Google anymore.
在互动广告局（Interactive Advertising Bureau）一月份的一项调查中，73% 的美国品牌和代理商买家表示，他们计划在 2026 年投入更多时间或资源来优化 AI 生成回答的内容，而去年则不是。在 AI 和搜索可见性平台 Semrush 四月份对美国营销专业人士进行的另一项调查中，30% 的营销人员表示 AI 搜索工具不准确地描述了他们的品牌。
I use Copilot, and I get better results." In a January survey from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, 73% of US brand and agency buyers said they planned to devote more time or resources to optimizing content for AI-generated answers in 2026, compared with last year.
营销人员争相掌握GEO，催生了一批承诺快速解决方案的AI搜索专家和工具，形成了一个小众产业。但由于AI公司不断更新模型，营销人员正处于持续实验阶段，急于弄清楚究竟什么因素会影响聊天机器人。“没有一种万能方案能为你解决这个问题，”迪龙说。2025年1月，迪龙的团队及其公关公司格林诺开始审计，检查阿梅斯科在包括ChatGPT和Claude在内的平台上，对50个提示词（例如“美国顶级能源基础设施提供商有哪些？”）
In a separate survey of US marketing professionals conducted by Semrush, an AI and search visibility platform, in April, 30% of marketers said AI search tools had described their brands inaccurately. The rush by marketers to get up to speed with GEO has spawned a cottage industry of AI search experts and tools promising quick fixes. But with AI companies constantly updating their models, marketers are in a phase of constant experimentation as they scramble to figure out what actually influences the chatbots. "There's no one shot that fits all to solve that for you," Dillon said.
生成的AI回答中出现的频率。这些提示词反映了投资者和潜在客户（包括大学和公用事业公司的人员）可能向AI聊天机器人提出的问题。审计发现了47个可改进之处，包括阿梅斯科在其网站、社交媒体、新闻稿和高管沟通中描述业务的方式。“你能想到的，我们都做错了，”迪龙说。阿梅斯科今年7月开始推出新的企业品牌形象，反映其围绕两大业务支柱（电力基础设施，以及建筑和公共基础设施）进行的更广泛重组。
In January 2025, Dillon's team and its PR agency, Greenough, began auditing how often Ameresco appeared in AI-generated answers to 50 prompts — such as, "What are the top energy infrastructure providers in the US?" — on platforms including ChatGPT and Claude. The prompts reflected questions that investors and prospective customers, including people from universities and utilities, might ask AI chatbots. The audit identified 47 areas for improvement, including how Ameresco described its business across its website, social media, press releases, and executive communications. "You name it, we were doing it wrong," Dillon said. Ameresco began rolling out a new corporate brand identity in July this year, reflecting its broader reorganization around two business pillars: power infrastructure and buildings and public infrastructure.
该公司通过对内容策略进行多项调整，为新企业品牌的揭晓奠定了基础。这些调整包括：该策略在某些方面似乎正在见效。阿梅斯科表示，截至2026年6月的12个月内，其网站的自然流量增长了50%。迪龙表示，目前还为时过早，无法精确评估这些增长如何转化为业务成果，但她认为GEO工作正在帮助营销团队更快地实现目标。
It had laid the groundwork for the new corporate brand reveal by making several changes to its content strategy. Those included: The strategy appears to be paying off in some ways. Ameresco said organic traffic to its website rose 50% in the 12 months to June 2026. Dillon said it's still too early to assess precisely how those gains translate into business results, though she believes the GEO work is helping the marketing team hit its targets more quickly.
该公司计划于11月9日公布第三季度财报。迪龙表示，AI的快速变化意味着这项工作永远不会真正结束。
The company is scheduled to report its third-quarter earnings on November 9. Dillon said the rapid changes in AI mean the work is never really finished.
Ameresco 定期重新审视其 AI 可见度评分，并投资培训营销团队，该团队在每周会议中分享技巧、窍门以及他们的“史诗级 AI 失误”。“主要主题之一是，上周发生的事情并不代表本周会怎样；变化之快如此，”迪龙说。“你不能只是更新一下网站就说：搞定，太好了，一切就绪，”她补充道。
Ameresco regularly revisits its AI visibility scores and has invested in training the marketing team, which shares tips, tricks, and their "epic AI fails" in its weekly meetings. "One of the main themes is that what happened last week is not what you're going to get this week; it's changing that quickly," Dillon said. "You don't just update your website and say: Done, woo, all set," she added.