There is a lazy narrative circulating that SEO is dying. It makes for good headlines. It does not make for a good strategy.
What is actually happening is more nuanced and more structural. Search is not disappearing. It is being re-engineered. The traditional model of ranking ten blue links against a fixed keyword is giving way to something far more dynamic. Search engines are now assembling answers, decomposing intent, retrieving evidence from multiple sources and synthesising responses in real time.
As a Digital First CMO, I do not view this as a threat. I view it as an overdue correction.
For years, SEO has been distorted by volume-driven publishing, tactical hacks and an obsession with position metrics. AI-assisted search forces a return to fundamentals. Authority. Clarity. Infrastructure. Commercial alignment.
From Ranking Pages to Being Selected as a Source
The most important change in the AI-first landscape is the movement from ranking to selection.
In a traditional SERP, your goal was to earn a position. If you reached page one and secured enough clicks, you won the visibility game. In an AI-assisted interface, the engine often performs the first layer of synthesis itself. It summarises, compares, and structures information before the user even considers clicking.
This transforms the objective.
It is no longer enough to rank. You must be a trusted, extractable source that AI systems choose to reference when assembling an answer.
That requires depth rather than breadth. It requires coherence rather than scattergun publishing. It requires authority at an entity level, not just optimisation at a page level.
When I look at a business now, I do not ask how many keywords it ranks for. I ask whether it deserves to be selected as a source within its domain. That is a much higher bar.
Foundational Technical SEO Is Now Non Negotiable
One misconception about AI search is that it introduces a new set of secret optimisation levers. It does not.
There are no hidden AI tags. No special files. No shortcuts.
AI features sit on top of the same underlying systems that govern crawling, indexing, rendering and ranking. If your website cannot be reliably crawled, if your mobile rendering is inconsistent, if your content is obscured by heavy client-side scripts, you will not be eligible to appear in AI surfaces at scale.
In practice, I continue to see technically fragile environments undermining otherwise strong brands. Bloated page builders that damage performance. Inconsistent canonicalisation. Fragmented internal linking structures that dilute topical authority. Structured data is deployed as an afterthought, disconnected from visible content.
In an AI-influenced search landscape, these are not minor technical imperfections. They are structural visibility barriers.
As someone who has architected CRM rebuilds, managed domain migrations and personally developed SEO optimised platforms, I treat technical SEO as infrastructure engineering. It is the foundation upon which authority is built.
Query Decomposition Changes Strategy at Its Core
An AI-assisted search does not treat queries as static strings. It interprets them in context and frequently decomposes them into subtopics. A single commercial question may trigger multiple supporting searches behind the scenes before a summarised answer is presented.
This fundamentally changes keyword strategy.
The old model of targeting isolated phrases and producing standalone articles is insufficient. If your content addresses only the headline query but fails to cover supporting concerns, comparisons, risks and alternatives, you are incomplete.
Search systems are increasingly evaluating whether your content contributes meaningfully to the broader intent.
My approach now begins with intent architecture. Instead of producing a keyword list, I design thematic territories aligned to commercial priorities. Each territory is supported by structured content clusters that address decision drivers, objections and contextual nuances. Internal linking reinforces coherence. Entity consistency strengthens recognition.
The objective is not to publish more; it is to build a logically complete domain of expertise.
In an AI-first landscape, superficial optimisation is exposed quickly; therefore, depth becomes a competitive advantage.
Retrieval Augmented Systems Reward Corroborated Authority
Modern search systems increasingly combine retrieval and generation. They retrieve multiple relevant documents, evaluate them for quality and trust signals, and then synthesise a response.
This means your content is no longer competing only for position. It is competing for credibility.
Off-site signals matter in this context not because they manipulate ranking, but because they corroborate authority. Mentions, references and credible links act as external validation. If your claims exist only on your own domain, they are weaker than those supported by a broader consensus.
This is where off-page strategy evolves. It is less about link volume and more about trust footprint. Entity recognition across the web becomes part of eligibility for selection.
As a CMO, I integrate PR, thought leadership and content distribution into SEO strategy deliberately, as authority is not built in isolation.
AI Content Is a Governance Issue, Not a Productivity Hack
Artificial intelligence has lowered the barrier to content production dramatically. That is both an opportunity and a risk.
Search systems are not hostile to AI-generated content. They are hostile to low-effort content. The difference is critical.
When AI is used to scaffold research, structure drafts and accelerate analysis, it can enhance quality. When it is used to industrialise generic articles at scale, it erodes trust.
In regulated sectors where I have operated, governance is not optional. Accuracy, compliance and evidence trails are mandatory. I apply the same discipline to AI-assisted content.
Every piece must demonstrate expertise, originality and alignment with brand positioning. Editorial oversight remains central. Claims must be defensible. Content must be maintained and refreshed as information evolves. AI does not remove the need for strategic judgement.
The Economics of Fewer but Better Clicks
One of the more uncomfortable truths about AI-driven search is that some informational clicks will decline. When a system answers a simple definition or factual question directly within the interface, fewer users need to click through.
This is not the death of organic traffic. It is the refinement of it.
What remains are users engaged in complex research, comparison and decision making. These visits tend to be higher intent and more commercially valuable. That changes the KPI model.
If traffic volume becomes less stable, conversion yield and revenue per session become more important. SEO cannot operate as a siloed acquisition channel. It must integrate with UX optimisation, CRM segmentation and lifecycle automation.
In my work as a Fractional CMO, organic visibility is always connected to the broader revenue system. Traffic without structured follow-up is a wasted opportunity. AI search increases the importance of commercial integration.
Structured Clarity and Extractability
As search interfaces evolve, machine readability becomes more important. Structured data does not guarantee visibility, but it reduces ambiguity. Clear definitions, structured comparisons, and logically formatted content improve extractability.
Equally important is ensuring that critical information exists in accessible text form. Design heavy experiences that hide meaning behind visuals or scripts weaken retrieval potential.
My background in design and development allows me to bridge aesthetic presentation with structural clarity. In an AI-first landscape, both human experience and machine interpretation must be optimised simultaneously.
Measurement in an Opaque Environment
AI features often fold traffic into aggregate reporting. Clean attribution becomes harder. This demands maturity in analytics.
I increasingly focus on intent-level performance rather than isolated keyword movement. Conversion rate from organic, assisted revenue, brand search growth and content cluster consolidation provide more meaningful indicators of authority.
SEO reporting must evolve from tactical dashboards to commercial insight. Boards do not care about impressions. They care about pipeline and profitability.
The Strategic Imperative
For businesses operating in competitive UK markets, the shift to AI-assisted search is not an existential threat; it is a forcing function.
It forces clarity of positioning.
It forces technical robustness.
It forces genuine expertise.
It forces commercial integration.
The era of scaled mediocrity is ending. The era of structured authority is beginning. As a Digital First CMO, my role is to design ecosystems that deserve to be selected. That means aligning strategy, infrastructure, content governance and commercial systems into a coherent whole.
SEO in 2026 is not about chasing algorithms. It is about engineering trust at scale. When that is done correctly, AI does not replace your visibility; it reinforces it… and that is where serious growth now lives.