AI search consultant · Dubai, UAE
AI search consultant in Dubai, built on 17 years of in-house SEO
I’m Lorenzo Solís, an AI search consultant in Dubai. I help businesses get found, cited and recommended in ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity, with 17 years of in-house SEO behind me at Eventbrite, Just Eat, bwin, EF Education First and now Privilee. If you want to know what AI assistants say about your brand, and how to change it, you’re in the right place.
17 years
in SEO, since 2009
12M+
organic sessions a month led at Just Eat
6
markets led today across the GCC and Asia
Judge
Global, UK and MENA Search Awards
In-house at
Companies I have grown
Why me
AI search is still search, so I start with SEO
Every few months the industry finds a new name for it: GEO, AEO, LLM optimisation. Underneath, an AI assistant still has to find your pages, trust them and decide whether to mention you. ChatGPT and Perplexity run web searches to build many of their answers, and Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode are built on the same ranking and quality systems as its normal results. A site that can’t be crawled, or doesn’t rank, is very hard to cite.
Some things are new, though. The answer names two or three brands instead of listing ten links. What other sites say about you, in reviews, lists, directories and forums, carries more weight. And no single report shows where you stand across all the assistants, so most companies have no idea what they are saying about them.
I’ve worked on this from the inside. At Eventbrite, as Head of Organic Growth, I managed the impact of Google’s AI Overviews on a marketplace that lives on organic search. At Privilee, I measure and work on how the brand shows up in ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews. And as a judge at the Global, UK and MENA Search Awards, I’ve scored AI search entries from agencies and brands.
What I won’t do is promise you a guaranteed place in AI answers. Nobody controls them, and the same question can get a different answer twice in a row. What I can do is measure where you stand, fix what stops you being cited, and tie the work to leads and revenue.
Track record
Where my AI search experience comes from
Search has changed several times in my career, and I’ve been in-house for every change. Every role below is on my LinkedIn.
2026 to today
Privilee
As Global Head of Growth & Sales at Privilee, a premium lifestyle membership platform, I lead growth across the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Singapore and Hong Kong. Part of that work is tracking how ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews describe and recommend the brand, and working on what they say, alongside SEO, paid media, CRM and analytics.
2023 to 2026
Eventbrite
I joined as Senior Growth Marketing & SEO Manager and finished as Head of Organic Growth at the world’s largest events marketplace. Google’s AI Overviews arrived while I owned organic, so I managed their impact on a marketplace that depends on search. The core of the job was programmatic SEO at scale: BigQuery pipelines that decided which city, venue and category pages deserved to exist.
2019 to 2023
Just Eat Takeaway.com
As Senior Growth Marketing Lead, Global, I ran growth strategy across eight key markets and more than 12 million organic sessions a month. Before that, as Digital Marketing Manager for Spain, I owned SEO, PPC, paid social, affiliates, promo codes and CRM under one target. It’s why I judge AI visibility by what it does for orders, not by how often a brand gets mentioned.
2010 to 2019
bwin, EF Education First and earlier
At bwin I ran SEO in one of the most competitive verticals on Google, then marketing for bwin and Sportingbet across 16 countries. At EF Education First in London I was SEO Regional Manager on a site serving more than 50 countries. Before both, I co-founded ClickDirecto, a small SEO and PPC agency in Asturias.
Where I help
What I can help your business with
I don’t sell AI packages. I take on problems where knowing search from the inside makes a measurable difference, and they tend to fall into these areas.
AI visibility audit
I run the questions your customers actually ask through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews and AI Mode, in English and, where it matters, Arabic. I record who gets mentioned, who gets cited and what is said about you. You get a baseline, the gap to your competitors and the sources the answers are built on.
Getting cited in AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google builds its AI answers on the same systems as its normal results, so the work starts with pages that are crawlable, indexed and ranking. Then it’s content with something original to say, organised so the answer is easy to find. I’ve written about what AI Overviews do to SEO traffic, and if classic SEO is the bigger gap, my SEO consultant page goes into the detail.
Visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini
These assistants lean on web search and on what other sites say about you. I check that their crawlers can reach your pages, and that the reviews, lists, directories, forums and press they draw on describe you correctly. One example of the detail involved: my guide to preparing a website for ChatGPT Shopping.
Brand and entity accuracy
If an assistant gets your prices, locations or services wrong, customers believe it. I make your core facts consistent everywhere the models look: your own site, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, directories and partner sites, so there is one clear version of your brand for them to repeat.
Measuring AI search
AI referrals in GA4, Search Console’s report on Google’s generative AI features, a fixed set of prompts tracked over time, and branded search as a sign of influence. Then the part most reports skip: what that traffic does for leads, sign-ups and revenue. The same thinking runs through my digital marketing consulting.
Technical foundations for AI crawlers
Several AI crawlers, including OpenAI’s and Perplexity’s, have been shown not to run JavaScript, so content that only appears after scripts load can be invisible to them. I review rendering, robots rules and site structure with your developers, and tell you which new AI files and tricks are worth their time and which aren’t.
Not sure which one you need?
Send me your website and the questions you’d like your brand to be the answer to. I’ll tell you where you stand and what I’d fix first.
The difference
SEO, GEO and AEO: what actually changes
GEO (generative engine optimisation) and AEO (answer engine optimisation) are two names for the same idea: being part of the answer, not just the results. This is how I explain the difference to a founder.
| AI search (GEO and AEO) | Classic SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you appear | An answer that names a few brands and cites a few sources | A list of links, maps and snippets |
| What the user does | Often decides from the answer, or clicks one cited source | Clicks, compares and decides |
| What decides it | The same, plus how clearly you answer the question and what other sites say about you | Relevance, authority and the technical health of your pages |
| What you measure | Mentions, citations, AI referrals and branded search, tied back to conversions | Rankings, clicks and conversions |
| Main risk | Being left out, or described wrongly | Dropping down the page |
Method
How I work
01
A baseline before any changes
I start by recording what the assistants say about you today, across platforms, markets and languages. Without that, nobody can tell you later whether the work did anything.
02
SEO fundamentals first
If your pages can’t be crawled, aren’t indexed or don’t rank, there is little for an AI answer to cite. Fixing that is often the fastest win, and it pays off in classic search too.
03
Ten things that ship
Ten priorities ranked by impact and effort, with the business case written so your CEO or CTO says yes. Not an eighty-point checklist of AI tricks.
04
Business numbers, not screenshots
A screenshot of ChatGPT mentioning you once proves little, because the same question can get a different answer twice in a row. I track the trend across many prompts and tie it to leads, sales and revenue.
Local context
AI search in Dubai and the GCC: what actually changes
Most of what works elsewhere works here, but three things change the plan.
Arabic needs its own plan
Google shows AI Overviews and AI Mode in Arabic as well as English, so a bilingual brand has to be visible in both, not just in the language its marketing team works in. Arabic is under-represented on the web for how many people speak it, so good Arabic pages face less competition. I set the structure and strategy, and work with native-speaking writers on the content.
Recommendations come from lists
Ask an assistant for the best clinic, gym or beach club in Dubai and the answer leans on listicles, directories and review sites. Search for an AI search consultant in Dubai and you’ll see the same pattern. Being on the right lists, with the right facts, matters as much as your own website.
Every market answers differently
The same question asked in Dubai, Riyadh or Singapore can name different brands. If you operate in more than one market, visibility has to be measured market by market, which is the reality I work with at Privilee across the GCC and Asia.
Judge
Global, UK and MENA Search Awards
In 2025 I served as a judge for the Global Search Awards, the UK Search Awards and the MENA Search Awards, including entries on AI search. Reading entries from the other side of the form, you learn quickly which results are real and which are presentation.
Professor
Master in Digital Marketing, IEBS Business School
Between 2014 and 2017 I taught on the Master in Digital Marketing at IEBS Business School across three editions. AI search is new to most teams, so explaining the why matters as much as doing the work.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What does an AI search consultant do?
An AI search consultant works out how your brand appears in AI answers, in ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity, and improves it. In practice that means measuring your visibility against competitors, fixing the technical and content issues that stop you being cited, making sure other sites describe you correctly, and tying the results to leads and revenue.
What is the difference between SEO, GEO and AEO?
SEO gets your pages ranked in search results. GEO (generative engine optimisation) and AEO (answer engine optimisation) are newer names for getting your brand mentioned and cited inside AI answers. They overlap heavily: AI answers are built on search, so good SEO is the foundation, and GEO adds work on how the answers describe you and which outside sources they trust.
Can you guarantee my brand will appear in ChatGPT or AI Overviews?
No, and I’d be wary of anyone who does. Nobody controls what an AI assistant says, and the same question can get a different answer twice in a row. What I can do is measure where you stand, remove what stops you being cited, and track the trend across many prompts.
How do you measure AI search visibility?
With a fixed set of prompts that match how your customers ask, run regularly across the main assistants, markets and languages. On top of that: AI referral traffic in GA4, Search Console’s report on Google’s generative AI features, branded search, and what that traffic does for conversions.
Does AI search work in Arabic?
Yes. Google shows AI Overviews and AI Mode in Arabic, and ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity all answer in Arabic. I cover the structure and strategy for bilingual and multi-country sites, and work with native-speaking writers and editors on the Arabic content itself.
How long does it take to see results?
Technical fixes, such as letting AI crawlers reach content they can’t see today, can show within weeks. Changing how assistants describe you, through your own content and what other sites say, usually takes a few months. I’ll give you a realistic view for your case in the first conversation.
How much does an AI search consultant charge in Dubai?
It depends on the problem, not on hours. After a first conversation I send a short written proposal with a defined scope and a fixed price, either a one-off audit and roadmap or a monthly engagement. You know the cost before anything starts.
How do we start?
Fill in the form below with your website and the questions you’d like your brand to be the answer to. I’ll reply within two working days with an honest view on whether I’m the right person for it and what the first step would look like.
Get in touch
Tell me about your project
Your website, the markets you’re in, and the questions you want to be the answer to. That’s enough for a first answer.
Based in Dubai. Working with companies across the UAE, the GCC and Asia.