How Vimeo Empowers Business Success in the AI Era | CO

Why it matters:

• AI-powered chatbots and search engines are increasingly becoming the first place consumers turn when researching products or companies. Traffic to e-commerce sites driven by AI assistants surged 4,700% between July 2024 and July 2025.
• Against that backdrop, video-sharing platform Vimeo has taken steps to help businesses create videos with AI-powered posting, editing, and language translation tools.
• Now, small business owners are tapping into Vimeo, which boasted 1.4 million paid subscribers with over 100 million videos uploaded and 50 billion video views in 2024, to create and embed content on the platform to drive discoverability, Zoe Black, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Vimeo Self Serve, told CO—.

For its 2025 State of Video at Work report, video-sharing platform Vimeo surveyed 1,000 business leaders and found that, for organizations of all sizes, “video is no longer a peripheral tool but a core strategic asset.”

Businesses today, the report notes, are trying to figure out their video strategy at a time when the video landscape “is undergoing a seismic shift.” AI tools are making it easier to create video content, and AI-powered search and chatbots are changing how consumers research products and companies.

For small business owners and businesses in general, “in order for their content to be discoverable and relevant in this new AI era, it’s super important to have video content, and also have video content that is searchable” by AI-powered chatbots and search engines, Zoe Black, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Vimeo Self Serve, told CO—.

Vimeo’s Self Serve team is focused on helping individuals and small and medium-sized businesses use Vimeo’s video platform.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York, Vimeo was originally created as a way to share short videos directly with friends. It quickly developed into a popular platform for independent filmmakers, allowing creators to maintain control over their content. In recent years, Vimeo has shifted its focus toward business applications. During the pandemic, Vimeo saw a surge in membership and revenue, leading to its public offering in 2021.

Vimeo’s Access to AI Platforms: A Strategic Move

In September 2025, Vimeo announced that it entered into an agreement with Milan-based tech company Bending Spoons for an acquisition worth approximately $1.38 billion.

Bending Spoons, which also owns file transfer service WeTransfer and video-hosting platform Brightcove, stated that it plans to invest significantly in Vimeo, continuing to develop “powerful and responsible AI-enabled features.”

Large-language model (LLM) chatbots like ChatGPT and AI-powered search engines such as Perplexity and Gemini are increasingly adept at interpreting video content for answers and recommendations.

Previously, Vimeo restricted LLMs from accessing its publicly shared videos due to concerns about misuse in training the LLMs. However, with advancements allowing Vimeo to specify access limitations, it has now unblocked public videos for indexing by LLMs, enhancing their searchability.

In August 2025, Vimeo began permitting ChatGPT and Perplexity to index content, a strong move in an environment where LLMs are prioritizing video content more than ever. Black emphasized, “We know video is becoming more and more important in terms of relevance and ranking in the context of LLMs and search.”

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A Shift from SEO to GEO

The evolving search landscape means brands previously focused on SEO (search engine optimization) are now pivoting towards improving what’s termed GEO (generative engine optimization) or AEO (answer engine optimization).

In August, software company Adobe reported a staggering 4,700% increase in e-commerce site traffic coming from generative AI sources between July 2024 and July 2025.

Moreover, Adobe noted that shoppers arriving at sites through generative AI prompts exhibited higher engagement levels and were more likely to make purchases.

Similarly, Salesforce revealed in its 2025 holiday forecast that the percentage of U.S. consumers starting their shopping search with AI chat assistants rose 38% from May to August of the same year, with 87% of AI users expressing trust in AI recommendations.

The Role of Video Content for Small Businesses

According to Black, content linked to domains featuring videos is increasingly referenced by LLMs.

“We have a lot of small business owners using Vimeo to create content—and then embed that content on their websites to drive discoverability,” Black asserted. An essential advantage of using Vimeo for a company’s video content is that when a Vimeo video is embedded on a website, the traffic generated by LLMs returns to the company’s website, not to Vimeo’s platform. This contrasts with other video hosting services that direct traffic back to their site.

Vimeo has been investing heavily in AI tools enabling users to post, edit, and manage content more effectively. Recently, they launched an AI translation feature that translates captions and subtitles into multiple languages.

Last year, Vimeo began offering its larger enterprise customers voice translation through AI voice cloning, allowing replication of the original speakers’ voices. Black mentioned that a similar feature would soon be available to Self Serve users.

Furthermore, Vimeo is set to launch “multi-modal search,” which will let users search videos based on context instead of text. Black gave an example: users will soon be able to search for specific scenes in a video by asking questions like, “show me all the scenes in this video that have inclement weather.”

“Imagine your company has a bunch of internal training videos,” she continued. “You can use context to find specific content easily, which benefits both your company and your customers.”

[Read more: How AI is Leveling the Beauty Industry Playing Field for Small Brands]

Embracing a Video-First Approach

Black advises small business owners to consider the types of questions their customers are asking via search and LLMs and ensure their content answers those queries effectively.

Her mantra for small businesses in this new search environment is clear: “be video first.”

“Ultimately, as a small business, your priority is getting discovered. You need clients and revenue. The more we can help our small businesses and creators succeed, the more valuable we become in achieving their goals,” Black emphasized.

CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.

CO— is committed to helping you start, run, and grow your small business. Learn more about the benefits of small business membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, here.

Published October 10, 2025