Episode Overview

Title: Your First Move to Prepare for the Direct-to-Agent Era
Podcast: Voices of Search // A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Podcast
Date: December 20, 2025
Host: Tyson Stockton
Guest: Brian Stempak, Co-Founder and CEO at Evertune

This episode explores strategic SEO and content adjustments in anticipation of the emerging "Direct-to-Agent" era, where AI agents play an increasingly significant role in how consumers interact with brands. Tyson Stockton and Brian Stempak delve into how enterprise brands must adapt their content strategies to educate not just consumers, but AI models that influence purchasing decisions.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Challenge of the Direct-to-Agent Era

• Shift in Audience: Traditionally, content was created with human consumers in mind. Now, the target is shifting toward AI agents and models that act as intermediaries between users and brands.
• Need for Increased Transparency: Brands must provide much more detailed, comprehensive, and accessible information about their products to ensure AI agents understand their offerings.

“The models really are insatiable to learn about any given product category, any use case, matching the right person to the right brand.”
— Brian Stempak (00:53)

Evolving Content Strategies

• From Curated Releases to Content Engines: Previously, brands—such as those in luxury fashion—might limit what they put online due to branding and approval processes. Today, there’s a push to drastically increase content volume and depth.
• Educating the Models: The volume and specificity of the information provided directly impacts how well an AI agent can represent a brand or product to potential customers.
• Broader Implication: This creates a new "audience" for marketers: not just consumers, but the AI intermediaries they increasingly trust to inform their choices.

“We've got to become content engines, we've got to turn out way more stuff. We've got to really educate the models about what we're about. This is a new audience to market to and it takes more volume than you had to use in the past because again, you have more of the model's attention than you do with the consumer.”
— Brian Stempak (01:40)

First Moves for Enterprise SEOs

• Information Sharing: Marketers must be much more liberal and proactive in sharing data about their company and products.
• Productive Content: Having a high quantity of content isn’t enough—quality and ability to inform AI models is key.
• Organizational Mindset Shift: This requires breaking out of restrictive approval cycles and embracing a "content engine" mentality.

“I think it starts with getting a seat at the table, being in the game, and then layering in those other optimizations on top of it.”
— Tyson Stockton (03:43)

Future Considerations

• Leveraging Agents for Content Creation: The discussion hints at a future in which brands use AI agents to generate content at scale, further increasing efficiency and sophistication.
• Starting Point: For now, the focus must be on simply “getting in the game”—providing enough input for AI agents to correctly represent the brand.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The models really are insatiable to learn about any given product category, any use case, matching the right person to the right brand.”
  — Brian Stempak [00:53]
• “We've got to become content engines, we've got to turn out way more stuff. We've got to really educate the models about what we're about.”
  — Brian Stempak [01:40]
• “I think it starts with getting a seat at the table, being in the game, and then layering in those other optimizations on top of it.”
  — Tyson Stockton [03:43]

Timestamps for Highlights

• 00:43 — Introduction to the Direct-to-Agent challenge for enterprises
• 00:53 — Brian Stempak on the need to feed data to AI models and changing mindset
• 01:40 — The case for brands transforming into content engines
• 03:28 — Tyson reinforces the paradigm shift and hints at AI-powered content production in the future
• 03:43 — Key takeaways on where to begin in preparing for the Direct-to-Agent era

Summary & Takeaways

• The Direct-to-Agent era brings the need for radically more content and transparency so that AI agents can accurately understand and recommend products and brands.
• Enterprise brands must adapt by increasing content volume, quality, and relevance aimed at educating not just people, but intelligent agents.
• The coming years will likely see brands deploying AI both as the audience and eventually as the content creators themselves. For now, brands must focus on visibility and data readiness to ensure their relevancy in AI-mediated purchasing decisions.