The landscape of product discovery is undergoing a significant transformation, with consumers increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs) instead of traditional search engines like Google to find products, deals, and sales. A recent shopping report indicates that Americans are likely to leverage AI for their holiday gift searches, signaling a potential paradigm shift. This trend could result in a staggering increase of up to 520% in traffic from chatbots and AI prompts to retailers in 2025 compared to 2024. For brands, this necessitates a rapid adaptation to ensure their products are visible and recommended within AI-generated responses.

At the forefront of this emerging shift is The Prompting Company, a Y Combinator-backed startup that has secured $6.5 million in seed funding. Founded by Kevin Chandra, Michelle Marcelline, and Albert Purnama, the four-month-old company is pioneering 'generative engine optimization' (GEO) – a strategy specifically designed for a future where AI agents browse the internet on behalf of users. The company posits that as AI becomes the initial touchpoint for product discovery and eventually facilitates transactions for users, brands must learn to market to these AI agents as well as human consumers.

Central to The Prompting Company's philosophy is the concept of an 'AI-facing website.' Co-founder and CEO Kevin Chandra emphasizes that while most businesses design websites exclusively for humans, AI agents, representing the fastest-growing segment of internet users, require a distinct interface. This means creating a streamlined version of their site, devoid of navigation bars, pop-ups, or typical marketing 'fluff,' to cater specifically to AI interactions.

The platform operates by first identifying and analyzing the specific purchase-intent queries AI agents are posing to models. Subsequently, it crafts structured content that directly answers these questions and automatically directs AI agents to these 'AI-optimized pages.' This innovative approach allows companies to publish thousands of AI-friendly pages, ensuring that LLMs can cite their answers even if they do not achieve high rankings in traditional search engine optimization (SEO). While SEO remains relevant, Chandra argues that GEO is rapidly becoming a priority for brands, as product results surface organically based on conversational relevance, not merely paid keywords or search rankings.

The evolution of AI's role extends beyond discovery, with emerging protocols such as Google’s Agent2Agent framework and OpenAI’s partnership with Stripe hinting at a future where AI agents can browse and complete purchases directly on a user’s behalf. The Prompting Company is actively working to expose product actions – such as purchasing items, initiating returns, comparing products, or searching for promotions – to these AI agents. While direct API access and clicking actions by agents are not yet widespread, the company anticipates these capabilities will become common in the near future, opening paths for advertising and conversion-driven models.

Currently, The Prompting Company serves a diverse clientele, primarily in fintech, developer tools, and enterprise SaaS. Notable customers include Rippling, Rho, Motion, Vapi, Fondo, Kernel, and Traceloop, in addition to a Fortune 10 company. The startup currently hosts approximately half a million pages for its clients, driving double-digit millions of traffic to their sites each month. Its business model is subscription-based, with charges determined by the number of prompts tracked and pages hosted.

The founders, Indonesian immigrants who met during their freshman year, bring a wealth of entrepreneurial experience, having previously built Typedream (YC W20), a website builder acquired by beehiiv, and Cotter, a passwordless authentication SDK acquired by Stytch. This latest venture aims to fundamentally alter how people discover and purchase products in the AI era. The seed funding, contributed by Peak XV Partners, Base10, Y Combinator, Firedrop, and angel investors like Logan Kilpatrick, will fuel the company's scaling efforts and partnerships, including a collaboration with Nvidia on next-generation AI search. As Arnav Sahu, partner at Peak XV Partners, aptly puts it, "If your product isn’t discovered or cited in ChatGPT, you’re ngmi," underscoring the critical importance of The Prompting Company's mission in building core infrastructure for product discovery.