Buyers used to scan ten blue links and click. Now they ask, and a model hands back one composed answer with a short list of sources.
If your brand is not in that answer, you do not exist for that search. Generative engine optimization is the discipline of being the source those systems quote: clean foundations, structured data, and content shaped the way models retrieve it.
It is not a trick. It is technical SEO done well, then taken further into the way answers are actually assembled.
The mechanics matter. Engines assemble answers from sources they can parse and trust, so structured data, clean entities, and content shaped around real questions are what get you quoted. It is technical SEO done well, then taken further into how answers are actually composed.
The brands winning here are not gaming anything. They are the clearest, best-structured, most obviously authoritative source on their topic, which is what the models are built to surface. That is a moat that compounds.
the takeaway
Be the clearest, best-structured source on your topic. That is what the engines are built to cite.