A very interesting experiment was recently described by consultant Bill Hartzer on his website. In Is AIO the New SEO? he wondered if a popular AI resource could be ‘trained’ to give a different answer. If so, he suggested, we may be seeing the start of AI Optimisation, which (if AI-powered search begins to take over) could replace Search Engine Optimisation.
In the experiment, Hartzer’s goal was to see if he could train the AI, by asking it to give a URL, then correcting the AI by adding another URL. He then asked the AI the question again, to see if it responded with both URLs (it did).
Of course, nobody is suggesting that this is the way AI-powered search will work in general, but the article is thought-provoking at least. The author concludes: “As digital marketers, we all need to start thinking about how AI is going to affect digital marketing as a whole, and how we can adjust and adapt. If AI is going to be more and more a part of what consumers are using to find stuff on the web and get answers, we need to adapt to that.
“So let’s start thinking about AIO, AI optimization, and how we can start doing it, if the AIs are going to allow us to help train them.”