People are increasingly turning to AI rather than traditional search engines like Google for product discovery. Recent research indicates that during the upcoming holiday season, American consumers are likely to rely on large language models (LLMs) to find gifts, discounts, and sales.
According to the report, retailers could experience a staggering 520% increase in traffic from AI chatbots and prompts by 2025 compared to the previous year. For brands, this trend necessitates swift adaptation to ensure their products are recommended through AI-generated content.
This transformation in consumer behavior has positioned The Prompting Company—a Y Combinator-backed startup—at the forefront. The company has successfully raised $6.5 million in seed funding to amplify product visibility in AI applications through a strategy known as Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). This approach is aimed at preparing brands for a future where AI agents perform online searches on behalf of users.
Founded by Kevin Chandra, Michelle Marcelline, and Albert Purnama just four months ago, The Prompting Company has already attracted notable clients, including Rippling, Rho, Motion, Vapi, Fondo, Kernel, and Traceloop.
As AI becomes a primary tool for product discovery, brands must adapt their marketing strategies to engage not only human consumers but also AI agents effectively.
Understanding how their platform operates reveals its innovative approach: It identifies and analyzes the questions that AI agents pose, focusing on queries with purchase intent. Consequently, The Prompting Company produces structured content tailored to these inquiries and directs AI agents to specially optimized pages designed for AI engagement.
The firm aims to produce thousands of AI-friendly pages, allowing LLMs to cite their content even if they do not perform well in traditional SEO metrics. While conventional SEO remains important, founder Chandra asserts that GEO is swiftly becoming the priority for brands, allowing product results to emerge organically based on relevance rather than paid keywords.
Emerging technologies such as Google’s Agent2Agent framework and OpenAI’s collaboration with Stripe are expected to bolster this model, enabling AI agents to facilitate transactions for users, transitioning them smoothly from product discovery to purchase.
Chandra remarked, “Imagine a large e-commerce platform where users can browse items, make returns, and seek promotions. We help our clients present these opportunities to AI agents. While these agents aren’t yet interacting with these options directly, we anticipate changes in the near future.” He emphasizes that as attribution improves, a model favoring advertising and conversions will likely evolve.
Currently, The Prompting Company primarily serves clients in fintech, developer tools, and enterprise SaaS sectors and proudly counts a Fortune 10 company among its users, hosting around half a million AI-optimized pages. The traffic directed to client platforms reaches into the double-digit millions monthly. Their subscription-based model charges clients according to tracked prompts and hosted pages.
The founders, who have a background as Indonesian immigrants and previously created the Y Combinator-supported Typedream—a platform that allowed users to build websites efficiently—are now focused on redefining product discovery in an AI-driven world. The recent funding from investors like Peak XV Partners, Base10, Y Combinator, and others will facilitate the company’s growth and partnerships, particularly in collaboration with Nvidia on next-generation AI search solutions.
Arnav Sahu, a partner at Peak XV Partners, remarked, “If your product isn’t identified by ChatGPT, you’re missing out. We are excited to support The Prompting Company as they establish essential infrastructure for product discovery, already aiding top-tier companies and emerging startups.”
