Consultant Thiago Feeda urges businesses to optimize for "answer engines" as searches go 'zero‑click'

Thiago Feeda, founder and CEO of Elevate AI Consulting, told the audience that search has evolved and that companies should optimize for AI‑driven "answer engines" (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) as much as for traditional search engines.

"This is the new reality. is really a zeroclick reality," Feeda said, describing how AI answers often present a single or a few recommendations without clicking through to websites. He recommended practical steps: create short FAQs that answer customer questions directly, use clear page structure and headings, keep company name/address/phone consistent across platforms, collect and manage reviews, and add backend schemas so AI crawlers can reliably parse content.

Feeda said the change has measurable business effects for early adopters: his firm receives "7 to 10 calls every single week" from people who found them via AI search, which he described as a compounding, free lead source compared with paid ads. He offered attendees an exclusive free 30‑minute consultation via elevatedconsulting.com and urged businesses to ask AI tools for citations and to turn off model‑training settings when using personal accounts.

Feeda framed some data points as his professional experience and did not present independent studies; his recommendations centered on improving on‑page clarity and third‑party signals so AI models recommend local businesses.