# Generative Engine Optimization: A VLM and Agent Framework for Pinterest Acquisition Growth

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.02961 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.02961/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Multimodal and embodied agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 26 of its 63 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Feb 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Multimodal and embodied agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/multimodal-and-embodied-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 26 of 26)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Sentence-BERT: Sentence Embeddings using Siamese BERT-Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.10084/) (2019)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18290/) (2023)
- [Efficient Memory Management for Large Language Model Serving with PagedAttention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.06180/) (2023)
- [Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04761/) (2023)
- [Finetuned Language Models Are Zero-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.01652/) (2021)
- [InstructBLIP: Towards General-purpose Vision-Language Models with Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06500/) (2023)
- [Billion-scale similarity search with GPUs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.08734/) (2017)
- [SimCSE: Simple Contrastive Learning of Sentence Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.08821/) (2021)
- [Offline Reinforcement Learning: Tutorial, Review, and Perspectives on Open Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.01643/) (2020)
- [WebGPT: Browser-assisted question-answering with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.09332/) (2021)
- [Microsoft COCO Captions: Data Collection and Evaluation Server](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.00325/) (2015)
- [Modeling Context in Referring Expressions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.00272/) (2016)
- [Show and Tell: A Neural Image Caption Generator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.4555/) (2014)
- [Efficient and robust approximate nearest neighbor search using Hierarchical Navigable Small World graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.09320/) (2016)
- [Image-based Recommendations on Styles and Substitutes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.04757/) (2015)
- [Teaching language models to support answers with verified quotes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11147/) (2022)
- [Patch n' Pack: NaViT, a Vision Transformer for any Aspect Ratio and Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.06304/) (2023)
- [Ex Machina: Personal Attacks Seen at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.08914/) (2016)
- [DenseCap: Fully Convolutional Localization Networks for Dense Captioning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.07571/) (2015)
- [PinLanding: Content-First Keyword Landing Page Generation via Multi-Modal AI for Web-Scale Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.00619/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Scoring Without the Engine: Validating a Deterministic, Manipulation-Resistant Content Score for Generative Engines, End to End](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.07559/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large Language Models are fundamentally reshaping content discovery through AI-native search systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. Unlike traditional search engines that match keywords to documents, these systems infer user intent, synthesize multimodal evidence, and generate contextual answers directly on the search page, introducing a paradigm shift from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). For visual content platforms hosting billions of assets, this poses an acute challenge: individual images lack the semantic depth and authority signals that generative search prioritizes, risking disintermediation as user needs are satisfied in-place without site visits. We present Pinterest GEO, a production-scale framework that pioneers reverse search design: rather than generating generic image captions describing what content is, we fine-tune Vision-Language Models (VLMs) to predict what users would actually search for, augmented this with AI agents that mine real-time internet trends to capture emerging search demand. These VLM-generated queries then drive construction of semantically coherent Collection Pages via multimodal embeddings, creating indexable aggregations optimized for generative retrieval. Finally, we employ hybrid VLM and two-tower ANN architectures to build authority-aware interlinking structures that propagate signals across billions of visual assets. Deployed at scale across billions of images and tens of millions of collections, GEO delivers 20% organic traffic growth contributing to multi-million monthly active user (MAU) growth, demonstrating a principled pathway for visual platforms to thrive in the generative search era.