Start with what has not changed.
The vocabulary around AI Search has moved quickly: GEO, AEO, AI SEO, LLM optimisation and more. The useful corrective in 2026 is that Google itself continues to say its generative Search features are built on the foundations of Search. Pages still need to be crawlable, indexable, useful and eligible to appear in Search. There is no special AI schema or magic file that guarantees inclusion in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
That does not mean AI discovery is identical to classic SEO. It means the new layer sits on top of fundamentals rather than replacing them.
Clarity matters before optimisation.
An AI system cannot confidently represent a company if the public web is inconsistent about what the company is, what it sells, who it serves and what it is known for.
Clear organisation information, coherent service/product taxonomy, useful about pages, consistent external profiles and unambiguous product/category language all reduce interpretive friction.
Information architecture becomes more valuable.
Generative systems often need to retrieve specific pieces of information rather than simply choose one “best page”. That makes well-organised specialist knowledge valuable.
A site where concepts, products, locations, people and related topics are clearly connected gives both people and retrieval systems better pathways through the subject. This is one reason old-fashioned information architecture has become newly strategic.
Authority is partly off-site.
A brand website can explain itself, but it cannot independently establish every claim of authority. Publications, expert references, reviews, industry sites, marketplaces and other credible third parties help shape the wider evidence environment around a brand.
This is also why AI Search cannot be reduced to on-page copy. The question is not only “What does the brand say?” but “What does the wider web reliably say, and which sources are repeatedly surfaced?”
Measure questions, not vanity mentions.
A count of AI mentions can look impressive while having little commercial value. We prefer a controlled benchmark of the questions customers genuinely ask: category choices, comparisons, use cases, problem-solving and provider selection.
For each question set, track presence, context, competitor share, citation sources, accuracy and change over time. Where available, combine that with Search Console’s generative-AI reporting and business outcomes such as qualified visits, branded demand or assisted journeys.
The takeaway.
AI Search does not create a licence to forget SEO fundamentals. It creates a new reason to make a brand clearer, more useful, more authoritative and easier to retrieve.