Blog post
Understanding AI search: A guide for modern marketers
It’s been a busy start to 2026, filled with industry events, client discussions, and partner conversations. Across all these touchpoints, one message has come through consistently…
Marketers want clarity on how to stay visible, relevant, and effective in a fast‑moving AI landscape.
When we launched the first version of our guide—A Marketer’s Guide to Chatbots and Agents: From Generative AI to ROI—we helped you navigate the shift from keywords to conversations.
That shift is still underway, but the pace of change is unlike anything we’ve seen. AI assistants are now more capable, more context aware, and increasingly able to answer questions before a user ever clicks a link.
Discovery looks different, and the questions you’re asking now reflect both the urgency and the opportunity ahead.
The updated AI guide for marketers: Driven by your feedback
The way people discover information online is changing faster than at any point in modern marketing history. AI assistants, AI-powered search, and generative answers are reshaping how questions are asked, how answers are delivered, and how brands show up along the way.
Our updated edition of the AI Marketer’s Guide is designed as an evolved, more practical blueprint that reflects how AI‑powered search works today, what’s changed since the last guide, and the actions marketers can take now to show up, stand out, and drive results.
Here’s what you’ll find in the updated playbook…
Demystifying large language models (LLMs)
Understanding how modern generative AI tools work is key to understanding our latest recommendations.
The influx of generative AI tools and the reason they’re so good and accessible is largely due to the capabilities of LLMs. So we share how LLMs learn, what they excel at, and how Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) makes them more accurate and trustworthy.
How does AI search surface brands?
As a marketer, there are two primary ways your brand can appear in AI search experiences: through paid placements and organic visibility. Some AI search experiences include paid advertising opportunities through sponsored answers or multimedia ads.
But when surfacing brands organically, AI systems typically assemble their responses through a grounded process that unfolds in stages:
- Baseline understanding: Trained knowledge
- Grounded refinement: Retrieved web content
- Precision signals: Structured, first-party data
In the guide, you’ll learn how each stage plays a distinct role and how to shape your organic content strategy and use paid approaches in AI-powered discovery.
SEO vs. GEO: What’s actually new and what isn’t
Many are wondering whether GEO is the same as SEO, or if it’s a completely new discipline. The answer is nuanced, but both are actually true.
Traditional SEO remains essential to being visible in AI search and your site must rank well to be discovered, evaluated, and recommended. But in the world of GEO, clarity goes beyond just word choice and into how you phrase, format, and punctuate for AI systems to recognize.
To get your brand to show up, you’ll get tips to write clear, structured content that AI systems can confidently interpret.
The expert voices leading the conversations
The updated guide also reflects the invaluable contributions of industry experts who are actively shaping how brands adapt to AI-driven discovery, rounding it out to be a treasure trove of knowledge in this fascinating space.
You’ll get perspectives from:
- Aleyda Solis, International SEO Consultant, Founder Orainti
- Britney Muller, AI Consultant, Orange Labs
- Crystal Carter, Head of AI Search and SEO Communications, Wix
- Lily Ray, Vice President, SEO Strategy & Research, Amsive
- Michael King, Founder, iPullRank
- Myriam Jessier, SEO & Technical Brand Visibility Consultant, Pragm
- Pedro Bojikian, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Microsoft AI
The most important industry shift: AI search’s influence
This landscape will continue to evolve, and our commitment is to evolve with it.
We’ll continue to share what we’re seeing, and to equip you with practical, actionable insights you can use right now to make meaningful progress. Throughout our updated guide, the focus is simple: helping you understand how visibility is earned in AI driven environments and how to influence it deliberately.
Ready to be the brand AI recommends? Download the playbook here
Your input makes us better
Take our quick 3-minute survey and help us transform your website experience.
