When marketing history looks back on 2025, it will mark the year AI truly hit the road.
Google has used AI in search for years – RankBrain, BERT, Smart Bidding, RSAs, Performance Max, etc.
But this year, it’s everywhere. From boardrooms to one-person shops, everyone’s asking how to use it and avoid being left behind.
Amid the noise, facts have blurred into hype.
I’ve heard it repeatedly from new clients: “SEO is dead. Don’t talk to us about SEO – talk to us about AI.”
Fittingly, in this spooky season, SEO has “died” more times than every horror villain combined – yet it always comes back.
AI is a true game-changer, but the hype is louder than anything I’ve seen in 25 years of digital marketing. It feeds our urge to fear what’s new and chase what’s shiny.
Let’s take a breath. SEO isn’t dead – far from it.
Focusing on SEO is still the smartest way to succeed in the age of AI.
There’s nothing new here
AI tools are trained on massive datasets – a process that’s complex, expensive, and resource-intensive.
In the case of ChatGPT, the most recent training run was more than a year ago, in September 2024.
That means the system’s knowledge is already over 12 months out of date.
Anything that happened after that cutoff effectively doesn’t exist to these “intelligent” models.
While that’s fine for answering historical questions, it’s a problem for marketers who need real-time information.
Dig deeper: AI search is booming, but SEO is still not dead
AI needs RAG to stay current
To deliver up-to-date answers, AI tools must supplement what they already know with what’s happening right now.
They do this through retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), which allows models to pull current data from the web and weave it into responses.
In other words, when ChatGPT “checks the web,” it’s using search results to inform its answers.
For any question that requires current knowledge, AI systems rely on search – just like the rest of us.
And that means strong search visibility still feeds visibility in AI.
Dig deeper: How generative information retrieval is reshaping search
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Traditional search is like panning for gold
A clear behavioral shift is underway.
Traditional search often feels like panning for gold.
You type a short, generic query like “plumbers near me,” then do the hard work of:
- Sifting through results.
- Reading sites.
- Comparing reviews.
It’s tedious and easy to get wrong.
AI tools change that. Ask a more detailed question, and they’ll search, sift, and structure the information for you.
Take my own experience: I’ve had my share of disappointing plumbers and roofers who looked fine on Google but weren’t.
When I asked an AI tool for help, it spent a moment “searching the web,” then…
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