[AI Revolution](221) "The Key to AI Citations Is Unique Content"... NNT CEO Jo Gyeongsang's 'GEO Equation'

Solving Marketing Challenges with Technology... Working with 400 Companies
Turning Data AI Doesn't Have into Content Through Technology

As generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini replace the searches people used to conduct on portals, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) has emerged as a key challenge for corporate marketing teams. Asked how companies can get generative AI to cite the information they want to convey, NNT CEO Jo Gyeongsang says, "You need to be able to provide AI with good information and data." Companies are often taken aback by this answer. In an era when AI is automating marketing, NNT takes the opposite approach: using technology and knowledge to create meaningful information and increase the likelihood that generative AI will cite it.

Cho Gyeongsang, CEO of NNT.

On November 9, NNT CEO Jo Gyeongsang said, "We are not a company that simply builds solutions. We use technology to figure out how to organize the information needed for marketing effectively. When new technology emerges, we work with companies to consider how to apply it to marketing and make an impact."

NNT was co-founded in March 2020 by CEO Jo and CTO Yoon Seongjun, who previously worked at Naver and Kakao, among others. Jo previously worked at Deloitte Consulting and on the strategic planning team at Woowa Brothers, and co-founded Soomgo (Brave Mobile). At NNT, he is responsible for marketing and business strategy. Unlike traditional marketing agencies, which focus on advertising, NNT emphasizes solving marketing problems through technology. Marketing is becoming increasingly complex, making it harder for a single team at a company to address its challenges alone. "The areas our clients need help with change every year, and this year, GEO has been overwhelmingly in demand," Jo explained.

NNT has served a total of 400 clients, including major corporations. One financial services company worked with NNT on a 24-month project and increased high-engagement traffic by as much as 30% in just one month. Jo cited three keys to doing GEO well: ▲a distinctive perspective in the content ▲providing data and information ▲defining personas in detail. He believes that providing information AI does not have is essential to achieving lasting results.

"When people ask AI a question, they want recommendations tailored to their circumstances, so you need to be able to provide content that meets those needs," Jo said. "You need to spend a lot of time, starting at the content-planning stage, deciding on topics, measuring impact and discovering what users are interested in to answer those questions."

Rather than organizing its workforce by job function, such as development or marketing, NNT forms teams around projects. Of its approximately 80 employees, 20% are developers, while the rest are growth marketers. The company encourages employees to use AI agents and has improved efficiency, starting with document work. Work that used to take five people a week to build a webpage can now be completed by one person in one or two days. "Dividing work by team creates resistance. Removing boundaries helps people learn quickly," Jo said.

Jo believes that marketing as a whole involves tacit knowledge that AI cannot imitate. "Even deciding which tasks should be handled by agents and which by people is a difficult challenge. There is a lot of tacit knowledge involved in bringing a company's message to the public," he said. "Some areas can be automated, but it is ultimately people who abstract how to make an impact when new technology emerges and put that into practice."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.