Liam Bateman, The Think Tank
Ask a contractor how they found a product five years ago and they’d probably say a search engine, a trade magazine or a rep. Ask today and there’s a fair chance the answer involves ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI overviews.
The numbers back it up. Forrester puts B2B generative AI usage at 94% during the buying process, and among the C-suite it’s 96% daily. More telling for anyone marketing a construction brand: 54% of buyers say a brand not showing up in AI search gives them a negative impression of it. If AI doesn’t mention you, buyers don’t just miss you. They may quietly rule you out.
The discipline of fixing that has a name: generative engine optimisation, or GEO. It sits where content strategy, technical SEO and brand authority meet. It’s not a replacement for the marketing you already do, more an evolution of it. Here are five practical things a construction marketing team can start on now.
1. Find out what AI already says about you
Before you change anything, see where you stand. Ask the main tools the questions your buyers ask, things like ‘who makes acoustic ceiling systems for schools’ or ‘best SFS framing supplier UK’, and note whether you appear, what’s said and which sources get cited. This is your AI footprint, and it’s the baseline for everything else. You’ll often find competitors named where you’re not, which is useful in itself.
2. Earn coverage, because AI reads the press
Up to 72% of what LLMs say about a brand comes from earned media. Press coverage and thought leadership you place feed directly into how AI describes you. So a specifier feature in a construction title, a byline on sustainability regulation or a project story in the trade press all do double duty. They reach human readers and they teach the AI who you are. PR has quietly become one of the strongest levers you have over AI visibility.
3. Answer the questions buyers actually type
AI tools pull from content that answers real questions clearly. Look at what contractors, specifiers and architects ask when they’re narrowing a shortlist, on compliance, performance, fire ratings, lead times, and write content that answers it plainly. Clear headings, direct answers and specifics like standards met and typical applications give AI something concrete to lift and cite. Vague brochure copy gives it nothing.
4. Make your site easy for AI to read
The technical side still matters. Structured pages, sensible headings, product data laid out clearly and schema markup all help AI understand and quote your content accurately. If your key facts are locked inside a PDF or an image, they’re much harder to surface. Treat your website as a source AI can quote, and make the quoting easy.
5. Pull PR, content and digital in the same direction
GEO isn’t one team’s job. Your PR, content and digital efforts each feed AI visibility, and they work best aimed at the same goal. When the topics you pitch to journalists match the questions you answer on site and the terms you target in search, the signals line up and AI sees a consistent, authoritative brand. When they don’t, the effort gets diluted. Think of GEO as reputation management for the AI age, and comms is well placed to lead it.
None of this needs an enormous budget. It needs a clear view of where you stand and a bit of coordination across the teams you already have. The brands that get this right will be the ones AI puts forward when a buyer is building a shortlist.
The Think Tank at London Build Expo 2026
For construction marketers who want to go deeper, The Think Tank is running a free workshop on exactly this. ‘Building AI Visibility for Construction Brands’ is led by Digital Media Director Ros Rowlatt and PR Director Jo Wilmot, and covers what AI looks for and how to improve your chances of being chosen and cited, with practical takeaways for your team.
When: Wednesday 25 November, 1pm
Where: London Build Expo 2026, ExCel London
The expo is free to attend and you can reserve your workshop place here.