Search used to mean ten blue links. Now a growing share of people ask an AI assistant and take the first business it names. Being found means two things: ranking in Google and Bing, and being the business an AI engine is confident enough to recommend.
Search engine optimization (SEO) covers the first. Answer engine optimization (AEO), also called generative engine optimization (GEO), covers the second. They share most of the work, and we do both.