Jason BerkowitzFounder, SEO Director at Break The Web

Does SEO Still Matter for AI Search? #seo #aisearch #ecommerce #ai

23 Oct 2026 · 2 min

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2:24

In this conversation, Jason Berkowitz and a co‑host explore the emerging role of SEO in AI‑driven search and commerce. They speculate that future AI platforms could enable users to purchase products directly within the search experience—similar to an enhanced Google Shopping—but this would require a major shift in consumer behavior. The co‑host emphasizes the current randomness, misinformation, and rapid evolution of AI search, questioning whether marketers should even be trying to optimize for it now. Jason counters that staying aware of the evolving landscape is essential; the most successful SEOs over the past 15 years have survived by continuously adapting. He argues that strong SEO still drives visibility in AI‑generated overviews (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude) and that brand presence, digital PR, and link building remain valuable signals for AI platforms. The dialogue underscores that while the AI search environment is still fluid, the willingness to evolve and maintain solid SEO fundamentals will determine future success.

Overall, I think there probably is going to be a world where you can, very similar to Google Shopping, which nobody really uses, make a purchase directly in a platform without visiting a website. But I think that would also require a big shift in consumer behavior.
So, I mean, there's a lot of randomness, there's misinformation, there's just so— I think the key phrase here is we don't know. Right? It is so new and evolves so quickly. Rather than ask, you know, how do I optimize for AI? I think a better question is, should I even be thinking about it? Right? Is this even a current ongoing concern?
Concern? No. Thinking about it? Yeah. I mean, I think, I think it's beneficial to have a pulse on the changing landscape of technology. The best SEOs that have been around, if you knew SEOs 15 years ago that are still absolutely killing it today, It's because they have the trait of evolving and adapting and accepting. And the older we get, the more stubborn we get, and the willingness to adapt and evolve decreases significantly. So things are changing right now and things are going to continue to change, but the swiftness of a great SEO will be put to the test in their willingness to adapt and evolve, and other marketers as well. So, Having it as a concern, maybe not being aware of what's taking place. Absolutely. Because also there's a lot of data to show that really good SEO just helps with really good visibility in these platforms, in AI mode, in AI overviews, ChatGPT, Claude. So when you think about like, oh, the more times your brand appears on the web, you're more likely to be more favorable in these AI platforms. Okay, cool. Digital PR and link building. Same thing. Really good SEO now from like any correlations that people are seeing is, is just good SEO with these platforms.
Yeah. So we know, all right, the one-time things that we could do is just like general SEO stuff, robots.txt, make sure we've not excluded robots because that's how OpenAI will access the site. If you're technical, you could do this llms.txt thing. You know, it's like 20 minutes of screwing around if you have to do the research. It's not a big deal. Probably doesn't do anything, doesn't hurt anything either.