The exit code: in Russia, the demand of companies for promotion in neural networks is growing

Companies began to massively apply for promotion services in neural networks. In the first five months of 2026, the number of requests related to brand visibility in such responses increased from 2.5 thousand to 17.1 thousand, analysts say. Users are increasingly looking for quick answers using AI. This market is still being formed in Russia, but in the coming years, promotion in neural networks will become part of the companies' digital strategy.

Why is the demand for neural responses growing?

In Russia, there is a growing demand for brand promotion in neural networks, that is, for their mention in responses to user requests, experts told Izvestia. According to a study by the digital agency DOJO MEDIA and the eLama platform, the number of such search queries increased from 2.5 thousand to 17.1 thousand from January to May 2026.

Companies' demand is linked to the growing popularity of AI responses. As the Yandex press service told Izvestia, in the second quarter, the monthly audience of Alice AI's quick responses was 49.5 million people. If in the spring of this year, quick responses appeared in about 30% of requests, then by the summer the figure jumped to 42%. The trend is also confirmed by Google analytics: in May 2026, the company reported that the number of monthly AI Overviews users had reached 2.5 billion.

Neural networks are increasingly being used not only to search for information, but also for recommendations, product comparisons, and solutions, added Roman Samoilov, Director of the Consumer Sector Practice at Strategy Partners.

— For businesses, this changes the principle of presence in search. If earlier the task was to place the site high in the search results, now it is important that the neural network mentions the brand and uses its materials when forming the response. GEO (the answers of generative AI) is gradually becoming a continuation of SEO (the output of classic search engines) and content marketing," he noted.

According to him, the effect of GEO-promotion can be assessed on several levels. Key indicators include the frequency of brand mentions in relevant neural network responses, the share of presence compared to competitors, traffic from neural networks, the number of applications and sales, as well as the cost of attracting a customer.

However, the mere mention of the brand does not guarantee a commercial result. The user can get the necessary information in the neural network interface, but not go to the website or find the company in another way, the expert noted. To evaluate the effectiveness of GEO, end-to-end analytics is also needed, which allows you to link the brand's presence in the responses of neural networks with the real actions of customers.

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Neural Network Promotion Market

Today, the market is heterogeneous, says Denis Shubenok, Executive Director of Ashmanov & Partners. There are no statistics or a register of companies offering neural network promotion services. Some players monitor brand mentions, others adapt content to generative search, and others work with reputation. Some companies offer comprehensive promotion strategies.

"The number of companies using the term GEO in their services is not equal to the number of players who have their own research base, regularly test hypotheses and can explain why specific changes affect brand representation," he explained.

The cost of such services varies from 140-160 thousand rubles per month to more than 600 thousand rubles for projects for large retailers. At the same time, some companies offer a one-time audit costing from 30 thousand to 250 thousand rubles.

According to Denis Shubenka, promotion in neuro-responses is in demand in such segments as e-commerce, marketplaces, finance, insurance, real estate, medicine, tourism, manufacturers of goods, as well as B2B companies with complex products. In addition, GEO-promotion is actively developing in the educational segment, added Tatiana Stebakova, Director of Marketing and Communications at the European University in St. Petersburg.

— A typical query when searching for an educational program is: "Where can I go to study in [a city] in order to get a high-quality education in the social and humanitarian field? I'm considering the city center, evening tuition, average cost." And the task of universities is to get into the recommendations for such requests," she explained.

According to the head of the search engine promotion department, "All Tools.<url>" by Vladimir Syutkin, GEO should be considered in the context of the overall search engine promotion strategy. However, it is important to take into account the cross-team efforts of all departments that directly or indirectly affect the overall result.

Strategies for brand promotion

According to Mikhail Slivinsky, the ambassador of Internet platforms at Yandex Search, Alice AI generates quick responses based on four criteria for the quality of content — expertise, usefulness, originality and content. The technical component is also important: the page must be accessible and indexed.

— High competition for audience attention sets a high bar for content quality. For businesses, this means the need to look beyond the description of their own product, understand customer questions at different stages of selection, explain characteristics and limitations, and share expertise," he explained.

According to him, there are two main scenarios for interacting with a neural network: a quick response in search results and a separate dialog mode with AI. The latter allows users to understand the topic more deeply or solve the problem in several steps, he added.

— The search takes into account not only the words in the query, but also the task that the person is trying to solve. One user wants to understand the topic, another compares the options, and the third is looking for a specific product. It also depends on which information will be most useful to him and in what form it is better to present it," Mikhail Sliwinski clarified.

However, GEO-promotion has a number of risks: in particular, there is no clear way to get into the AI agent's response. Moreover, no one can guarantee that brand information will remain in the neural response forever, experts emphasize.

According to Mikhail Slivinsky, one of the main risks of GEO-marketing is to focus on trying to please algorithms and forget about the users for whom the material was created. This is especially true today, when neural networks allow you to produce a huge amount of content almost effortlessly.

How the segment will develop

Experts are confident that the demand for brand promotion in neural networks will grow. One of the main reasons is that fast AI responses from search engines and neural networks are becoming basic tools for users.

Businesses are becoming more interested in GEO-promotion, Denis Shubenok added. Companies want to understand how neural networks choose sources, why they recommend some and do not mention others, and how to evaluate the effectiveness of marketers in this segment in general, he noted.

— In the future, GEO may go beyond optimizing visibility in AI responses. The business will have to work to ensure that the name is not only visible to the person who asks the neural network question, but also understandable, accessible and competitive for the AI agent. Therefore, I consider GEO not as a temporary add—on over SEO, but as part of a larger transformation of digital commerce," he explained.

In the next three years, neural network promotion will become part of the companies' digital presence strategy, according to Roman Samoilov from Strategy Partners. At the same time, the new direction will not replace the classic promotion in search engines. Businesses will have to adapt the content to different ways of obtaining information.