I built my narrative architecture practice to be retrieved by AI – this is how

When I decided to build my own business this year, I was in a slightly unconventional position. I had no clients, and wanted to build an offering based on Generative Engine Optimisation and what it means for a business or person to be retrieved by AI. 

But before I could sell the methodology, I needed to prove it. So I decided to use myself as a case study.

Narrative Architecture is based on the idea that the businesses not setting themselves up for AI retrieval now, are the ones that will be left behind. GEO agencies optimise content that already exists. PR agencies secure coverage, but rarely with AI retrieval at the forefront. My framework starts with both simultaneously – every platform, piece of content and media mention points to the same authority signal, in a structured way.

The Legibility Gap is the space between what a company knows about itself, and what the market can actually understand, trust, remember, and retrieve from public information. Most businesses have one. Most don’t know it’s there until they look. That’s the gap I’m building SJK Labs to close.

The market just put a price on the problem

Adobe recently completed its $1.9 billion acquisition of Semrush. The category they’re selling is Agentic Search Optimisation – making sure AI agents can evaluate and recommend a brand when no human is in the room. The market just put a price on the problem. But I still believe proof is needed, so I built an ecosystem.

Alongside SJK Labs, I built two platforms. 'Not Built For This', a media brand for neurodivergent people, and the proprietary ‘Not Built For This Score’, which rates everyday systems and experiences through a neurodivergent lens. 'Doom Pile' is an AI-powered executive function tool aimed at the same audience, built around seven productivity modes designed specifically for ADHD brains.

The relationship between them is deliberate. My neurodivergent brain thinks in systems, which is, I'd argue, exactly why I ended up building one. SJK Labs is the methodology, Not Built For This and Doom Pile are the proof of concept. And all three are being built with GEO at their core.

I also developed a framework called The Scriptwriter Test™, which applies the same structural lens as a screenwriter – protagonist, stakes, dialogue – to test whether the market can actually understand, trust, and remember what a company does. Alongside this, I built The Legibility Gap audit, which maps how a brand appears across search, AI, media and category conversation. Then we build structured authority assets, visibility and digital infrastructure that will compound over time.

AI reads the whole ecosystem. If businesses are not building one that points to the consistent authority signals that can be read by both humans AND machines, they’re going to lose. And so, that's the vision – to build the kind of practice that can do all of it – from structure to narrative, using a journalist minded framework at every stage.

No quick wins

GEO isn't a quick win. It's not a vanity metric. Good, becauseI'm allergic to them. The system compounds over months, and I'm just past the one month mark.

Last week I searched my own name in Google's AI Mode. I did this incognito so there was no personalisation, and received a detailed summary of my frameworks, my ventures, my career history, all retrieved and synthesised without me having clicked a single paid result.

The obvious question is: what about conversion? A citation in an AI summary doesn't pay the bills, right? But this is a misunderstanding that leads people to deprioritise brand building the moment a pipeline gets tight. Think about it in this way – when your brand comes back with your frameworks and credentials already synthesised as authoritative, the sales conversation starts from a completely different place. Commercial proof is the next stage, but the foundation is already doing what I built it to do.

But, ask me again in six months.