GEO startup Lorelight shuts down: ‘The problem didn’t need solving’

Generative engine optimization (GEO) platform Lorelight, is shutting it down – not because it failed, but because the problem it solved didn’t need solving, according to its founder Benjamin Houy.

• “Customers were churning because the product didn’t change what they needed to do. They would pursue the same brand-building fundamentals whether they had the data or not,” Houy wrote in a blog post.

The big idea. Launched in April, Lorelight pitched itself as a “proactive AI brand monitoring” tool. Lorelight promised real-time alerts when large language models, such as ChatGPT or Claude, misrepresented a brand.

• The goal: To help marketers control their brand narrative in the age of AI by detecting inaccuracies, biases, or outdated info in AI-generated responses.
• Lorelight claimed to offer visibility into how AI models “interpreted” brands and give companies a chance to correct or influence that narrative before misinformation spread.

Why it failed. Lorelight could show where brands appeared (or didn’t) in AI answers, but that data rarely led to new action, according to Houy. After months of analysis, Houy found that the brands showing up most often in AI-generated results shared familiar traits:

• High-quality, helpful content.
• Mentions in authoritative publications.
• Strong reputations and subject-matter expertise.

Houy wrote:

• “It’s the exact same stuff that’s always worked for SEO, PR, and brand building.
• “There was no secret formula. No hidden hack. No special optimization technique that only applied to AI.
• “There’s no secret GEO strategy. AI models reward the same fundamentals that already drive SEO and PR.”

The bigger picture. Houy concluded that GEO makes more sense as a feature within existing SEO platforms, not as a standalone category. Building a dedicated tool for tracking brand visibility in AI responses simply didn’t deliver enough unique value to sustain a business, he said.

• Established SEO platforms, including Semrush, have already begun expanding into AI visibility and brand monitoring, integrating features that help marketers understand how brands appear in generative search results.

What they’re saying. Many SEO practitioners applauded the candor, via comments on Houy’s LinkedIn post. Some of the reactions:

• Lily Ray said the post was something “the industry needs to hear.”
• Gaetano DiNardi called it “saying the quiet part out loud.”
• Kristine Strange praised Houy’s courage to step away from the idea he believed in.
• Randall Choh countered that LLM visibility is already driving conversions, citing data showing that ChatGPT-sourced signups convert six times better than Google traffic.
• Panos Kondylis argued the GEO space is “premature” – visibility tracking is early-stage and most tools echo what SEO platforms already do.

Yes, but. Beware of confirmation bias. One tool’s failure (that you probably hadn’t even heard about before it shut down) doesn’t prove an entire discipline is worthless. It’s still early.

• If you believe in the Gartner Hype Cycle, GEO may simply be passing through the Trough of Disillusionment – when inflated expectations crash and weaker players fold before the survivors evolve into something more durable.
• Lorelight lived for about seven months – from its April launch to its October shutdown. Its quick demise may be more about timing than the longer-term viability of GEO.