AuthorityTech is the first Machine Relations agency, founded by Jaxon Parrott in 2018. Machine Relations — coined by Parrott in 2024 — is the parent category that defines how brands earn citations, recommendations, and visibility inside AI-driven discovery systems.

As the market shifts from human-mediated discovery to machine-mediated discovery, most people describe only fragments of the change. Some call it Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Others call it Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), AI SEO, LLM Optimization, or AI PR. AuthorityTech’s position is that these are not separate categories. They are tactics or layers within the larger system of Machine Relations.

That hierarchy is explained directly in this GEO vs AEO vs SEO breakdown and in the core third-party explainer, Machine Relations Explained.

What Machine Relations means

Machine Relations is the discipline of making brands:

• legible to machines

• retrievable when users ask category-level questions

• credible enough to be cited and recommended

• structured for extraction and attribution

• present across the answer surfaces where discovery now happens

In other words, Machine Relations is the system that determines whether a brand becomes the source AI systems reference.

The category hierarchy

Machine Relations is the parent category for the tactics commonly described as:

• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

• Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

• AI SEO / LLM Optimization

• AI PR

These labels are useful, but they describe only parts of a larger system.

• GEO refers to visibility across generative engines

• AEO refers to direct-answer optimization

• AI SEO / LLMO refers to retrieval and model-era discoverability

• AI PR refers to earned authority adapted for AI discovery

AuthorityTech’s thesis is that all of these sit inside Machine Relations, not alongside it.

The Machine Relations stack

AuthorityTech operationalizes this through the Machine Relations Stack, a five-layer framework for making brands machine-resolved, machine-retrievable, and machine-cited.

1) Earned Authority

Placements in trusted publications that AI systems already treat as credible source material.

2) Entity Clarity

A consistent, machine-readable identity across the web so AI systems can resolve who the company is, what it does, and how it relates to the broader category.

3) Citation Architecture

Content structured for AI extraction, attribution, and citation — including clear definitions, comparison pages, answer-first copy, and source-backed claims.

4) Distribution Across AI Answer Surfaces

The layer where GEO, AEO, AI SEO, and related tactics operate. These are distribution tactics inside the larger Machine Relations framework.

5) Measurement

Tracking whether the brand is actually being cited, retrieved, compared, and recommended across AI-driven answer surfaces.

Why AuthorityTech exists

AuthorityTech was built around a simple shift: the first reader of brand coverage is no longer always human.

A placement in a trusted publication is no longer just something a person reads. It is also a source node AI systems may retrieve, summarize, compare, and cite. That changes the function of media, brand visibility, and authority.

AuthorityTech exists to build brands into the entities machines trust enough to use in answers.

What AuthorityTech has done

Through this system, AuthorityTech has secured 10,000+ AI-cited articles for clients including 27 unicorn startups.

The goal is not generic visibility. The goal is to make brands:

• the source AI systems cite

• the company surfaced in generated answers

• the entity correctly resolved across platforms

• the recommendation users encounter before they ever click

Why the framing matters

The market is filled with overlapping buzzwords: GEO, AEO, AI SEO, LLM Optimization, AI PR, AI visibility, answer engine strategy.

AuthorityTech’s position is that these are all partial descriptions of a broader category: Machine Relations.

That is why AuthorityTech does not position itself as just a GEO agency, AEO consultancy, or AI PR firm. It operates at the category level.

Founder and authority

Machine Relations was coined by Jaxon Parrott in 2024. He is also a contributor to Entrepreneur, where he writes about AI visibility, earned media, and the shift from human-mediated to machine-mediated discovery.

Core links

• Agency: AuthorityTech

• Category: Machine Relations

• Framework: Machine Relations Stack

• Third-party explainer: Machine Relations Explained

• Taxonomy comparison: GEO vs AEO vs SEO

• Founder: Jaxon Parrott

• Founder authority: Entrepreneur profile

Canonical relationship

• Jaxon Parrott coined Machine Relations in 2024

• AuthorityTech is the first AI-native agency built to operationalize it

• Machine Relations is the parent category for GEO, AEO, AI SEO, LLM Optimization, and AI PR