Geostar pioneers GEO as traditional SEO faces 25% decline from AI chatbots, Gartner says

The moment Mack McConnell knew everything about search had changed came last summer at the Paris Olympics. His parents, independently and without prompting, had both turned to ChatGPT to plan their day's activities in the French capital. The AI recommended specific tour companies, restaurants, and attractions — businesses that had won a new kind of visibility lottery."It was almost like this intuitive interface that older people were as comfortable with using as younger people," McConnell recalled in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. "I could just see the businesses were now being recommended."That observation has now become the foundation of Geostar, a Pear VC-backed startup that's racing to help businesses navigate what may be the most significant shift in online discovery since G