The decision to buy is made before the customer visits your website.

The market for AI search optimization is projected to grow to $33 billion by 2034. For CHC brands, this isn’t just an abstract statistic—it’s a concrete competitive challenge that will be decided today.

In the first part of this series, we saw how AI search systems have changed the search behavior of over a billion users—and why traditional SEO approaches don’t provide the answers. This second part explores what that means specifically for consumer healthcare brands and what companies can do to regain control over their digital visibility.

A Market in Flux: GEO Becomes Mandatory

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)—the targeted optimization of content for AI search systems—is emerging as the next major area of investment in digital marketing. The figures are impressive:

$848 Mio. Daily ChatGPT users worldwide (early 2026)

$33,7 Mrd. Monthly users of Google AI Overviews

At the same time, 54% of U.S. marketing professionals already plan to implement GEO within the next three to six months (eMarketer, January 2026). In Europe, adoption is still lagging behind—which gives companies that act early a real advantage.

“The brands that understand AI search today will have the digital visibility of tomorrow.”

The window of opportunity for a structural competitive advantage is still open. But it’s closing fast. Those who invest in visibility on AI platforms now will build a lead that latecomers can only catch up to with significant extra effort—much like getting an early start on SEO ten years ago.

Why the CHC sector is particularly affected

Consumer healthcare products have a unique characteristic that makes them particularly relevant—and particularly vulnerable—in the context of AI search: Consumers don’t simply search for a product name. They search for symptoms, active ingredients, side effects, comparisons, and recommendations. Health-related questions are precisely the type of queries for which AI assistants are consulted most frequently and intensively.

Imagine a consumer asking ChatGPT: “Which cold remedy is most effective?” or “What supplements do experts recommend for vitamin D deficiency?” The answer comes immediately. It sounds knowledgeable and trustworthy. And your brand—may not even be mentioned. The consumer has made their decision before visiting an e-pharmacy website.

This has shifted the decisive moment of brand preference formation. It is no longer the shelf that decides first. Nor is it the product listing in the online store. What matters is whether and how a brand appears in AI-generated answers to health questions—with what tone, in what context, and against what competitive backdrop.

The blind spot is growing

• Traditional tools—analytics, SEO dashboards, sell-out data—measure what happens after the click.

• But the purchase decision is made beforehand—in a channel these tools don’t capture.

• This blind spot grows silently every day, while competitors are already taking systematic action.

BrandTelligence: The New Standard for Digital Brand Visibility

This is exactly where OTC-Cube’s BrandTelligence comes in. Designed specifically for the context of OTC and CHC brands, BrandTelligence makes the new dimension of digital visibility measurable, comparable, and manageable—on a daily basis, across platforms, and with concrete recommendations for action.

The approach combines data from traditional search engines, leading AI platforms such as Google Gemini, Bing AI, and Perplexity, as well as competitive analyses and real user queries. The result is not a random outcome, but a continuous, measurable process.

01	BENCHMARKING Your visibility compared directly to the competition—in traditional search engines and on all relevant AI platforms. You can immediately see where you stand and where action is needed.
02	VISIBILITY MONITORING Daily updated data: Does your brand appear in AI overviews, generative search results, and AI recommendations? Across all relevant platforms and in all relevant markets.
03	SOURCE ANALYSIS What content and domains AI systems use as the basis for their responses. The foundation for a content strategy proven to generate more AI citations.
04	CITATION TRACKING, INCLUDING GHOST CITATIONS Where and how your brand appears in AI-generated responses—including those “ghost citations” that AI platforms create when they link to your content without mentioning the brand name.
05	CONTENT OPTIMIZATION Specific, prioritized recommendations for action: What needs to be updated? What content is missing? Which phrases boost AI visibility the most? No guesswork—just measurable steps.

Digital visibility in AI systems is not a static concept. Search patterns evolve, platforms update their algorithms, and competitors either catch up or fall behind. BrandTelligence supports this process as an ongoing system—not as a one-time measure. Those who start early build a lead that grows over time—not shrinks.