GEO Marketing Is Rising Across ASEAN

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Search behaviour across ASEAN is shifting faster than most marketing budgets can keep up with. As consumers in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines increasingly turn to AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to research products and services, foreign businesses operating in the region face a new visibility challenge: ranking well on Google no longer guarantees a brand gets recommended by the tools customers are actually using to make decisions.

This shift has given rise to Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), also referred to as Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) — the practice of structuring digital content so AI platforms cite, recommend, and summarise a brand accurately. For businesses establishing or expanding operations in ASEAN, understanding this trend is becoming as relevant to market entry planning as understanding local tax and labour regulations.

Why GEO matters for the ASEAN market

The scale of the shift is significant. Indonesia’s weekly ChatGPT user base has roughly tripled over the past year, placing the country among the top five markets globally for weekly ChatGPT usage. In the Philippines, surveys show that 92 percent of knowledge workers are already using generative AI tools at work, ahead of both the global and Asia-Pacific averages. Regionally, the AI sector across Southeast Asia was valued at more than US$4 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow more than fourfold by 2033.

Consumer research reflects the same pattern. Studies on AI-generated content in Singapore indicate most consumers already place a degree of trust in it, with usage particularly strong among Gen Z and Millennial buyers researching purchases before they commit.

For a foreign business trying to establish credibility in an unfamiliar ASEAN market, this changes the calculus. A prospective customer using an AI assistant to compare service providers, evaluate a product category, or shortlist a supplier will never see a paid ad or a traditional search listing. If a company’s content and digital presence are not structured for AI legibility, it can be filtered out of the decision entirely before a human ever visits the website.

How GEO differs from traditional SEO

Traditional SEO practices remain foundational, but GEO adds requirements on top of them:

• Structured, extractable content. AI platforms favour content that answers a specific question clearly and early, rather than content optimised primarily around keyword density.
• Structured data markup. Schema for FAQs, products, and organisational information helps AI systems parse what a business does and confirm it accurately, which matters where company names, registration details, or service scopes can otherwise be ambiguous across markets.
• Demonstrated authority. AI models weigh signals such as clear authorship, third-party citations, and consistent business information (particularly name, address, and contact details) more heavily when deciding whether to cite a source.
• Local and market-specific context. Because ASEAN is not a single market, content that reflects country-specific terminology, regulation, and consumer language tends to be cited more reliably than generic regional content.

Country-level dynamics are not uniform

Businesses expanding across multiple ASEAN markets should note that AI adoption and the resulting GEO opportunity vary considerably by country. Vietnam’s AI startup ecosystem grew from around 60 companies in 2021 to close to 280 by 2024, supported by a large technical talent base. The Philippines has built its generative AI advantage largely around business process outsourcing and knowledge work. Singapore continues to function as the regional hub for AI investment and, correspondingly, for early adoption of AI-driven search behaviour among consumers. A GEO approach calibrated to Singapore’s market maturity will not necessarily translate directly to Vietnam or Indonesia, where adoption curves and consumer trust levels differ.

What this means for market entry planning

For businesses setting up in ASEAN, digital visibility strategy is worth factoring in alongside the more conventional elements of market entry — company registration, tax structuring, and hiring. A brand that gets its legal and operational setup right but is invisible to AI-driven search may still struggle to convert market entry into market share.

Agencies with dedicated AI SEO practices are emerging to address this specifically. In Singapore, for example, First Page Digital runs a Generative Engine Optimisation service that audits how brands currently appear across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude, and restructures content, schema, and authority signals to improve citation rates on those platforms. For foreign businesses newer to the ASEAN digital landscape, engaging specialists in this area early can shorten the learning curve considerably compared to treating GEO as an afterthought once traditional SEO is already in place.

Looking ahead

As AI-powered search continues to displace a portion of traditional query volume across the region, GEO is likely to move from a differentiator to a baseline expectation, in much the same way mobile optimisation did a decade ago. Businesses evaluating ASEAN market entry, or reassessing an existing regional digital strategy, should treat AI visibility as a standing item in that planning process rather than a trend to revisit later.

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