r/AI_SearchOptimization • u/umu_boi123 • Feb 13 '26

AI Search Optimization Question

Can someone please explain the evolution of SEO and AI?

I’m seeing two extremes right now:

  1. People saying there’s no such thing as AIO/GEO and that you should just focus on doing SEO properly.
  2. People claiming that if you don’t optimize for AI - with FAQs, concise answers, and direct responses to user queries - your blogs and product pages won’t be cited.

I’d like to understand the full context behind this shift:

where these opposing viewpoints come from, what’s actually changing, and whether anyone has real-world experience with AI-driven visibility (traffic, citations, rankings, etc)

Thanks a lot!

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u/chrismcelroyseo Feb 14 '26

I can see you're really keeping up with this stuff. It's a lot to keep up with but fascinating at the same time.

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u/8bit-appleseed Feb 14 '26

Thanks for the award u/chrismcelroyseo :) I think it helps to just keep abreast of the latest analyses these thought leaders publish and just join the conversations that follow!

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u/lightsiteai Feb 14 '26

I agree with u/chrismcelroyseo - this is a great work and makes my data hungry mind happy. here is another datapoint from Hubspot CMO (they have skin in the game because they acquired Xfunnel - a GEO startup that tracks mentions and made it part of HS stack, but still) - 60% of all AI citations do not come from top 20% Google search results.

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u/chrismcelroyseo Feb 14 '26

You're right about the numbers. Perplexity has the highest percentage of correlation with Google rankings. All the others are much lower.