AI tools are becoming the new gatekeepers of discovery, shaping buyer trust and vendor shortlists before prospects ever reach your website. The Gist AI discovery changes the buying journey. Prospects can now discover, evaluate and reject brands through ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity before sales teams ever know they existed. GEO is bigger than marketing. Your AI-generated reputation is shaped by reviews, support quality, product issues, employee sentiment and real customer experiences — not just SEO or content strategy. Leaders need cross-functional ownership now. Brands that actively monitor AI narratives and close gaps quickly can build a compounding trust and discovery advantage. Picture this. A VP of customer success at a mid-size SaaS company is evaluating vendors for a new onboarding platform. She doesn't start with Google. She opens ChatGPT and types a question. Within seconds, she has a shortlist. Three brands she recognizes. Two she doesn't.…