Comparison
Retrieval vs Recommendation
Retrieval is the system finding and pulling up your content; recommendation is the system putting you forward as a suggested company. You have to be found before you can be recommended, but a company that gets found can still fail to be recommended once the buyer's requirements come into play.
What Retrieval is
Retrieval is the step where an AI system finds and pulls up content or companies relevant to a question.
What Recommendation is
Recommendation is the step where the system puts specific companies forward as its answer, drawn from what it found and reshaped by the buyer's requirements.
Where they overlap
Recommendation depends on being found: you cannot be recommended if you were never pulled up. Both are early steps that AI now runs in the buying process.
Where they differ
Getting-found work (AEO, GEO) improves whether you show up. Recommendation is decided by how you stack up against the buyer's requirements once you do. Showing up more does not guarantee a recommendation.
Where both fit as AI decides who to recommend
First AI finds you, then it decides whether to recommend you. The gap between those two is exactly where getting-found work stops and how AI decides who to recommend begins.