The Digital Executive – Ep 1163

How AI Is Rewriting SEO and Digital Strategy—With Adam Hamadache
Date: December 4, 2025
Host: Brian (Coruzant Technologies)
Guest: Adam Hamadache, CEO and Digital Strategist

Episode Overview

In this compact 10-minute episode, Adam Hamadache—expert in digital strategy, AI, SEO, and hospitality—unpacks how artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming SEO, digital marketing, and business strategy. With over a decade of entrepreneurial experience, Adam discusses key business pivots, the misunderstood realities of AI-driven search, what really matters versus hype in hospitality tech, and how AI will reframe the future of marketing, not just for hospitality, but across industries. The conversation flows from high-level strategic lessons to actionable insights on preparing for an AI-first search landscape.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Scaling an Agency: Turning Points and Lessons (01:12–03:55)

• Impact of COVID:
  • The pandemic was a forced pause that revealed weaknesses in business systems and provided time to reset.
  • "In January 2020, we were absolutely booming, but we were also kind of rattling…that kind of pause allowed us to just take a breath and realize, okay, what systems are lacking in the business." (Adam, 01:46)
• Implementing EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System):
  • Inspired by the book Traction, Adam restructured his leadership style, identifying himself as the visionary who needed an integrator for daily operations.
  • Weekly 'Pulse meetings' replaced chaotic catch-up calls, improving focus and accountability.
• Strategic Refocus and Capacity Limit:
  • The agency capped at 20 clients, replaced juniors with only senior hires, ditched long-term contracts, and built proprietary ScorePlan technology to maximize value for a small client base.
  • "Imagine an agency that obsessed about its clients' growth, not its own…we got rid of all the juniors…built our own proprietary score plan technology." (Adam, 03:32)

2. AI & SEO: Misunderstood Shifts and What Businesses Must Do (04:41–07:08)

• AI Search ≠ Just Another Channel
  • The rise of acronyms (AEO, GEO, AXO) distracts from a bigger shift: digital marketing itself is fundamentally changing, not just adding complexity.
  • "What is actually happening is that digital marketing itself is fundamentally changing." (Adam, 04:54)
• Two Enduring Pillars of Digital Marketing:
  • Building brand assets that inform, entice, and convert (websites, social feeds, listings).
  • Driving visibility and traffic (SEO, ads, social).
• Two New Responsibilities in the Age of AI:
  • Get recommended by AI: Strive to be among the few surfaced results by AI agents.
  • Influence what AI says about your brand: Proactively manage your "AI shadow," a dynamic, impartial interpretation by AI composed of all available data about your brand.

3. Hospitality & AI: What Matters and What’s Hype (07:45–11:42)

• Search Results Are Shrinking:
  • Traditional Google results show 21 options; AI-powered search typically delivers just four, highly personal recommendations.
  • "Really, I suppose the question is, how do you be one of the four as often as possible?" (Adam, 08:47)
• Reputation Intelligence is King:
  • Reputation management platforms are now essential—negative reviews have amplified impact in the age of AI, which summarizes and broadcasts sentiment before users visit your site.
• Content is More Critical than Ever:
  • Detailed, rich, and structured content is required. Features—often overlooked for benefits in marketing—are now critical because AI extracts and uses those details in recommendations.
  • "AIs are really looking for the steak, not the sizzle." (Adam, 10:11)
• Hyped Tech to Approach Cautiously:
  • Novel robotics (e.g., bartending robots) are more gimmick than substance for most of hospitality.
  • "I'd say steer away from the kind of novel robotics and look at the more data-focused ways that AI is impacting business." (Adam, 11:30)

4. The Future of AI in SEO, Marketing, and Consumer Behavior (12:30–15:12)

• Agentic Shift: Marketing to AI Agents, Not Just People
  • The paradigm will shift from marketing to individuals to marketing to AI agents acting on their behalf.
  • "When every customer trusts their own highly personalized curated agent to research, book and purchase…that's game changing." (Adam, 12:49)
• Features Over Benefits:
  • The old adage "sell the sizzle, not the steak" is being reversed. Content needs to include exhaustive and accurate feature information so AI agents can make optimal, detailed selections.
  • "We need to flip that on its head and be talking about all of the features in depth." (Adam, 13:52)
• Travel as an Example of Deeply Considered Purchases
  • [Expedia Path to Purchase Report] On average, travel shoppers spend 45 days visiting 140+ pages before booking—AI can streamline this, and brands must prepare for agent-driven selection.
  • "The Expedia Path to Purchase report…found that on average travel customers are visiting 141 pages…over 45 days before making a purchase." (Adam, 14:35)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Digital Marketing's New Era (05:57):

  • "Brands have to consider that the two new responsibilities are get recommended by AI and influence what AI is saying about you." (Adam)

• On Reputation Intelligence (09:41):

  • "Your online reputation now carries a lot more weight in the age of AI search than it ever has really done in the age of traditional search." (Adam)

• On Content Depth (10:11):

  • "AIs are really looking for the steak, not the sizzle." (Adam)

• On Marketing's Next Frontier (13:43):

  • "If and when we get to that phase, we'll start having to market to agents, not people." (Adam)

Key Segment Timestamps

• Turning points in business scaling: 01:12–03:55
• AI’s misunderstood impact on digital marketing: 04:41–07:08
• Hospitality’s digital transformation—what matters, what's hype: 07:45–11:42
• The future: agentic AI and industry-wide transformation: 12:30–15:49

Summary Takeaways

• AI is fundamentally changing digital marketing, not just adding complexity.
• Brands must actively manage their reputation and ensure comprehensive, up-to-date, feature-rich content for AI-driven recommendations.
• Rather than focusing on technical SEO tricks, businesses need a holistic, strategic approach to influencing how AI interprets and presents their offerings to consumers.
• In just a few years, marketing strategies will shift from courting human audiences toward optimizing for AI agents making decisions on consumers' behalf.

(Episode skips advertisements, intros, outros; focused solely on content-rich discussion.)