The Shipyard announced a strategic investment in FancyAI, a Generative Engine Optimization platform designed to help brands improve their visibility and credibility across AI-powered discovery environments.
With the investment, The Shipyard becomes the first agency to bring patent-pending GEO technology directly to clients, reinforcing its long-term strategy to lead brands through the shift from traditional search engines to AI-generated recommendations and summaries.
As consumer discovery behavior increasingly moves toward AI-driven platforms, brands face new challenges in ensuring they are surfaced and prioritized in generative search environments. FancyAI’s platform is built to influence how brands are interpreted and recommended by AI systems, offering actionable insights to improve performance in AI-generated responses.
The Shipyard said the addition of FancyAI strengthens its “Engineering Brand Love” philosophy, which focuses on building durable brands positioned to outperform the market. By integrating GEO technology, the agency aims to help clients remain discoverable, recommended, and trusted as AI becomes a primary gateway for brand discovery.
The investment is part of The Shipyard’s broader long-term business plan to unify paid, earned, and owned capabilities under a single integrated model. The agency described Generative Engine Optimization as a critical next layer, combining proprietary technology with its existing capabilities to support clients in a generative-first landscape.
The Shipyard has already begun deploying FancyAI’s technology internally and with select clients. The platform is being used to inform integrated scopes of work across paid, earned, and owned channels, and is being customized to address real-time client needs.
The move builds on The Shipyard’s recent acquisitions of TinyWins, Fahlgren Mortine, and Turner PR, further expanding its creative, communications, and specialty capabilities.
Founded in Columbus, Ohio and San Diego, The Shipyard brings together creative, communications, media, and digital expertise to support brands across paid, owned, and earned channels.
KEY QUOTES
“The future of brand discovery is being rewritten in real time. This accelerates our business strategy: we have always believed the agency of the future would be fully integrated, technologically enabled, and designed to lead clients through what’s next. This investment is a major step forward in delivering on that vision. Our clients don’t need agencies reacting to change. They need partners who invest early, learn fast, and lead confidently. That’s exactly what this investment represents.”
Rick Milenthal, Chairman & CEO, The Shipyard
“AI search discovery is becoming the primary way brands are found, evaluated, and chosen. Most companies have no idea how they appear inside AI-generated answers — or whether they appear at all. FancyAI was built to make AI search discovery accessible, measurable, and controllable for brands. The Shipyard understands that this shift isn’t coming someday — it’s already here.”
Tom Howell, CEO, FancyAI
