Why are 90% of foreign trade B2B companies destined not to be recommended by AI?

Over the past two years, an increasing number of foreign trade B2B companies have begun to proactively embrace change:

Some people have started researching AI search, some have increased their investment in content, some have restructured their official websites, and some are even discussing GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).

So what exactly is GEO? How does it differ from SEO? Is it a replacement for or an upgrade to SEO? This article, "[ What is GEO? Why is Traditional SEO Inadequate? Explained in One Article! ]", has already explained it; you can check it out!

However, one practical problem remains:

The number of foreign trade companies that are directly mentioned in the key responses of models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity is still very small.

This is not because most companies are not working hard, nor because there is not enough content or the website is not "good-looking".

The real reason lies in a long-overlooked but crucial prerequisite:

The company has never given a clear answer:

"Who do you want AI to think of you as?"

In an era where AI is involved in procurement decisions, this is a more important question than "what are you selling?"

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I. AI does not act as a "search engine" in foreign trade procurement.

Many companies still use the traditional SEO approach:

As long as you rank high and cover a wide range of keywords, AI will "see you".

However, in the foreign trade B2B scenario, the true role of AI has undergone a fundamental change.

It is no longer just an information portal, but is proactively undertaking three types of tasks:

1. Initial screening for buyers

   Help narrow down the pool of potential suppliers.

2. Help buyers understand the differences between technologies and solutions

   Explaining complex concepts and determining whether they match a scenario

3. Mitigating decision-making risks for buyers

   Eliminate options that are inappropriate, unreliable, or unclear.

This means that when AI answers questions, it is not "recommending web pages".

Instead, it simulates a rational industry consultant .

In this process, the first issue it needs to address is not "who to choose".

Instead:

Is this company suitable to be mentioned in this question?

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II. How AI determines whether a company is suitable for citation.

Under generative search and RAG (retrieval augmented generation) mechanisms, AI can typically make the following judgments quickly:

1. What role does this company play in the industry?

   Is it a manufacturer, solution provider, system integrator, or engineering service provider?

2. Does it frequently appear in similar questions?

   Does it consistently and stably appear in the same type of judgment scenario?

3. Does it provide a clear and repeatable logic for the judgment?

   Can it be safely summarized and cited without easily misleading users?

If a company's content is presented as:

• Today, like manufacturers

• Tomorrow, like a solution provider

• The day after tomorrow, it will be like a comprehensive service provider that "can do everything".

Therefore, in the eyes of AI, this is not "strong ability".

Rather, the roles are unstable and the risks are uncontrollable .

There is only one outcome:

Not selected.

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III. Three Common Mispositioning Methods in Foreign Trade B2B

In actual projects, many foreign trade companies fail not because they don't try, but because they fall into the following three typical pitfalls.

Error 1: Product stacking positioning

"We mainly produce XX products, with a full range of models and reliable quality."

This kind of expression was acceptable in the era of traditional platforms, but it is almost impossible to trigger recommendations in the GEO era.

The reason is simple: AI doesn't know what questions you're good at answering.

Error 2: Ambiguous Role Positioning

“We are both manufacturers and solution providers, and we can also do customization and projects.”

To people, this is seen as having "many abilities".
From AI's perspective, however, it lacks clear boundaries and cannot assess risk.

Mistake 3: Marketing-style self-description

"Leading supplier / Professional manufacturer / One-stop solution."

These words have almost no value for AI's judgment.

On the contrary, it will reduce the credibility weight of the content.

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IV. How should the correct GEO corporate role be broken down?

From a GEO's perspective, a corporate role that can be "used by AI" must answer three questions clearly at the same time:

1. What type of problems do you primarily solve?

   Is it selection, comparison, engineering implementation, or technical understanding?

2. At which stage of decision-making are you most valuable?

   Initial screening? Option comparison? Risk assessment?

3. Which scenarios are unsuitable for you?

   Clearly defining "what not to do" can actually increase credibility.

This is why, for foreign trade B2B companies,

A "problem-oriented + solution-oriented" positioning is naturally more suitable for GEOs than a "product-oriented" one.

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V. The fundamental difference between manufacturers and solution providers in the eyes of AI

From the perspective of AI's judgment logic, the "responsibilities of being cited" are completely different for the two.

Manufacturer-type roles are more likely to appear in:

• Product Definition

• Technical parameters explanation

• Production Capacity and Standards Description

Solution provider roles are more likely to appear in:

• How to choose…

• “What is the difference between…”

• “Which solution is suitable for … scenario”

• “Common mistakes when…”

There is no distinction between superior and inferior, but one must be chosen as the main character .

Otherwise, AI cannot "use you with confidence" in any problem.

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VI. Enterprise Self-Inspection: Who are you in the eyes of AI?

You can use the following set of questions to quickly determine whether you have a clear GEO role:

• If a client asks an AI-related industry question, would you want to be cited ?

• Does your official website repeatedly revolve around the same type of question ?

• Does it clearly state which scenarios are suitable for you and which are not?

• Do your case studies, processes, and comparisons serve the same decision-making stage?

If these questions cannot be answered clearly...

So even if you put in a lot of content, the probability of it being recommended by AI is still extremely low.

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VII. Only after the role is clearly defined can we talk about being "used by AI".

It needs to be emphasized that:

Character positioning is not a one-sentence statement, but a complete set of structured expressions.

It must be reflected in:

• Official website page structure

• Content organization methods

• The correspondence between questions and answers

• Presentation angles of case studies and processes

This is precisely why more and more foreign trade B2B companies are beginning to realize:

The issue isn't just whether there's an official website.

Instead—

Does the official website have the ability to clearly represent the company's role?

At this level, AB Guest does not start from "website building tools", but rather takes GEO as a premise to help companies complete role anchoring, problem mapping and structured expression at the stage of official website and content source, so that the company always appears with the same clear identity in the AI's judgment system.

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In conclusion: Not being recommended by AI is not a matter of luck.

In an era where AI is deeply involved in procurement decisions,

Whether or not you are recommended is never a matter of luck, but a structural outcome.

When a company:

• Clear roles

• The problem is clear

• Expression stability

• Clear boundaries

It will naturally be selected, cited, and recommended by AI for the right questions.

And the starting point for all of this is not technology, nor the quantity of content.

It is a very basic, yet most easily overlooked, problem:

Who do you want AI to mistake you for?

Once this step is clear, the subsequent GEO will truly have meaning.