AI and SEO: A New Shift in Search Optimisation
AI isn’t replacing SEO, but it is changing how it works. Businesses that use AI-driven insights while keeping content thoughtful and well-written will be in the best position to succeed.
AI is changing the way we do business. Alicia Rieniets looks at how the shift from search engines to answer engines is redefining visibility, trust and revenue, and why brands must now engineer authority if they want AI to recommend them.
From Search to Ask: The Rise of the Answer Engine
Customers are no longer searching for suppliers. They are asking AI who to trust. Search is being replaced by answers. We are moving from search engines to answer engines. The future of discovery is not search. It is ask.
According to Search Engine Land, more than one-third of consumers now begin their search journeys with AI tools instead of traditional search engines.
McKinsey reports that AI-generated summaries are already appearing in a significant and growing share of Google searches, reshaping how brands get discovered.
This is not a future trend. It is happening now. Your customers are not scrolling. They are asking. They are asking AI who to trust. They are asking which brand to choose. They are asking for the best. And AI is choosing who gets recommended. Not listing. Choosing.
So, Here is The Real Question: When AI Answers, Does it Say Your Name?
For years, visibility meant ranking on Google. Page one or invisible. Win the click. Optimise the keyword. That model is dissolving. AI does not rank websites. It decides who it trusts. It looks beyond your homepage, beyond your ad spend and beyond your SEO. It scans reviews, media coverage and how consistently your brand is described across the web. It assesses whether others validate your expertise.
AI does not just read what you say about yourself. It reads what the internet agrees about you. And that changes everything.
Visibility is no longer about being present. It is about being trusted. Trust is the new ranking. And in the era of answer engines, recommendation directly drives revenue. When AI recommends a brand, it shortens the journey, narrows the field and shapes the decision. Trust now sits at the top of the funnel. And trust, when engineered deliberately, accelerates growth.
This is not a technology problem. It is a brand positioning problem. It is a customer strategy problem. It is a strategic alignment problem. The businesses that win in the era of AI will not treat brand, public relations, digital strategy, customer experience and customer journey as separate work streams. They will integrate them. Because AI does not see your organisation in silos. It sees your brand positioning. It sees your reviews. It sees your media coverage. It sees your digital footprint. It sees how your expertise shows up across the customer journey. It sees whether your customer experience reinforces trust.
And it forms a judgement.
If your brand story, your customer journey and your digital presence are not aligned, that inconsistency becomes visible. Not just to customers. To AI. In a world where answers replace searches, fragmented marketing becomes invisible marketing. Integrated strategy becomes revenue.
Some businesses will tweak tactics. Some will increase ad spend. Some will hope this shift passes. It will not. The leaders in this new era will not simply aim to be visible. They will engineer trust. Because in a world of answer engines, being recommended is everything. Recommendation directly drives revenue. And revenue follows trust.
So ask yourself one simple question: If AI is answering your customer’s next question tomorrow, are you building a business it will trust enough to recommend? Because if you are not deliberately shaping that answer, someone else is. And in this new era, silence is not neutral. Silence is invisible.
If you are unsure whether AI trusts your brand enough to recommend it, that is not something to leave to chance. I offer a rapid AI Trust Audit that shows you exactly how your business is being positioned in AI answers today. We assess where you stand, where the gaps are, and build a practical roadmap to strengthen your authority and keep you there as this landscape evolves. Because this is not set and forget. AI is moving fast. Your visibility strategy needs to move faster.
One conversation. Clear insight. A defined path forward. Let’s make sure AI keeps choosing you.
Alicia Rieniets is the Founder of CMO On Call and a Fractional CMO with CEMOH.
She works with leadership teams to transform brand positioning, customer strategy and digital capability into measurable commercial growth. Alicia has 20+ years’ experience transforming legacy brands (Ford, UniSuper, Bupa) into customer-first powerhouses and is skilled in driving growth through data-driven strategies across the full customer lifecycle.
