Back from VivaTech 2026: why visibility in AI becomes a major issue
A year ago, Geoptim AI was just an idea being developed within the La Turbine Cergy-Pontoise incubator.
This week, we had the pleasure of presenting our solution for four days at VivaTech 2026 thanks to the Paris Île-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Over 100 demonstrations, several dozen qualified prospects, exchanges with investors, potential partners and several media interviews, including Les Échos, punctuated this particularly intense edition.
But the most striking thing is not the number of meetings.
It's what we heard.
Artificial intelligence is everywhere
This year, it was impossible to walk through the VivaTech aisles without noticing that artificial intelligence has become omnipresent.
All sectors are affected.
Healthcare.
Industry.
Finance.
Marketing.
Cybersecurity.
Retail.
AI is no longer a prospective topic.
It is already at the heart of companies' innovation strategies.
One concern keeps coming up systematically
For four days, the same sentence came back almost without interruption.
"That's exactly our current topic."
Or even:
"That's exactly what we're looking for."
These reactions rarely concerned the performance of AI models.
They were mostly about their impact on company visibility.
More and more decision makers are noticing that their customers are starting their searches directly in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity.
They understand that these assistants are gradually becoming a new acquisition channel.
However, many acknowledge not knowing how to answer several essential questions.
- Is my company recommended by AI?
- Why do some competitors appear before us?
- How do we measure our visibility?
- What actions actually allow us to improve our presence?
These questions were present in companies of all sizes, from SMEs to large corporations.
A transition comparable to the arrival of SEO
In the early 2000s, companies gradually understood that being absent from Google represented a commercial risk.
Today, we are observing a comparable evolution.
The difference is that answer engines no longer present just a list of results.
They formulate an answer directly.
Being recommended sometimes becomes more important than simply being indexed.
This evolution does not mean the disappearance of SEO.
It opens a new complementary discipline: optimizing visibility in answer engines powered by artificial intelligence.
A validation of our vision
The numerous demonstrations carried out during VivaTech strengthened a conviction we have held for several months.
Companies are no longer just looking to improve their traditional search engine ranking.
They also want to understand how AI talks about their brand.
This validation is particularly encouraging for our entire team.
We also had the pleasure of chatting with several journalists, including the Les Échos team, who immediately grasped the strategic importance of this issue.
Thanks to everyone who made this adventure possible
We warmly thank the Paris Île-de-France Chamber of Commerce and Industry for giving us the opportunity to exhibit at VivaTech 2026.
Thanks to Pierre Kuchly for visiting our booth.
A huge thank you to Olfa Aldaas, Caroline Francescato, Karim Benthami and Quynh-Anh To for their support, their availability, their impeccable organization and their good humor throughout this adventure.
We also thank Wacano, Olivia Hervy, Stéphane Paillard, Joanna Kirk and Jeremy Navon for their valuable advice in preparing for the trade show.
Finally, thank you to the hundreds of visitors who came to discover Geoptim AI, ask their questions, share their challenges and challenge our vision.
This is just the beginning
A year ago, Geoptim AI was just an idea.
Today, this idea addresses a problem that companies already consider strategic.
Uses are evolving rapidly.
Search engines are gradually becoming answer engines.
The question is no longer whether this transformation will happen.
It is already underway.
And we are convinced that it is only just beginning.