How AI is changing SEO org structure

Summary

Podcast Summary: How AI is Changing SEO Org Structure

Podcast: Voices of Search
Host: Tyson Stockton
Guest: Chris Antinsky, SVP of Creative and Co-Founder at Fractal
Release Date: March 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Tyson Stockton talks with Chris Antinsky about how artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally altering hiring practices, team structures, and skill requirements in the SEO and content marketing world. The discussion contrasts the evolving impact of AI on different functions across SEO—especially between data journalism and PR—offering practical insights into which abilities are growing in value as automated tools become more prevalent.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. AI’s Varied Impact Across SEO Roles

[00:46 – 03:36]

• PR and Outreach:

  • While AI assists with tasks like research and identifying outreach targets, the need for genuine human interaction in crafting and sending pitches remains:

    “At the end of the day, it's still a high-touch thing where it works much better to have a human writing email to another human than it does to try and bulk automate some AI product process.”
    — Chris Antinsky, [01:33]

  • Operational roles in PR haven’t shifted significantly regarding skill requirements: interpersonal abilities and understanding pitching fundamentals still matter most.

• Data Journalism:

  • Here, AI is a major disruptor. Those able to harness AI effectively have an outsized edge:

    “Now there's a massive difference between someone who can leverage AI really well and someone who can't.”
    — Chris Antinsky, [03:38]

  • Candidates with agility in using diverse AI tools (such as agents or platforms like Cursor) are more valuable than those focused on a narrow technical skillset.

    “One specific skillset is not as valuable as a broad-based approach to leveraging AI.”
    — Chris Antinsky, [04:38]

  • The expectation is for staff to use AI to dramatically accelerate sophisticated tasks—projects that would have taken weeks can now be expedited.

2. Shifting Skill Requirements

[03:36 – 04:49]

• Roles reliant on technical acumen (e.g., statistics, programming, data scraping) are evolving. Flexibility, rapid learning, and iterative use of AI tools become more important than mastery of narrowly defined skills (like a specific analytics tool).
• “...it would take them three weeks or a month to do it. Now we have agents and tools like Cursor that can help manage a project start to finish...”
  — Chris Antinsky, [04:04]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Human Touch in PR:

  “It works much better to have a human writing email to another human than it does to try and like bulk automate some AI product process.”
  — Chris Antinsky, [01:31]

• On Technical Agility and AI:

  “If you have someone that is more flexible and can learn really quickly on the fly, can leverage AI tools to iteratively improve—that sort of technical skill set is much more valuable...”
  — Chris Antinsky, [04:13]

• On the Changing Value of Specialized Skills:

  “One specific skill set is not as valuable as a broad based approach to leveraging AI.”
  — Chris Antinsky, [04:38]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:46] — Introduction; how hiring philosophy is changing at Fractal
• [01:12 – 02:08] — PR roles: Human touch vs. AI-driven automation
• [03:36 – 04:49] — Data journalism roles: Why AI agility beats legacy skills
• [04:04] — Example: Project acceleration via AI tools (Cursor)

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Episode Tone

The conversation is thoughtful and pragmatic, with both guests reflecting honestly about the promises and limitations of automation in SEO. Chris Antinsky maintains a straightforward, experience-based perspective, neither overselling nor dismissing AI—underscoring its real impact on how teams are structured and how talent is assessed.

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Takeaway for Listeners

• AI is quickly becoming a differentiator in technical SEO functions, rapidly transforming job roles and required proficiencies.
• However, some areas, such as outreach and relationship-building, still heavily rely on human nuance and creativity.
• The most valued employees going forward will be those who are agile, quick to learn, and able to broadly leverage AI across diverse responsibilities—not just “experts” in niche tools or disciplines.

Transcript

[Tyson Stockton]

The Voices of Search Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, IHeAreEverything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com welcome to the Voices of Search Podcast and I Hear Everything Production. In this podcast, we'll share the news, knowledge and strategies you need to navigate the ever changing world of SEO, ready to expedite your company's organic growth efforts. Sit back, relax and get ready for your daily dose of search engine optimization wisdom. Here's today's host of the Voices of Search podcast, Tyson Stockton.

My name is Tyson and joining me today is Chris Antinsky, SVP of Creative and co Founder at Fractal. How are you viewing who you're hiring and like, do you feel like the type of employees or type of roles? Like have you noticed a shift in how you're thinking about like team member growth within the company? Like has that shift?

[Chris Antinsky]

Yeah, and it depends on the role. So Fractal does really two things. Data journalism for brands and then PR for brands where we're pitching the content that we created for the brand to journalists. The PR part has some aspects of it that are helped with AI a great deal. So like the research parts of it, like understanding who you're pitching and what they're, what they would be interested in and so on matters. But at the end of the day it's still a high touch thing where it works much better to have a human writing email to another human than it does to try and like bulk automate some AI product process to do that. That sort of thing can be automated to a certain extent. But like the, the primary things that we would have hired on before are still sort of the same. It's, it's about like not are you the best at leveraging AI but like do you understand this process? And like can you write a good pitch email and that kind of thing?

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[Chris Antinsky]

On the on the data journalism side, it's changed a great deal because now there's a massive difference between someone who can leverage AI really well and someone who can't. So like even someone who's maybe really technically talented so has a background in statistics, has a background in programming, can write scrapers, can do all of the technical things that you would need to do to do a very sophisticated data journalism project, maybe they could do that, but it would take them three weeks or a month to do it. Now we have agents and tools like Cursor that can help manage a project start to finish, including all of those inherent complexities. So if you have someone that is more flexible and can learn really quickly on the fly, can leverage AI tools to iteratively improve that sort of technical skill set is much more valuable than a specified I learned statistics specifically, or I learned tableau specifically. One specific skill set is not as valuable as a broad based approach to leveraging AI.

[Tyson Stockton]

So with that, thanks for stopping by and we'll see you in the next episode.

SA.