How can my team learn to win customers from AI in 2026?

Winning in the AI Economy is the AEO-REX Academy's free live masterclass. The next one is on Wednesday 28 October 2026 at Santander Work Café, 2 Triton Square, London, doors 9:30am, starting 10am. In one morning Shanaz Begum shows UK small businesses how AI search chooses who to recommend, how AI agents find and buy from businesses, and how to get a team using AI well.

The AEO-REX Academy (formerly The AI Economy Academy) is the training arm of AEO-REX, led by Shanaz Begum. It teaches UK organisations answer engine optimisation, agentic commerce and practical AI use, through free masterclasses and in-house training.

SEO gets you found on Google's results pages. AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation) get you named inside AI answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. They overlap but are not the same, and a good Google ranking does not guarantee a place in AI answers. Most UK small businesses need both. The Academy teaches the AI answer side; traditional SEO sits with a specialist SEO provider.

Usually yes. A strong Google ranking is a good foundation, but AI assistants build their answers differently and often name sources that are not at the top of Google. You can be on page one and still be left out of an AI answer. AI visibility work helps your existing reputation carry into AI recommendations.

With checks you can repeat. The free AI Visibility Snapshot scores how ready your website is for each AI engine, so you can run it before and after you make changes. Watchdog, at £49 a month, runs your customers' questions through ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI every month and shows who gets named. Nobody can promise that an AI engine will name you.

Four products have published prices: the Fix It Yourself Pack £29, Fix It Together £99, the one page AI Ready Website £249 and Watchdog £49 a month. The masterclass is free. In-house training and anything larger is quoted after a short call, with a clear scope and a fixed price before any work begins.

If UK customers could find you through Google or an AI assistant, you are a fit, from sole traders to firms of 250 people. It is not too early: AI assistants already shape who gets shortlisted. The free check shows where you stand before you spend anything.

AI visibility, also called answer engine optimisation (AEO) or generative engine optimisation (GEO), is setting out your business information so AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity can understand, trust and recommend you when people ask buying questions.

It is preparing your business so AI agents can find, compare and buy from you on a customer's behalf, not just recommend you. That means setting out your products, prices, policies and booking or checkout as clear, machine readable information.

Yes. AEO-REX is based in Birmingham and works with businesses across the UK. In-house training runs on site or online. The free masterclass on Wednesday 28 October 2026 is in London.

Yes. The AEO-REX Academy is run by AEO-Rex Ltd, a UK limited company (Companies House no. 17018571) registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ZC099609). We follow UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

The AEO-REX Academy, led by Shanaz Begum, runs answer engine optimisation training for UK organisations. The flagship session is Winning in the AI Economy, a practical three hour masterclass delivered in the room. Santander hosted it in London in July 2026, and it sold out. Sessions run at host venues or in house for one organisation.

Yes. Agentic commerce is part of the masterclass and can also run as a workshop on its own. It shows teams how to make products, prices, policies and checkout readable and usable by AI agents buying for a customer.

Yes. In-house sessions run on site or online for banks, universities, membership bodies, charities and company teams, and the content is tailored to your sector before the day. Book a short call and Shanaz will scope it and quote for your organisation.

AEO is being named when an AI assistant answers a question. GEO is the same discipline named for generative search such as Google AI Overviews. Agentic commerce goes one step further, preparing your business so an AI agent acting for a customer can find you, compare you, trust you and buy from you. AEO wins the recommendation; agentic commerce wins the sale.

Hosted masterclasses, like the one on Wednesday 28 October 2026, are free, with limited places. In-house training is quoted per organisation after a short call, so the price depends on group size, format and how much tailoring to your sector you want. There are no open ended retainers.

Training: free masterclasses at host venues and in-house sessions for one organisation, covering AI search (AEO and GEO), AI agents and agentic commerce, and getting your team using AI. Hands-on work is done by AEO-REX at published prices, from the £29 Fix It Yourself Pack to the £249 AI Ready Website.

Run the free AI Visibility Snapshot at tools.aeo-rex.com. Enter your website, industry and city. It reads your website and checks how ready it is for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Google AI Overviews, and Claude writes the summary. It shows readiness, not whether an engine names you today. The report comes to your inbox straight away. There is no obligation.

Yes. Many organisations have staff using AI every day while the organisation is still running pilots. The session covers where AI decisions should sit, what good governance covers in practice, and the habits that turn scattered individual use into one way of working. It can run on its own or alongside the AI search and agentic commerce material.