How Marketing Will Change in the Next 2 Years

About This Episode

AI search has arrived faster than the attribution to measure it, so how should businesses invest when the reporting still can’t prove it worked?

In this episode of SEO On-Air, host Koa Kauwe sits down with Alan Reed (Hawk Digital), Courtney Henderson (Holland Adhaus), and Jack Giblin (829 Studios) to discuss where marketing is heading over the next two years, what falls away, and where the money should go right now.

The panel explores whether AI search is a performance channel yet or a longer term investment in brand authority. Jack calls it an emerging discovery layer where last click attribution still doesn’t exist despite a billion active users on AI Mode. Courtney draws the line between being cited and being chosen. Alan argues it became a performance channel eighteen months ago and points to a roofing lead that pays back a retainer on a single sale.

They also discuss the blind blog test for spotting content that isn’t good enough, the air purification brand that reached number two above Dyson, following the money to publishers with LLM training deals, why rankings decay sharply after twelve months, and the AI ad failures that prove a human still needs to be the first and last touchpoint.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

– Why being cited in AI is not the same as being chosen.
– How to tell whether AI search is a performance channel for your business.
– Why SEO fundamentals are still the foundation of AI visibility.
– How to structure content so LLMs can read and cite it.
– Why local and regional brands have a window of opportunity that is quickly closing.
– How digital PR and publisher partnerships help get your brand into AI training data.
– Why LLM rankings drop off sharply after twelve months.
– How a small brand outranked Dyson in its own category.
– The “blind blog test” for determining whether your content is truly differentiated.
– Why the next competitive advantage is being better than the average of averages.

Whether you’re an agency owner, SEO professional, digital marketer, or business leader, this episode provides actionable insights into building AI visibility, structuring content for LLMs, and deciding where to invest as search changes underneath you.

Because over the next two years, the brands that win won’t be the ones producing the most AI content.

They’ll be the ones producing the content AI can’t average away.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Introduction to SEO On-Air & the Next Two Years of Marketing

02:20 Meet Courtney Henderson, Jack Giblin & Alan Reed

04:18 Is AI Search Delivering Measurable ROI Today?

06:38 Why Being Cited Is Not the Same as Being Chosen

11:55 Is AI Optimization Different From SEO or Just a Rebrand?

17:27 Creating Content That Beats Generic AI Output

21:33 Should AI Search and SEO Have Separate Budgets?

28:06 Why LLM Rankings Drop Off After 12 Months

32:25 How a Small Brand Outranked Dyson in AI Search

40:01 Predictions: How Marketing Changes Over the Next Two Years