Understanding The Relationship Between AI and SEO

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is inescapable these days. The number of AI publications across computer science venues rose to over 242,000 in 2023, while 60% of all searches are satisfied by AI-generated answers these days. With this in mind, the relationship between AI and SEO (search engine optimisation) is one that all digital marketers need to consider in 2025. Understanding how you might utilise AI for SEO purposes, along with properly ascertaining its limitations is essential for properly navigating the digital landscape of the day. 

This article will explore the ever-evolving world of AI SEO, sharing insights into how savviness has become a highly sought after commodity, along with showing how AI can highlight holes in a company’s authority when used improperly.

The rise of SEO AI-generated answers

Have you noticed how every time you Google something these days, you get an AI-generated answer and summary whether you want it or not? Now consider how many times you’ve been totally satisfied with the degree of information it provides. Unless you’re looking for something specific like a product or need a more detailed research document, you might well leave things there. 

It doesn’t matter that AI tools are confidently wrong a lot of the time; this is changing how much impact keyword-driven SEO pages can have on SERPs. This is resulting in SEO content needing to be made in different ways to have an impact, such as: 

• Incorporating more long tail, conversational keywords into content
• Proper commitment to the principles of Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) to show value on SERPs
• Ensuring a good user experience (UX) on the site
• Leaning towards longer, more academically written pieces of content

These approaches are largely focused on trying to get content featured within AI overviews, as this makes it more likely to be clicked through to.

The increased use of AI-generated content & automation

AI in SEO isn’t just impacting the way content is discovered or revealed – it’s also changing the way that people produce the content itself. We live in a generation of AI-powered SEO agents, attempting to streamline their operations.

AI-generated SEO content. It’s extremely commonplace for a company to offer SEO services for eCommerce businesses and similar companies, then simply use AI to produce what we like to refer to as “slop”. This isn’t to say that AI can’t be used to speed up the process of creating blogs and articles, but the quality and information in fully AI-driven pieces is often lacking, and search engines will largely flag these pieces. There are plenty of drawbacks to this approach.

Keyword research. AI and SEO might be more harmonious in the form of keyword research. Automated tools should be able to identify trending topics, long-tail keywords and content gaps that might otherwise be hard to identify.

Where is the industry going?

It’s worth noting that things like managed SEO services and more technical aspects of the practice are still largely enacted in many of the same ways. However, it’s clear that AI is here to stay and that trying to ignore it would be akin to putting your head in the sand. The best practice if trying to uphold a strong relationship between AI and SEO in your own business is to keep up to date with technology updates and industry practices, following a range of publications and resources. All the while, you should constantly update your strategy based on the results of trial and error. 

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