The era of Google’s “Pay to display” / Search Engine Optimisation model is over. The Financial Times has called this post-SEO age out as ‘Google Zero’.

Clearly, Agentic AI-powered chatbots have changed the way many of us search and how all of us will consume information forever. In turn this has disrupted what some have called the most lucrative business model ever.

This new reality has yet to be fully reflected in the ad revenues of Big Tech. However, we can already see the impending Google Zero has radically reduced the volume of clicks for traditional, ‘dumb’ search links based on Adwords. 

For too long, the status quo model of paid ads subsidised free web usage with their advertiser spending. Now publishers are waking up to a new reality. Let’s face it, the friction and frustration of slowly working your way to the content you crave is an experience few of us will miss. We just want answers.

More importantly for tech CMOs and their teams, Google Zero upends how they need to promote their products and solutions online. They have to react fast because we are witnessing a category-creating shift to the AI Overview as the new shop window for B2B offerings. 

The Attention Economy’s rentiers

For decades, the owners of ‘web real estate’ like online ad exchanges,  messaging apps and social media communities profited most from SEO. The ‘Attention Economy’ they created persuaded businesses to pay these ‘rentiers’ to advertise on the ‘properties’ they owned. 

According to these website owners, this is where potential customers allegedly spent their time. 

Whether or not click rates were accurate, SEO-directed traffic came with downsides, including:

• The decline of journalism 
• The disintermediation of creative advertising agencies 
• The reduction of brand power to build moats

Journalists, advertising professionals and brands were forced to cede control to those whose walled gardens corralled audiences and allegedly captured their buyers’ attention. Until recently, that buyer attention has been retained, but as social media sites blended entertainment and shopping portals, actual buying intent moved further away from search engines and more towards short-form videos.

Chat changes the game

Now chatbots have added another layer of abstraction. They offer a valid alternative for buyers with real buying intent to research purchases. For marketing, the results of these AI-driven chats increasingly present more value. 

While there is a powerful rearguard action by Google and others to simulate the value chatbots offer, the momentum is with applications built on Large Language Models (LLMs), which users interact with, such as Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity. The monopoly which SEO and Search used to enjoy is coming to an end.

The AIO future

The near future points towards “Artificial Intelligence Optimisation”, a new category replacing SEO as the primary on-ramp to online information. Bidding for text phrases and key words no longer cuts it. LLMs for now, primarily search for text strings, favouring long-tail, long-form human-created content, not gobbledygook search terms – and video is coming.

With AI Overviews as the de facto means of accessing online information, attention is now turning to the citations on which these responses are built. Research shows these citations come from credible sources like earned media, like online press coverage from credible outlets,, third party reference sources and user generated content (UGC) from communities.

This makes human-created, AI-infused content, on a scale not seen before crucial for differentiation. As search traffic patterns change, here’s a five-point action plan for B2B CMOs to capitalise on the shift from SEO to AI-driven optimisation:

1. Prioritise earned media and PR: Reallocate budget and focus from traditional search advertising to public relations and earned media strategies which rank highly in AI citations. This will involve recultivating relationships with journalists, securing third-party editorial coverage, and actively engaging in thought leadership to build brand prominence in AI Overviews and chatbot responses.
2. Invest in AI-infused content creation: Develop a content strategy incorporating AI tools for research and ideation, but supplemented human oversight and quality checks. Go for a wide variety of content and focus on creating high-quality, differentiated and human-verified content tailored for AI consumption to establish authoritative answers for AI searches.
3. Optimise for AI overviews and chatbots: AI prioritises direct answers, like FAQs over traditional vague search links.Understand clearly how AI models synthesize and present back your information. Move beyond keyword stuffing and optimising content for concise and credible answers which directly address user queries.
4. Re-evaluate brand differentiating factors: As AI standardises product presentation, CMOs have to try harder to craft unique brand narratives with stand out experiences. This could involve experiential marketing, experimenting and cultivating strong brand communities to foster loyalty beyond transactional outreach.
5. Favour owned content: Break free from the limitations of SEO-driven content and encourage creative, diverse content formats, including video (YouTube, TikTok) and audio via podcasts. Much of this may be owned media, which brands fully control. Getting this right means greater ownership of AI Overview results and the ability to change narratives fast in reaction to market moves. Win-win.

AI is less of a threat to B2B marketing than the naysayers believe. It truly is those who can adapt from the ‘one and done’ world of paid ads to the dynamic world of AI Optimisation who will win out. Positive can help in the new AIO environment, let us show you how.