Podcast Summary: The Marketing Architects
Episode: What Every Brand Should Know About AI Search with Josh Blyskal, Profound
Date: January 6, 2026
Host(s): Marketing Architects team (Elena Jasper, Rob Demars, Jonathan Elfreich)
Guest: Josh Blyskal, Profound
Episode Overview
This episode dives deep into Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and the seismic shift from traditional SEO to AI-powered, conversational search. Featuring guest Josh Blyskal—lead AEO strategist at Profound—the panel explores emerging best practices, measurement strategies, and the implications for both marketers and brands in a rapidly evolving search landscape. Expect practical advice, spicy takes, and grounded predictions for the future of AI search.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. The Shift from SEO to AEO
- Cultural Inflection Point: The conversation starts by addressing the rapid, widespread adoption of AI in information-seeking behaviors.
- “When your grandma is like, I asked ChatGPT and this is what it showed me... okay, this is going to be cultural.” — Josh Blyskal (00:00)
- Changing User Habits: As users shift to conversational interfaces (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI), search itself evolves.
- “As people change their behavior towards wanting conversational experiences, it's easy to start to see that the money is gonna come from optimizing for those conversational experiences.” — Josh Blyskal (00:12)
Timeline of Change
- Early Signs (2022–2023): There was buzz and early speculation, but big shifts materialized in early 2024.
- The turning point: When ChatGPT & Bing’s integration started driving conversions, not just curiosity.
- “If I had to put a date on it, just to keep it concise, I'd probably say early 24, it was very clear.” — Josh Blyskal (04:08)
2. What Is AEO? Core Principles & Differences from Traditional SEO
- Definition: Ensuring your brand is “accurately represented in AI-generated responses” (e.g. ChatGPT, Perplexity).
- Content Must Be:
- Structured, answer-first
- Highly factual, source-backed, clear, utilitarian
- Optimized for machine readability
- SEO Is Not Dead: Classic SEO signals still matter, but their role is changing.
- “Do not throw your SEO out the window. Don't get rid of your SEO. SEO is not dead, not even by a long shot.” — Josh Blyskal (06:01)
- New Focus: For AEO, it's less about backlink strength and more about directly answering the user’s core questions, often in listicles, FAQs, and data-forward formats.
Key Quote
“It's about building context and letting the AI model be lazy. The AI model doesn't want to figure out everything about your industry… My dream is that... the model just gets the perfect answer from someone who's gone out, taken the time, constructed the data and has great, factual, sourced, appropriate data that's not, not slop written, not overly promotional.”
— Josh Blyskal (07:24)
3. Practical AEO Guidance: Where Should Brands Start?
Immediate Steps for Marketers:
- Audit your presence in AI search by plugging top user questions into ChatGPT/Perplexity
- Record when/if your brand surfaces and who else is being cited
- Look at content accessibility: static HTML, not JavaScript-heavy
Process (Starter Audit):
“Open ChatGPT. Write 10 or 15 burning questions that your buyer... is going to be asking about you, your industry, etc. Looking at how often you're actually showing up. Give yourself an actual mental spot check.”
— Josh Blyskal (10:03)
4. Differences Across AI Search Engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude)
- ChatGPT: Leverages a query "fan out," fetches top URLs from search APIs, then selects for snippets/answers.
- Perplexity: Has its own index, heavily caches, may lag on real-time content updates.
- Gemini (Google): Mix of classic search with new AI overview amplifications; loves YouTube.
- Claude: Uses the Brave browser for rankings; if you want to rank there, win on Brave.
“Claude uses Brave's browser. As of my last test at least Claude is using Brave and it's pulling rank 1, 2 and 3 from Brave in that order. That's right viewers, if you want to win on Claude, just win on Brave.”
— Josh Blyskal (12:30)
5. Measurement & KPIs in an AEO World
- Attribution Is Tough: AI answer engines often provide zero-click answers; you need to get creative.
- Add ChatGPT/AI as options in checkout surveys (“How did you hear about us?”)
- Track:
- Visibility (how often your brand is surfaced in key prompts)
- Citation counts in AI-generated answers
- Share of voice in specific user prompts
- Caveat: Clicks increasingly unreliable as a KPI; focus is now on visibility and presence in real prompts.
"Tracking clicks is like circularly bad, like we're moving towards zero click... I would rather track visibility. I would rather understand how I appear for the questions that are critical to my business." — Josh Blyskal (14:37)
6. Example: AEO in Practice
- Profound worked with an ecommerce running shoe brand to discover which product categories and long-tail questions matter in AI search (which differed from classic SEO).
- FAQs, technical product details (e.g. IT bands, shin splints), and budget questions matter more than volume-driven queries from traditional search.
7. Commerce & Structured Data: The Future of Zero-Click to Instant Checkout
- Rise of Instant Checkout (e.g. via ChatGPT): Brands must prepare to integrate product feeds and structured data directly into AI platforms.
- Prepare Now, Not Just Fortune 500s: Even small businesses should start structuring services/products for AI ingestion.
- Product Feeds, APIs, Connectors: This is the future flow for commerce through answer engines.
"The future of all this is going to be programmable, like merchants and programmable data. I'm going to upload my product feed as a CSV and I'm going to give that to OpenAI as a direct analog for what my storefront looks like."
— Josh Blyskal (19:19)
8. FAQs, Listicles & the Current State of AI “Winning” Content
- FAQs Are King (For Now): Sites with robust, clear FAQs dramatically outperform others in AI-based shopping scenarios (848% more likely, in one Profound study).
- But Don't Overdo It: As more brands adopt these tactics, competitive advantage may shift to even more nuanced content formats.
9. The JavaScript Issue: Technical Roadblock for Marketers
- Current Limitation: Answer engines only parse static HTML, not dynamically generated JavaScript content. Server-side rendering is crucial.
- Practical Impact: If key product info/FAQs/render only via JavaScript, AI models won’t see them.
"So when these answer engines access a page, they are accessing the static HTML elements of that page. They are not waiting for JavaScript to execute... There is this need for static."
— Josh Blyskal (28:33)
10. The Future (2–3 Years Out): Predictions and Contrarian Opinions
Prediction:
- Conversational, zero-click search will be universal.
- Commerce will pivot to APIs, feeds, and direct integrations, not scraping open web.
- SEO is Not Dead: Skilled SEOs should lead the charge, particularly in e-commerce and content structuring.
Contrarian Hot Take:
“My most contrarian AEO take is that SEO is still here to play. SEO is still here to stay. It is absolutely a world where this town is big enough for the both of us… SEOs have never had a better opportunity to become leaders and supercharged superheroes in their marketing orgs.”
— Josh Blyskal (25:43)
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- “I would have probably made more money if I just sold hot dogs on the street corner.” — Josh Blyskal, on his fashion entrepreneur days (01:24)
- “FAQs were present 848% more often in the top performing set.” — Josh Blyskal (21:56)
- “You already are one of the most important people at your company. The question is, does everybody else know it?” — Josh Blyskal, on SEO professionals (28:03)
- “The old things are often the best things. And there’s still a lot of beauty out there that's not even AI related.” — Josh Blyskal, on why his Datejust wristwatch is his favorite tech (31:05)
- “Agents are totally priced in. That is the A1 standard of doing this—it is not a feature. It is how it is done.” — Josh Blyskal, on overhyped AI tech (32:32)
- “If I asked what’s the best leather belt right now for men on sale at Macy’s, it better not try to scrape Macy’s. It better just go hit Macy’s backend.” — Josh Blyskal (20:07)
Timestamps of Significant Segments
- 00:00 — Introduction & AI’s Cultural Moment
- 01:24 — Josh Blyskal’s Entrepreneurial Journey
- 04:08 — When the Shift to AI Search Became Clear
- 06:01 — Traditional SEO vs. AEO: Key Differences
- 10:03 — How to Start an AEO Audit
- 11:04 — How AI Engines Differ in Ranking/Citation
- 13:51 — KPIs & Measurement for AEO
- 16:05 — Real Brand Example: Footwear E-commerce
- 19:19 — Instant Checkout and Structured Data Feeds
- 21:56 — Data: FAQs and Shopping Performance
- 28:33 — JavaScript Issue Explained
- 31:05 — Favorite and Overhyped Technologies
- 35:51 — Where to Find Josh & Profound's Research
Tone & Style
The episode is lively, research-driven, and practical, often punctuated by humor, frank assessment, and enthusiasm for both the challenges and opportunities created by AI-driven search. The guest brings clarity to a chaotic landscape, empowering marketers and SEOs to take actionable steps while forecasting an innovative, API-enabled future for brand visibility.
For further reading or to follow Josh’s research:
- LinkedIn: Josh Blyskal
- Profound: TryProfound.com
This summary covers the episode's core discussions, actionable insights, and memorable moments to equip marketers for the next era of AI-powered search.