The pace of change in our industry is giving me whiplash, but in the best possible way. It might sound exhausting, but honestly, I’m loving the ride. Fast-paced means never dull. Whether we call it SEO, GEO, AI Search, or something else entirely, the rules are shifting almost daily.

At the heart of all this, the goal remains simple: revenue. We want customers to find our clients, and if we’re being honest, to find us, too. That discovery might start in an LLM like ChatGPT, through a classic Google search, or even via an AI agent quietly crawling our content. The “how” may be evolving, but the “why” hasn’t changed.

The bottom line is, people are still spending and wanting answers, however they search.

What’s changed is where discovery happens. It’s no longer confined to a traditional search engine results page. Customers now search across AI assistants, voice tools, social platforms, review sites and embedded search experiences. Visibility is no longer about ranking in one place; it’s about being understood everywhere.

The Rise of AI-Driven Discovery

I’ve always believed that if you do the right thing, the right thing will happen. For us, that means creating content that truly helps people. The platforms, algorithms and agents will keep changing. However, I believe, authentic, useful content will always rise to the top, whether in SEO, GEO, AI Search, or whatever acronym comes next.

The way people find information is shifting fast. Instead of scanning a search results page, users are turning to AI tools that understand context. Someone might ask, “What’s the best flooring for a stable in wet weather?” and get a single, conversational answer. This is drawn from multiple sources rather than a list of links.

Why AI Search Prioritises Trust Over Rankings

This move towards answer engines means visibility is no longer just about keywords or backlinks. It’s about being part of the data that those systems trust. Whether that’s a business owner’s expertise or consistent brand signals, the content that “feeds” AI will become the content that gets found.

AI Overviews and Why Technical SEO Still Matters

That shift is already visible in experiences like Google’s AI Overviews. This is where a consolidated answer appears above traditional results, often supported by only a handful of cited sources. The goal is no longer just to rank; it’s to be included in that cited mix.

Importantly, this doesn’t replace technical SEO. Crawlability, clean site architecture, Core Web Vitals, mobile performance and structured data remain non-negotiable. AI models still rely on well-structured, machine-readable content. If your technical foundation is weak, your expertise may never be surfaced.

Want to Know If AI Is Surfacing Your Brand?

AI visibility isn’t guaranteed, even with strong SEO.

Get in touch with our team and we’ll show you where you’re being surfaced, where you’re being missed and what to fix first.

How You Can Stay Visible in Search

So where does that leave us? For me, it’s reinforced a simple idea: quality always rises to the surface. The content that performs best in AI Search is clear, human and genuinely useful; the kind that answers a full question, not just ranks for a phrase.

What AI-Ready Content Looks Like

A few things our team are focusing on right now:

  • Writing content that mirrors how people ask questions, not just how they search for them.
  • Structuring pages with clean, logical headings and concise summaries that AI models can digest.
  • Emphasising brand expertise by showcasing real people and authentic insights, not generic filler.
  • Testing how different platforms (Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.) surface our content and adapting accordingly.

This includes strengthening off-page authority through reviews, PR mentions, case studies, analyst listings and third-party citations. AI systems cross-reference what others say about you, not just what you say about yourself.

Visibility in 2026 isn’t about fighting the algorithm. It’s about cooperating with intelligence, both human and artificial, by being unmistakably trustworthy and useful.

And visibility alone isn’t enough. Every key page should make the next step obvious. When AI shortlists your brand, your site must convert that attention into action. In an agentic world, every page is effectively a conversion page.

From Keywords to Grounding Queries

For years, our industry treated keywords as the atomic unit of search. We mapped them to volumes, clustered them into themes and built strategies around owning as many as possible. It works, but it also trains us to think in fragments of language rather than in full human questions.

AI Problem Statements

AI search focuses on problem statements. Instead of optimising for “equine flooring”, we started answering “How do I stop my stable floor becoming slippery in winter?” Problem statements force us to understand context: the environment, the constraints, the anxieties behind the query. They push content teams closer to real customer language and real outcomes, not just rankings.

Think of it like moving from keywords to customer conversations. Instead of guessing the exact phrase someone types into Google, you’re listening to the full question they might ask an expert. This approach pushes our content teams closer to the real language and intent of their customers: the questions people actually care about solving.

Bing Webmaster’s Grounding Queries

This is where Bing has quietly jumped ahead of classic Google-style search. With Copilot and its integration into Bing Webmaster Tools, we’re now dealing with grounding queries.

Think of a grounding query as an AI’s research checklist before it answers a question. Before Copilot responds, it runs its own background search: “Which credible, up‑to‑date sources can I safely base my answer on?”

In other words, your content isn’t just competing to appear in search results, it’s competing to be cited as evidence. The AI effectively decides which brands it trusts enough to quote when building its reply.

Why Early Inclusion Creates Compounding Authority

For agencies, that shift is huge. It means our job is evolving from “rank for what people search” to “become the source Bing’s models ground themselves in.” That demands depth over volume, crystal‑clear topical focus and real expertise over recycled takes. 

This is where many content strategies will quietly struggle. Publishing more isn’t the answer anymore. Publishing with intent is.

It also means treating Bing Webmaster Tools data as a window into how Copilot sees you. Now, our content strategy assumes the reader might be a model as well as a human. We’re optimising to earn a place in Bing’s grounding set, not just its results page.

Early inclusion in grounding sets creates a compounding advantage. The more consistently your brand is cited, the more AI systems reinforce that trust. Over time, this becomes a visibility moat that competitors cannot replicate overnight.

Designing for Agentic Optimisation

The next frontier isn’t just optimising for search engines; it’s optimising for agents that act on the user’s behalf. These AI agents don’t just retrieve information; they compare, filter and decide. They might be tasked with “find the top three agencies for B2B SEO in the UK” or “plan a campaign for launching a new equestrian product”. They will do that by crawling, parsing and ranking content without a human ever seeing our homepage.

Agentic optimisation means treating every key page as a brief to an AI assistant. That starts with absolute clarity: who you are, what you do, who you serve and where you operate. What makes you different is all expressed in language that an agent can’t misunderstand. It also means consistent signals across your site and profiles, strong internal linking that reflects how your services relate to each other. Content must answer end‑to‑end tasks rather than isolated questions.

For agencies, the mindset shift is subtle but important. We’re no longer optimising only for clicks; we’re optimising to be selected. Selection is a higher bar than visibility. It forces clarity. It forces proof. And it rewards brands that truly know what they stand for.

When an agent compiles a shortlist, builds a plan, or drafts a recommendation, we want our brand to appear as the obvious, low‑risk choice. That requires depth of expertise, clean information architecture, and content that is structured, grounded, and unambiguous enough for a non‑human decision‑maker to trust.

How We Measure AI Visibility in 2026

AI visibility must be measurable, not theoretical. Alongside traditional SEO KPIs like rankings and organic traffic, we now track:

  • Brand mentions and third-party references across the web.
  • Inclusion in AI answers and cited sources within AI search experiences.
  • Engagement and conversions from AI-driven discovery journeys.
  • Growth in topical authority signals across priority themes.

Being found is important. Being chosen and converting that attention is what drives revenue.

Ready to See What AI Really Thinks of Your Brand?

AI Search is already reshaping how your customers find you. This isn’t a future trend; it’s happening now. And in this new environment, the stakes are simple:

If we don’t adapt, we disappear.

When AI systems generate answers, shortlist agencies or recommend suppliers, they don’t show ten options. They show a few trusted ones. If your brand isn’t structured, trusted and visible in those systems, you won’t just drop a few positions, you may not appear at all.

If you’d like to understand what today’s AI tools say about your brand, where your content is helping or holding you back, we can help.

Book a free AI Search Visibility Audit with Pod Digital and we’ll:

  • Show you how your brand appears across leading AI assistants and search experiences.
  • Highlight the gaps in your content, structure and signals that matter most.
  • Give you a clear, prioritised roadmap to get AI‑ready, across SEO, GEO, AI Search and agentic optimisation.

FAQs:

What is AI Search in practical terms?

AI Search refers to search experiences where artificial intelligence interprets a question and researches multiple sources. It delivers a consolidated answer, often citing only a handful of brands. This includes tools like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot.

Instead of ranking ten blue links, these systems summarise. Your goal is to be one of the sources they trust enough to reference.

Is traditional SEO still relevant?

Yes, traditional SEO is still extremely relevant, but it’s no longer the full story.

Technical health, crawlability, structured data and strong topical authority still underpin visibility. However, ranking alone doesn’t guarantee inclusion in AI answers.

You now need both:

  • Strong traditional SEO foundations
  • Clear, trustworthy, citable content

AI builds on classic search signals, but it doesn’t replace them.

How do AI systems decide which brands to cite?

AI models look for signals of clarity and trust. These include:

  • Comprehensive answers to real customer questions
  • Consistent brand messaging across platforms
  • Reviews, PR mentions and third-party validation
  • Strong technical structure and machine-readable content
  • Topical depth rather than surface-level coverage

They are effectively assessing risk. The clearer and more substantiated your content, the safer you are to reference.

What is agentic optimisation?

Agentic optimisation is the process of preparing your website and content for AI agents that act on a user’s behalf.

These agents don’t just retrieve information, they compare suppliers, shortlist providers and make recommendations.

To be selected, your content must clearly explain:

  • Who you serve
  • What you specialise in
  • Where you operate
  • Why you’re different

How should we measure AI visibility?

Beyond traditional rankings and organic traffic, you should monitor:

  • Brand mentions and third-party references
  • Inclusion in AI-generated answers
  • Share of voice within AI summaries
  • Assisted conversions from AI-driven journeys
  • Growth in topical authority across priority themes

Being cited is now a measurable outcome.

Do we need to create new content, or improve what we already have?

Start by improving what you already have.

Refresh high-performing pages to:

  • Answer full customer questions
  • Add proof points or case examples
  • Improve structure and clarity
  • Strengthen internal linking
  • Ensure fast load speed and clean formatting

Most brands see early gains from refinement before expansion.