Voices of Search Podcast

Episode: How to Use Gen AI to Build Your SEO Program

Date: December 8, 2025
Host: Tyson Stockton (Co-founder & CEO, PreVisible)
Guest: Eric Enge (President, Pilot Holding)

Episode Overview

In this episode, Tyson Stockton and seasoned SEO expert Eric Enge discuss how generative AI (Gen AI) is reshaping SEO strategies and program building. They dive into the current state of AI-powered tools, how SEO fundamentals persist amid technological upheaval, and specific, actionable ways to operationalize AI for SEO. The conversation is grounded in pragmatism, offering reassuring insights for SEO leaders, strategists, and practitioners seeking to adapt without abandoning core principles.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Industry Change and the Energy of Disruption

• Eric describes his enduring enthusiasm for SEO, likening market disruptors like Gen AI to moments when "new winners are born" (02:53). He views this as a major entrepreneurial opportunity.
  • Quote: "That's entrepreneurs, when they see disruptive events and times of change, rather than being scared of it, they embrace it because that's when new winners are born." — Eric Enge (02:53)

2. Current State of Gen AI in Search and Content Marketing

• Widespread adoption: 67% of businesses in 2024 use AI for content marketing and SEO (00:43).
• Key Tech Shifts:
  • ChatGPT 5: Smarter, less computationally expensive, can rapidly target topics.
    • "ChatGPT 5 is smart at knowing how to go find information quickly as targeted to specific topics." — Eric Enge (04:02)
  • Agentic browsers: Emerging platforms (Perplexity, OpenAI) that act as interactive browsing assistants, researching across sites and guiding users through tasks (05:00–06:24).
    • "An agentic browser will do things like take high level tasks for you, go research information across a whole bunch of websites, bring some things back to you, ask for some clarifications... and will actually be your coach..." — Eric Enge (05:09)

3. The Market: Google’s Enduring Dominance

• Cautious disruption: Despite headlines about AI challengers, Google remains the "big dog," especially among older users with established habits (07:48-11:49).
  • "The primary thing you still have to focus on for getting traffic and visibility is Google and you know, AI overviews and traditional search and you know, that's the primary platform still." — Eric Enge (10:44)
• AI Overviews: Lighter Gemini-powered responses in Google’s results, unlikely to radically shift user habits overnight (10:35–11:49).
• Expected incremental adoption: Full AI-mode results may cover 20–30% of queries in coming months, but dramatic shifts will be gradual.

4. Competitive Pressure and Adaptation

• Market forces prompted Google's rapid response to Gen AI, partly due to external pressure (e.g., Samsung's flirtation with Bing for generative AI on devices) (13:09-15:34).
• Historical view: Truly disruptive tech (like automobiles over railroads) takes time to reach domination, and current AI is still prone to basic errors and "humorously dumb" mistakes in content generation (14:28).

5. Algorithms Under the Hood: What’s the Same, What’s New

• Fundamental similarity in relevance algorithms: Whether LLMs or Google, embeddings and cosine similarity still determine content relevance (17:51–21:34).
  • "There is actually a lot of commonality in the algorithms used... Relevance is a fundamental ranking factor no matter what platform you're using." — Eric Enge (17:51)
• Vectors & embeddings math: Both LLMs and Google’s search use high-dimensional vectors to assess relevance, using algorithms like cosine similarity (19:00).
• Actionable insight: SEOs can leverage relevance scoring tools (e.g., Screaming Frog or custom in-house tools) to optimize for both search and LLMs (23:58).

6. Building AI-Integrated SEO Programs

• Process recommendations:
  • Regularly use relevance-scoring tools for your important pages.
  • Compare your content’s scores with competitors and optimize accordingly.
    • "This is simply money lying on the table waiting for you to pick it up." — Eric Enge (24:22)
  • Public text embedding models (e.g., Google’s text-embedding-5) make it easier to build custom analysis tools (24:50).
• Cross-platform optimization: Improving embedding relevance benefits both Google and AI tools—especially as the lines blur.

7. Engagement Metrics & Evolving Measurement

• Shifts in user interaction: As more interactions occur within SERPs or agentic browsers—rather than on individual pages—Google and competitors will need to adapt how they collect and use engagement data (27:48–29:07).
  • Historical click/bounce metrics will be supplemented or replaced by interaction signals within the AI or browser environment.
  • "Google has been using the interaction with the search results like going back and doing a clarifying search, which means that the question wasn't answered by whatever sites the person used." — Eric Enge (28:30)
• LLMs anticipate next questions: Modern AI attempts to handle not just immediate user intent, but guess and serve the followup intents as well (29:52).
  • "They try to anticipate the next question and they try to in the responses they provide, not just simply directly answer the question asked, but the next one and the next one, the next one. And that's fundamental to how the LLM algorithms work." — Eric Enge (29:55)
• Measurement complexity: AI platforms are measuring "a furball of a math problem," seeking KPIs that reflect both intent and satisfaction (31:56).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Embracing Disruption:
  "That's entrepreneurs, when they see disruptive events and times of change, rather than being scared of it, they embrace it because that's when new winners are born." — Eric Enge (02:53)

• On Technology Advances:
  "ChatGPT 5 is smart at knowing how to go find information quickly as targeted to specific topics." — Eric Enge (04:02)

• On ‘Agentic Browsers’:
  "An agentic browser will do things like take high level tasks for you, go research information across a whole bunch of websites, bring some things back to you, ask for some clarifications... and will actually be your coach..." — Eric Enge (05:09)

• Google’s Current Position:
  "The primary thing you still have to focus on for getting traffic and visibility is Google and you know, AI overviews and traditional search and you know, that's the primary platform still." — Eric Enge (10:44)

• Foundational SEO Key:
  "There is actually a lot of commonality in the algorithms used... Relevance is a fundamental ranking factor no matter what platform you're using." — Eric Enge (17:51)

• Practical Opportunity:
  "This is simply money lying on the table waiting for you to pick it up." — Eric Enge (24:22)

• On AI Anticipating Needs:
  "They try to anticipate the next question and... not just simply directly answer the question asked, but the next one and the next one." — Eric Enge (29:55)

Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:43: Tyson introduces the context—SEMrush statistics and the urgency for AI integration in SEO.
• 04:02: Eric breaks down ChatGPT 5 and the future of agentic browsers.
• 07:48: Discussing Google’s enduring “big dog” status and how disruption is incremental.
• 13:09: How market forces and Samsung’s move influenced Google's AI embrace.
• 17:39: Tyson and Eric discuss the overlap and differences between traditional and AI-driven SEO prioritization.
• 19:00: Technical breakdown of vector embeddings and cosine similarity.
• 23:58: Operationalizing relevance scoring tools and process advice.
• 27:48: Adapting engagement measurement as user behavior shifts to within-AI or SERP environments.
• 29:52: LLMs and the push to anticipate not just current but next user intents.

Takeaways for SEO Practitioners

• Don’t panic: The foundations of good SEO (relevance, authority, engagement) remain consistent, even as AI evolves.
• Be pragmatic: Optimize for Google first, but modernize your toolkit with AI-empowered analysis (embedding vectors, similarity scores).
• Stay agile: Monitor AI developments but avoid chasing every new platform—adjust strategies stepwise, not wholesale.
• Exploit new tooling: Off-the-shelf or lightly engineered tools can now power robust relevance tracking for all critical content.
• Future-ready measurement: Prepare for conversions and engagement data to increasingly come from interactions inside AI-powered interfaces.

This summary captures the episode's substance, actionable insights, and tone—enabling SEO professionals to quickly grasp the evolving landscape and how generative AI is both disrupting and reinforcing long-standing principles.