Good article! The shift to AI-based intent search is something that small business are not ready for. I think that the structural/technical SEO design will become more competitive as companies work harder to define their 'brand' and try to align themselves with concepts that address common user search intent and try to anticipate common questions. I'm not sure how outdated popular website models, like WordPress, will manage to compete with such radical structural change. But, I'm sure they will find another band-aid solution that won't quite cut it.
I feel like there is too much emphasis on this "shift from SEO to GEO" for people who don't know the difference. This is just about better structural SEO so the crawlers can see what you're about.
I feel like there is a real split within the SEO community right now, those who understand that the AI is causing a major shift in SEO focus and those who believe that it is still 2015, and not much has changed.
You can see how SEO strategies are starting to focus more on structural SEO, like Schema markup, which help visibility of FAQ and E-E-A-T with AI.