AI and SEO - What It Means For Organic Search Results

AI is reshaping SEO by using machine learning and natural language processing to analyze data, understand search intent, and automate key tasks. From keyword research and content optimization to technical audits and user behavior analysis, AI helps marketers make smarter, faster decisions. It also powers search engines like Google through systems such as RankBrain and BERT, which focus on context and relevance rather than just keywords. The result is a more adaptive, efficient approach to improving visibility and search performance.

The above paragraph was written entirely by AI as an example of how it’s used in SEO in practice nowadays. Even this example understates AI’s current use in marketing. Much of today’s marketing content is fully AI-generated, often used to sell brands and products. But AI isn’t just utilised in content creation, it’s also changing how search works entirely. This can be seen in PPC, with Google adding AI to all newly created campaign assets on their Ads platform. Humans still have control of the prompts… for now.

AI Search Results - Is Organic Ranking Dying?

Currently when you load up a Google search, you are greeted with a few things:

This is the AI overview (Google's AI-powered search summary tool), sponsored ads, and a few organic links to the right of the AI overview. On this large screen where this screenshot was taken I can’t even see a single organic result. I even had to scroll down in order to see all the ads, it felt like I was in the middle of Times Square.

It’s easy to point the finger at Open AI (ChatGPT), Alphabet (Google) or Microsoft (Copilot) but the reality is simple: humans naturally seek the laziest way to find information. It’s also why we can’t resist fast food and subscription services. Getting information delivered directly to your eyeballs as quickly as possible is part of the human experience. Why click through 20 different sites when AI can give me the answer instantly with no effort on my part?

What Does The New AI Age Of Search Mean For SEOs?

We’re all going to lose our jobs. Kidding… mostly. Ads and AI-generated content dominates the top of the rankings, but an SEO-first strategy can still succeed. However it will take a lot of positive results to get to that point. This is in contrast to the ads dominating the top 3, sometimes top 5 results based on ad-spend.

There used to be an SEO saying “Where is the best place to hide a dead body? On Page 2 of Google”. This adage couldn’t be more true now, since page 2 might as well be an SEO graveyard. You need to stay on the cutting edge; respond to updates, adapt content, optimise for AI-based search patterns. And even that is just scratching the surface.

What Are Some Of The Pros Of The AI Results?

Everything being AI isn’t necessarily all doom and gloom. For users, AI’s ability to deliver information instantly, often with helpful comparisons, is extremely handy. SEO-savvy professionals can extract the information from Google’s AI overview and leverage it to find gaps and improve content strategies. They can also use ChatGPT to better understand what AI expects to find, and use that to their advantage. AI experiences a lot of updates, more so than any search engine, so you need to be agile in order to adapt.

What Can We Expect In The Future from AI SEO?

Layoffs are already hitting some of the largest technology companies in the world. Roles like on-page and technical SEO specialists will be in less demand. AI already produces content, optimises it and gives you things like heading structure. With technical SEO, Google’s machine learning is already the cause of how everything crawls. In a few years, AI could potentially set up websites to be crawlable with no input from humans at all.

Graduates and pros familiar with AI will have more opportunities. Starting with AI knowledge is a big advantage. Higher-level positions will require you to be familiar with SEO and AI at the very least. My recommendation would be to learn AI tools now. Learn how to automate tasks, use prompts and let AI help you smooth out your processes.

Is Organic Search Doomed?

While it can be scary to think about what AI has done and will do to marketing in the future, organic opportunities still remain. You just need to be able to adapt alongside the times. If used wisely, these tools can streamline your workload and support your efforts, but don’t just rely on them to succeed, you have a brain, use it to rank. The fundamentals of SEO aren’t gone, but they’ve evolved into something unrecognisable in an AI-first Internet.