EU Calls ChatGPT a Search Engine. It Was Always One. The Classification Is Just Catching Up.
The European Commission has designated ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine, putting it in the same regulatory bucket as Google and Bing. Azoma, which they call an Agentic Commerce Optimisation platform, is using the moment to outline what brands should demand from AI SEO and GEO tools, specifically ones that track visibility across AI shopping agents like Google Gemini, Amazon Rufus, and Walmart Sparky.
This is what I call regulatory lag meeting market reality. The EU classification matters because it forces ChatGPT to comply with search engine rules, but the underlying principle is channel proliferation. Your brand is no longer optimized for one crawler. It is optimized for multiple AI agents, each with different synthesis behaviors. The mental model is simple. You are not ranking. You are being represented. If an AI agent cannot accurately describe what you sell, you do not exist in that channel.
Azoma is the company making the pitch here. They help brands drive revenue through AI shopping agents including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Amazon Rufus, and Walmart Sparky, and they argue the right GEO platform depends on which AI agents matter most for a brand's specific category.
- Open ChatGPT and type 'What are the best [your product or service category]?' and note whether your brand appears in the response. Expected outcome: you see how an AI agent currently represents, or fails to represent, your business.
- Do the same in Google Gemini and compare the answers. Expected outcome: you observe that different AI agents synthesize information differently, confirming that visibility is fragmented across agents.
- Search for your brand name directly in each tool and note what factual claims the AI makes about you. Expected outcome: you identify gaps between what your brand actually does and what the AI thinks it does, which is the starting point for any GEO strategy.