In this special episode of The Visibility Brief, recorded live at SEO Week, Rebecca Colwell is joined by Garrett Sussman (Director of Marketing at iPullRank) and Christian Ward (Chief Data Officer at Yext) for a candid reflection on where the industry actually stands today.

A year ago, AI search felt like a novelty. New tools, new ideas, and a lot of speculation. Today, the tone has shifted. The excitement hasn’t disappeared – but it’s been replaced by something more grounded: uncertainty, urgency, and a growing realization that the rules are changing faster than most teams can keep up.

So what’s actually changed in the last 12 months? And more importantly, what hasn’t?

This conversation goes beyond tactics. It’s about how SEO is evolving as a function, why so many teams are still “admiring the problem,” and what it will take to move from understanding AI to actually acting on it.

The episode breaks down:

Why the industry feels more mature, but still a bit stuck
The gap between understanding AI’s impact and actually changing strategy or execution
Why technical understanding of AI pipelines matters
Why SEO is positioned to lead…but often doesn’t
Why content strategy is shifting back toward uniqueness and context
Why brands are struggling to define success in AI visibility

The tools are evolving. The models are improving. The opportunity is real. But most brands haven’t made the shift yet, and that gap is where the next wave of advantage will be created.