By Jonathan Schwartz

Artificial intelligence is rewriting the rules of search. As Google continues integrating AI-driven elements, search engine results pages (SERPs) are becoming increasingly dynamic and unpredictable. This raises the stakes for businesses relying on SEO for lead generation and brand building.

Enter SERP features—built-in shortcuts for visibility on Google. Featured snippets and AI overviews now dominate prime search real estate. With less than 2% of first-page results lacking SERP features, businesses must learn how to adapt or risk fading into the background.

Understanding The Different Types Of SERP Features

Google’s SERP features have come a long way since the early 2000s. While some, like featured snippets, have been around since 2014, others—like AI overviews—were only added in 2024.

These elements enhance the search experience by delivering quick answers, interactive content and visuals. They’re continually evolving to keep users engaged.

Here’s a look at some of the most prominent SERP features:

• Featured snippets are highlighted answer boxes at the top of search results that provide brief, structured responses to user queries. They appear in paragraph, list and table formats and boast a 42.9% average click-through rate, making them highly coveted.

• AI overviews use machine learning to summarize data from various sources and present it at the top of SERPs. Google began rolling out AI overviews in U.S. search results in May 2024. By April 2025, top-ranking pages had a 34.5% lower average CTR in searches where AI overviews were present.

• Knowledge graphs are right-side information panels that offer key details on people, places and businesses. They’re less about CTR and more about credibility. Up-to-date business listings, Wikipedia pages and authoritative links help strengthen brand presence.

• Local packs, also called map packs, display a map and a list of nearby businesses related to user search queries. Maintaining accurate Google Business Profiles (previously Google My Business), using location-based keywords and earning positive reviews improve visibility.

• The “people also ask” feature is a dropdown of related questions that expand within SERPs. Answering popular questions with structured content increases placement chances.

• Image packs and video carousels are visual content that break up text-based elements on results pages. Optimizing images with descriptive alt text and creating high-quality videos answering queries helps rankings.

How Do SERP Features Impact SEO Rankings?

Why is it important to optimize for SERP features? They directly influence SEO performance in a few key ways:

Maximizing Search Presence

Ever hear the adage “It’s all about location?” Many SERP features show up above “classic” organic listings in the search results. If you’re not featured, a competitor likely is. Elements like featured snippets and AI overviews occupy “position zero,” immediately capturing user attention at the top of the page. This prime placement makes SERP features a crucial tool for businesses looking to stand out.

Appearing in SERP features, along with your organic listing, also enables you to take up as much real estate on the page as possible.

Boosting CTR And Engagement

The higher up the page you are, the more clicks and engagement you’ll likely receive. SERP features take up prime real estate, drawing attention and clicks. Features like video carousels and image packs are particularly engaging, making them valuable for capturing user interest in crowded niches.

How Can Businesses Optimize For SERP Features?

At a time when moving up a single position in the SERPs increases relative CTR by 32.3%, the question isn’t whether you should leverage SERP features—it’s how you can use them to your advantage. The following tactics can help you do just that.

Strategically Structure Your Content

To rank in SERP features, make sure your website content is clear and informative, and that it directly answers user queries. Providing concise responses to who, what, when, where, why and how questions improves the likelihood of appearing in featured snippets and the knowledge graph. Likewise, using bullet points, tables and structured formatting enhances readability and ranking potential.

Capitalize On Schema Markup

Schema markup helps Google understand content, increasing the chances of appearing in SERP features. This is especially true for businesses with physical locations, as local schema markup improves visibility in the local pack.

Target Long-Tail Keywords

Focusing on specific, highly relevant queries coordinates content with user intent, boosting the probability of capturing high-value SERP placements.

Prioritize On-Page SEO And Content Strategy

Aligning content with search intent boosts your chances of showing up in SERP features. Use clear headings, bullet points and concise meta descriptions.

Invest In Imagery

Image packs appear in over half of search results, making visual content like infographics and charts incredibly valuable for rankings.

Emphasize Mobile Optimization

Many SERP features, including the local pack, are frequently viewed on mobile devices. Mobile-friendly sites help capture local search traffic.

Update Content Frequently

Google favours fresh content in features like the knowledge graph and “people also ask.” Regular updates improve your relevance and increase your chances of ranking in dynamic search results.

Secure Your Spot In SERP Features

As AI continues to reshape search, rankings are more unpredictable than ever. SERP features offer a critical advantage, helping businesses remain visible and easily discoverable. Make sure you understand and optimize for these elements to stay ahead in 2025 and beyond.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Jonathan Schwartz

Sourced from Forbes

By Thomas Claburn

Turn out the lights, the internet is over

Google AI Overviews and other AI search services appear to be starving the hand that fed them.

Google’s AI-generated summaries of web pages, officially released in May 2024, show up atop its search results pages so search users don’t have to click through to the source website.

A year later, enterprise AI analytics biz BrightEdge reported that Google AI Overviews had generated more search impressions (up 49 percent), but click-throughs to the actual websites dropped 30 percent.

That means AI Overviews is leading more people to use Google Search to find answers to their queries. But those people are less likely to follow search results links that lead to the source website. Good for Google. Terrible for the ecosystem of websites that had learned to depend on search referrals for buyers, readers, and viewers.

By Thomas Claburn

Sourced from The Register

By Oleg Levitas

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Oleg Levitas

Oleg Levitas, a visionary SEO Expert, founded Pravda SEO to revolutionize how local businesses dominate search rankings. Read Oleg Levitas’ full executive profile here. Find Oleg Levitas on LinkedIn. Visit Oleg’s website.

Sourced from Forbes

By Andile Masuku

Feature Image Credit: Solen Feyissa/Unsplash

By Andile Masuku

Andile Masuku is Co-founder and Executive Producer at African Tech Roundup. Connect and engage with Andile on X (@MasukuAndile) and via LinkedIn.

Sourced from IOL

*** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL.

Sourced from Forbes

AI is transforming nearly every aspect of public relations, from media monitoring and content creation to reputation management and crisis response. As this technology continues to evolve over time, so too will the tools, workflows and expectations that define success in the industry.

While some PR professionals embrace AI’s efficiency and speed, others are cautiously weighing its ethical and creative implications. To explore both the opportunities and challenges this tech presents, 17 Forbes Communications Council members explain how AI is impacting PR at their organizations and across the field.

1. Helps Extract Insights From Datasets

AI accelerates how comms teams extract insights from vast datasets—boosting speed, not always accuracy. Without human checks, small errors can go big. Always audit before anything goes public. – Marie O’Riordan, The Croí Initiative, including Croí Impact and Croí Capital

2. Supports, Not Replaces, Human Insight

While AI has made its mark in our industry, the heart of what we do—building trust, navigating nuance and creating compelling narratives—still relies on human insight. Technology can support work, but it can’t replace the creativity, judgment and empathy that define impactful public relations. – Johanna Herrmann, Merck

3. Transforms Reactive Storytelling To Proactive Signal Detection

AI is transforming PR from reactive storytelling to proactive signal detection. Teams can now spot narrative shifts, media sentiment trends and emerging voices in real time with tools like Similarweb. This allows communicators to lead the conversation instead of chasing it. The result is PR that is more data-informed and agile, while still requiring sharp human oversight to preserve authenticity. – Yael Klass, Similarweb Ltd.

4. Speeds Up Media Monitoring

AI is speeding up media monitoring and sentiment analysis, giving teams real-time insight into how their brand is being perceived. This helps PR professionals react faster and with more precision, but it also raises the bar for staying ahead of issues before they escalate. – Cody Gillund, Grounded Growth Studio

5. Creates Faster Responses To Support The Human Side

I started in PR, and that mindset never left me. It’s a great addition that AI brings speed in evaluating, drafting responses and suggesting solutions to challenges, but PR is still about trust and instinct. The human side matters. AI can help guide the work, but it shouldn’t lead it. In a field built on relationships, it’s still about reading the moment and often following your instinct. – Rich Bornstein, Bornstein Media

6. Enables Real-Time Sentiment Analysis

AI is revolutionizing public relations by enabling real-time sentiment analysis and automated media monitoring. It helps companies respond faster to public opinion and proactively manage their reputation. This shift has made PR more data-driven, with a focus on timely, targeted communication. As a result, PR professionals can emphasize strategy and engagement over routine tasks. – Antony Robinson, Novalnet AG

7. Allows For Faster Crisis Management

AI is speeding up how companies monitor media and craft responses, turning what used to take hours into minutes. The upside is faster crisis management and real-time sentiment tracking. But it also risks tone-deaf automation. In PR, human judgment still matters—AI should support it, not replace it. – Maria Alonso, Fortune 206

8. Fuels Media Illiteracy And Distrust

AI’s mass content output is fuelling media illiteracy and public distrust, blurring the line between fact and fabrication. PR must now lead with credibility and emotional intelligence. AI is a powerful tool—but just one in a broader arsenal that must include human judgment and ethical strategy. – Lyric Mandell, PhD, MOXY Company

9. Can Refine Messaging

AI has become a powerful tool for PR professionals, making it easier to quickly rephrase, summarize and tighten messaging. Those who embrace it understand that it’s not about replacing creativity and individual ideas—instead, it’s about refining the language and speeding up the delivery. In fast-paced environments where time is limited, this kind of efficiency can be incredibly valuable. – Victoria Zelefsky, Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp.

10. Demands Professionals Elevate Their Strategies

AI is forcing a critical reckoning in PR. While it offers tempting efficiencies in tasks like media monitoring and drafting basic content, AI can’t build trust, navigate complex ethical landscapes or truly understand human emotion. This shift demands that PR professionals elevate their strategy, crisis management skills and ability to forge human connections—the very things AI can’t replicate. – Patrick Ward, NanoGlobals

11. Brings Immediacy To Workflows

AI has brought a powerful immediacy to PR, making sentiment analysis, trend spotting and personalized outreach accessible in real-time. Yet, with all this amplified noise, the true craft of telling authentic, resonant stories has never mattered more. Data sharpens strategy, but human nuance and emotional insight still drive the deepest connections. – Joshua Stratton, Against The Current

12. Rewrites Narrative Control

AI’s real disruption in PR isn’t just faster press releases—it’s how it quietly rewires narrative control. Brands are now training AI on their own voice and history, making it the ghost-writer of their reputation. That subtly shifts PR from persuasion to orchestration, where the machine becomes the curator of a brand’s ongoing myth. – Cade Collister, Metova

13. Democratizes Access To Information

AI has democratized access to information needed for sentiment and trends analysis, share of voice monitoring and rapid generation of first drafts. Ironically, this is making it harder for PR agencies and teams to “earn” attention for their companies. It’s no longer enough to be newsworthy, relevant and impactful to stand out. Stories have to be unique to break through the increased media noise. – Rekha Thomas, Path Forward Marketing

14. Lets Teams Stay Ahead Of Reputation Issues

A major advantage of using AI in public relations is staying ahead of reputation issues. With constant sentiment tracking, AI picks up on both positive and negative trends early on. This gives PR teams a head start to respond quickly, handle potential problems before they grow and shape public perception more effectively. – Lauren Parr, RepuGen

15. Highlights A Need To Ensure AI Governance

As AI transforms every layer of corporate communications from real-time sentiment detection to content creation and audience targeting, it becomes both a brand and reputation risk hiding in plain sight without strong governance. Boards must treat AI as both an asset and a risk, and ensure an effective AI governance framework and review process is in place for the enterprise and brands. – Toby Wong, Toby Wong Consulting

16. Drives Anticipatory Storytelling

AI co-pilots now sweep crypto-social channels, threat feeds and code repositories every few seconds to spot breach chatter or hostile narratives long before they trend. They triage alerts, draft factual posts and model sentiment curves so communications teams can choose the perfect moment, medium and tone, resulting in a shift from frantic damage control to data-driven, anticipatory storytelling. – Jamie Elkaleh, Bitget Wallet

17. Streamlines Real-Time Sentiment And Trend Tracking

AI is changing PR by making it easier to track what people are saying in real time. My team uses tools that flag sentiment shifts or trends before they blow up—super helpful for staying ahead. But what really makes the difference is the person managing the tool, making smart judgment calls and keeping me in the loop. Tech helps, but people drive the strategy. – Luciana Cemerka, TP

Feature Image Credit: Antoni Shkraba Studio

Sourced from Forbes

Sourced from The Drum

From digital twins to virtual influencers, here’s how brands are testing synthetic media and where the ethical lines are being drawn in the era of AI-generated talent.

Virtual presenters, AI-generated spokespeople, hyper-realistic avatars that never break script. It sounds like science fiction, but in 2025, synthetic media has officially entered the marketing mainstream.

Feature Image Credit: Fernand De Canne on Unsplash

Sourced from The Drum

By Christianna Silva

YouTube sparked a digital revolution, but what comes next in an age dominated by AI and short-form content?

Did you go to the zoo 20 years ago? Over 364 million people did.

On April 23, 2005, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim stood in front of the elephants at the San Diego Zoo, recorded some light commentary, and posted it to YouTube. It was the first ever video uploaded to the platform. Originally conceived as a dating site, YouTube instead ushered in a new digital world: one of abundant content, influencers and creators, algorithmic obsession, the viral spread of disinformation, and a society increasingly shaped by metrics — likes, shares, and views.

Its impact is so vast that it’s difficult to measure. Last year alone, the video-sharing platform brought in $36.15 billion in ad revenue, according to Variety. At VidCon 2025, YouTube’s VP of Creator Products, Amjad Hanif, shared that roughly 20 million videos are uploaded to the platform every day.

YouTube wasn’t the first social media site. Platforms like GeoCities, Classmates.com, SixDegrees.com, Friendster, and MySpace all predate it. But those sites functioned like static digital places for users to present personal information or to find people they already knew in real life. There was no algorithm, and certainly no “content” in the way we understand it today. YouTube, in its early days, was similar. Yet somehow it not only endured but flourished, shifted the fabric of our communication, and democratized the ability for documentary filmmakers, comedians, and artists to make their work. What was once a place designed for dating has become a mass of monetization and the home of the $250 billion creator economy.

How did we get here? And, 20 years later, what comes next?

The first creator economy

YouTube didn’t just host videos; it created the first true creator economy, giving rise to a generation of influencers who could actually make a living from their work. Yes, people were making videos before YouTube, but traditional media had high walls. Hollywood gatekeepers controlled who got to be seen, heard, and paid. YouTube blew that model wide open.

“The reason YouTube has outlasted almost every other platform, or stayed the distance, is that when it comes to longform video, it’s very simple — it’s not just a content platform, it’s a creator economy backbone,” Matt Navarra, a social media expert, told Mashable. “While other platforms were following trends, YouTube built infrastructure.”

Google acquired YouTube in 2006, and, once YouTube became part of the largest and most powerful search engine in the world, it had a pretty spectacular amount of resources, traffic, and money at its disposal — and it gave some of those resources, traffic, and money to its users.

In 2007, YouTube launched the YouTube Partner Program, introducing creator pay outs, which Mark Bergen, a journalist and author of Like, Comment, Subscribe: How YouTube Drives Google’s Dominance and Controls Our Culture, argues effectively invented the idea of the content creator as a profession. Users began relying on the platform to make an income, and that financial incentive made creators loyal; few were eager to abandon a platform that paid them, especially when rivals couldn’t offer the same. More than that, new creators began flooding the YouTube system, hoping to experience the same freedom and fame available to them only on the platform.

But long before the pay checks and polished production came the passion. Early creators like John and Hank Green weren’t chasing clout or a pay check — because neither really existed yet. “When we started, there was no way to make money and there was also no status tied to it,” Hank Green later recalled during VidCon 2025’s “YouTube Legends” panel. That was part of the appeal. “Nobody [was] getting paid well, but everybody’s together, loving it, and community, it turns out, is more important for happiness than money. I miss those days when I was making $20,000 a year with a bunch of nerds who didn’t expect that it would ever become a cultural force or phenomenon,” he said. “But I’m also very happy that there is an opportunity for really talented people who would never be able to have creative careers, to have those careers now.”

YouTube has “figured out the creator economy and has had a lock on that for nearly 20 years. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, everyone’s tried and failed to come anywhere close to that,” Bergen told Mashable. He said none of the other platforms “have built out just this size and scale of an actual digital economy and a workforce.”

Navarra pointed out that the early YouTubers — creators like John and Hank Green, Rhett & Link, Grace Helbig, and Tyler Oakley, many of whom were inducted into the inaugural VidCon Hall of Fame this year — didn’t only create content, but they built empires, aided by YouTube’s global reach and monetization tools. Navarra said it set the “gold standard” for creator sustainability.

 Videos don’t just trend, they rank — and that’s a superpower that no one else has quite matched in the same way.

A big part of this success is due to discoverability, which didn’t happen independently.

“That’s a major reason why you have all these incentives for people to keep posting, to keep upping the production value, to keep trying to become an influencer and creator, because you can make a living or aspire to make a living. And you can’t discount the fact that it’s been part of Google,” Bergen said.

That integration gave YouTube a unique edge. As Navarra put it, “Videos don’t just trend, they rank — and that’s a superpower that no one else has quite matched in the same way.”

Of course, being the first had its drawbacks. YouTube had to confront the growing pains of content creation before anyone else, especially when it came to moderation. Its policies evolved over time, and other platforms often followed its lead, though not without controversy.

“YouTube has been the canary in the coal mine for content moderation at scale because it faced existential threats earlier than most platforms,” Navarra said. And it’s true. In the early days, YouTube focused on removing videos that violated its guidelines related to nudity, graphic violence, and hate speech. But as the platform matured, so did its approach. It had to make room for content with educational, documentary, or artistic value, and later, make calls on videos in the public interest, like campaign content from electoral candidates that violated its own policies.

“YouTube has become one of the most brand-safe video or social platforms, which is why advertisers still spend big there despite their size and complexity,” Navarra said, adding that while they “haven’t been without their failures,” they have still fared “better than most platforms across the longer time frame.”

What’s next? Short-form vs. long-form, AI, and TV

YouTube was a pioneer in online video, but it seemed caught off guard when TikTok made short-form vertical video the dominant format. TikTok entered the U.S. market in 2018, prompting YouTube to respond with Shorts in 2019. Instagram quickly followed with Reels in 2020.

YouTube Shorts now averages over 200 billion daily views, Hanif said during a YouTube Keynote at VidCon 2025, intended to celebrate its 20th anniversary. That’s a huge number, but it isn’t necessarily representative culturally. It’s more of a “functional tool that hasn’t found its soul or character or purpose as much as other platforms have in terms of short-form video,” Navarra said.

“It works on paper: the views are huge, the monetization has improved, but culturally, TikTok owns the vibe. The issue is more perception… YouTube’s DNA is in storytelling and depth… If YouTube can crack cultural relevance with Shorts and not just scale, then it becomes fairly unbeatable,” Navarra said.

And while plenty of people watch YouTube Shorts, viewers are leaning more towards long-form video on YouTube — and they’re watching it on their TVs.

“More and more when people say they’re watching TV, they’re watching YouTube,” Hanif said at VidCon.

Gwen Miller, the senior director of growth at Mythical Entertainment, noted during a VidCon panel that this trend bodes well for creators. Longer watch times on TVs mean viewers are more likely to sit through ads, which leads to greater earnings for creators.

Content isn’t the only thing changing on YouTube, and AI is quickly becoming a driving force behind where the platform is headed next.

“In terms of AI and YouTube’s future, if you look where YouTube is heading, AI is central,” Navarra said. “It’s not a gimmick but as a growth engine. The platform’s big advantage isn’t just the size and age, it’s the way it quietly builds the most advanced tools for creators anywhere else on the internet.”

And YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced last week at the Cannes Lions 2025 Festival of Creativity that Veo 3, the latest model of Google DeepMind’s video generation model, which allows you to create AI-generated backgrounds and video clips, is coming to YouTube Shorts later this summer.

Autodubbing, an AI tool that allows creators to dub their videos in other languages, is currently available in nine languages and will soon be available in 20 languages, Hanif said. Kevin Allocca, YouTube’s global director of culture and trends, said at VidCon that 52 percent of 14 to 24-year-olds in the U.S. have watched content or creators that have been translated from another language. For instance, MrBeast dubs his videos in 16 different languages, including Japanese, French, Hindi, and Spanish, which have garnered him massive followings internationally.

The idea that AI is central to the future of creation isn’t something YouTube is alone in predicting. In 2023, Ollie Forsyth, the founder of New Economies, found that 33 percent of creators used AI. That number has jumped to 80 percent in 2025, in large part due to the importance of language dubbing. During Forsyth’s talk “Mapping the Modern Creator Economy: Trends, Tensions, and What Comes Next” at VidCon this year, he argued that every creator is going to have to be AI-focused because AI agents will be able to allow creators to be truly flexible and more efficient. It’ll help them free up the time they spend on admin, finances, brand partnerships, marketing, and more as startups use AI to solve these problems.

If history is any indication of the future, it might be more helpful to look at this from a different perspective — it isn’t necessarily guessing what the future of YouTube will look like, but more knowing that whatever future is chosen will be mirrored across every other social media platform.

 By Christianna Silva

Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.

Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.

Sourced from Mashable

By Khamosh Pathak

AI audio podcasts, right in Google Search.

For Google, AI-generated podcasts are turning into quite a key feature. You can now generate a two-person AI podcast from a Deep Research report, or get a Daily Listen podcast that’s generated from your Discover feed. Now, Google is planning to expand this feature to Google Search as well.

Available as an experimental feature from Google Labs, this new option will help generate a short, 5-minute AI podcast based on your Google Search results.

How to turn on Audio Overviews in Google Search

Credit: Jake Peterson

To access the new feature, head over to your Google Labs page using this link and find the Audio Overviews section. There, you can either enable this feature or join a waitlist, depending on where you’re located. Unfortunately, while this is a global rollout, it’s not happening all at once, as is the case with many new Google AI features.

How Audio Overviews in Google Search work

This new search feature is lifted almost straight from Gemini, which itself got it from NotebookLM. Called Audio Overviews, the original incarnation of this feature let you generate a 10-minute AI podcast episode on any topic, although the new version has a few additional limitations.

When the feature is enabled in Google Search, you’ll see a little prompt to “Generate Audio Overview” while you scroll through compatible search results. Which results are compatible is a bit vague at this point—that’s one of the limitations. You won’t see it for simple questions like “what are some nearby cafés?” but it also won’t work for overly complex topics, like researching investment trends across Asia (where you might be better off using Deep Research tools).

Instead, Audio Overviews will kick in for queries that are somewhere in the middle. Let’s say you want a quick refresher on a Lord of the Rings character, or to know which Japanese knives to get started with when upgrading your kitchen. Just make an appropriate Google search, click the Generate Audio Overview button, and search will kick into Gemini mode. After a wait of about 30-40 seconds, which is considerably less than Gemini’s 2–5 minute wait time, you’ll see your audio overview. It will be about five minutes, tops, so you’ll get less detail than Gemini would give you, but it might be enough for a bird’s-eye view on whatever you’re searching for.

The audio player for your AI podcast will stay put as you browse the results page, and it will show links to its sources as well. And if it’s gotten something really wrong, you can give it a Thumbs Down. As is the case with any AI tool, it’s important to point out that these are based on Large Language Models, which can sometimes hallucinate. So make sure to check the sources that the Audio Overviews feature provides you before repeating what it says elsewhere.

Feature Image Credit: Google

By Khamosh Pathak

Khamosh Pathak is freelancer tech journalist with over 13 years of experience writing online. Read Full Bio

Sourced from LifeHacker

By Steven Wolfe Pereira

Marc Andreessen’s 2011 prediction that “software is eating the world” has proven prophetic, but nowhere has the transformation been more complete than in marketing.

At this year’s Cannes Lions — advertising’s equivalent of the Oscars — the technology takeover that’s been building for years is now complete.

Walking down the Croisette, the traditional advertising agencies that once dominated have been replaced by tech giants: Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Pinterest, Reddit, Spotify and Salesforce now command the iconic boulevard. But this shift represents just the beginning of a far more fundamental transformation.

We’re witnessing the death of marketing as we know it, replaced by an AI-driven paradigm that’s rewriting every rule in the playbook.

IDC predicts that by 2028, three out of five marketing functions will be handled by AI workers, while businesses will spend up to three times more on optimizing for AI systems than traditional search engines by 2029. This isn’t a gradual evolution but rather a complete reimagining of how brands and their marketing teams will connect with customers.

The Demise of the Search Paradigm

For two decades, search engine optimization anchored digital strategy. Companies invested billions in the $90 billion SEO industry, obsessing over Google rankings and keyword strategies. That playbook is becoming obsolete.

Search is rapidly migrating from traditional browsers to AI platforms. Apple’s integration of AI-powered tools like Perplexity directly into Safari represents just the beginning of Google’s declining monopoly on discovery. What’s emerging is what venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz calls generative engine optimization — optimizing for AI-driven answers instead of clickable links.

As AI use soars and companies shift from SEO to GEO, the implications are staggering. Instead of ranking high on search results pages, brands now need to be featured directly in AI responses. Traditional SEO tactics become worthless when AI models synthesize answers from multiple sources while maintaining context across conversations.

“How you’re encoded into the AI layer is the new competitive advantage,” explains Zach Cohen from a16z. Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch recently noted that ChatGPT was already referring 10% of his company’s new customers simply by mentioning it in AI responses. This organic referral power represents a glimpse of AI’s customer acquisition potential.

Success metrics are fundamentally changing. Page views matter less than “reference rates” — how often AI systems cite your brand when answering customer queries. Companies are already deploying specialized tools to track AI mentions and optimize content accordingly such as Brandrank.ai, Peec.ai and Quni.ai.

The Rise of AI-to-AI Commerce

The next wave is even more disruptive: autonomous AI agents that act on behalf of both consumers and businesses. Every major tech company is focused on bringing agents to life — from global giants like Google, Microsoft and Salesforce and frontier models like Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI to AI-native startups like Glean, Sierra and Writer. They are racing to deploy agents that can make decisions, execute transactions and interact with other agents with minimal human oversight.

A recent PwC survey reveals 35% of companies are broadly adopting AI agents, with another 17% implementing them across nearly all workflows. While still early days, this isn’t experimental technology — it’s becoming operational reality.

Consider the customer journey transformation: Your customer’s personal AI assistant might research products, negotiate prices and complete purchases without the customer ever visiting your website. Meanwhile, your company’s AI agent handles inquiries, provides recommendations and closes deals 24/7. The entire transaction could happen between two AI systems.

“Previously, marketers would target campaigns directly at customers, but now the shortlisting and decisions are made by the AI,” notes a recent IDC report. This represents a fundamental shift in where influence occurs — companies must now market to algorithms as much as humans.

The speed of this transition is remarkable. What took decades with previous technology shifts is happening in months with AI. Companies that don’t adapt risk becoming invisible in an AI-mediated marketplace.

The Convergence of Marketing, Sales and Customer Service

AI agents are erasing traditional boundaries between marketing, sales and customer service. When a customer’s AI communicates with your company’s AI, it doesn’t matter whether the inquiry is about product features, pricing or technical support — it’s all one continuous conversation.

This convergence creates unprecedented opportunities for customer experience optimization. A well-designed AI agent can greet customers by name, recall purchase history, answer technical questions, process returns and suggest upgrades within a single interaction. The result is more efficient operations and significantly improved customer satisfaction.

However, it also demands organizational restructuring. Companies can no longer operate with siloed departments when AI systems need unified customer data and consistent messaging across all touchpoints. Early adopters are already reorganizing around integrated AI platforms rather than functional divisions.

The Workforce Reality

The employment implications are substantial and immediate. A 2024 industry survey found 78% of marketers expect at least a quarter of their tasks to be automated within three years, with over one-third anticipating more than half their work becoming AI-automated.

Meta’s public roadmap discusses fully automating advertising campaigns, where humans only set budgets and high-level objectives. Google, Amazon and Microsoft are developing systems that handle targeting, creative generation and optimization without human intervention.

But this disruption creates new opportunities for professionals who adapt. As AI handles routine tasks, human expertise shifts toward strategy, creativity, ethics and managing hybrid human-AI teams. Tomorrow’s marketing leaders will be part creative director, part technologist, part data scientist — orchestrating AI systems rather than managing manual processes.

What Assets Matter Now

In this AI-driven landscape, two assets become disproportionately valuable: brand strength and first-party data.

Strong brands gain significant advantages in AI-mediated interactions. When AI systems trained on billions of data points make recommendations, they naturally favour well-known, trusted brands. This creates a compounding effect where established brands become even more prominent in AI responses.

First-party customer data becomes the fuel for competitive AI systems. Companies with rich, consent-based customer information can train more sophisticated AI agents that deliver superior personalized experiences. In an era of privacy regulations and disappearing third-party cookies, this data represents a crucial competitive moat.

The Strategic Imperative

AI is growing exponentially, like a snowball gaining size and speed. In tasks like language and image generation, performance is doubling roughly every six months, driven by massive computing power, huge datasets and smarter algorithms. Companies that wait for certainty will find themselves permanently behind.

The strategic response requires three parallel efforts:

1. Experimenting with AI tools and agents
2. Retraining teams for hybrid human-AI collaboration
3. Rebuilding systems around unified customer data and experiences

Most importantly, leaders must recognize this isn’t about adopting new tools. It’s about reimagining customer relationships in an AI-mediated world. The companies that thrive will be those that ensure their AI agents deliver genuine value, maintain trust and enhance rather than replace human connection.

We’re entering a world where billions of people will have trillions of AI agents. The question isn’t whether AI will transform customer engagement — it’s whether your company will lead or follow in that transformation. The rules of marketing are being rewritten by AI. The winners will be those who write the new playbook.

Feature Image Credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images

By Steven Wolfe Pereira

Find Steven Wolfe Pereira on LinkedIn and X.

Sourced from Forbes

By Emmy Liederman

Key stat: US brands will spend $13.7 billion on influencer marketing by 2027, up from $10.5 billion this year, according to a March EMARKETER forecast.

Beyond the chart:

• 54.7% of US brand marketers and agencies say proven higher ROI compared with other channels would be the top factor that would warrant an increased creator marketing budget, per a February survey by EMARKETER and Spotter.
• Marketers use influencer marketing to support business goals throughout the funnel, including brand awareness (66%) and revenue growth (55%), per a January Sprout Social survey.

Use this chart: Marketers can use this chart to justify bigger budgets for influencer partnerships and tools, while holding firm on high measurement standards that prove their ROI.

Note: An influencer is an individual who can sway the brand preferences, buying decisions, and loyalty of a broader population, regardless of follower count. Creators are people or entities that develop original content primarily for digital properties with the purpose of building and monetizing their audience. Examples include celebrities, public figures, YouTube/Instagram/TikTok creators, and subject matter thought leaders/experts

Methodology: Estimates are based on the analysis of survey and tracking data from various research firms and industry-specific adoption trends of digital marketing tools.

By Emmy Liederman

Sourced from EMARKETER