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This week I stepped back from Pepperstone, my first Be Franc client, to focus on Obsero. Here's what I learned about AI search there, and what an investor in Dublin says VCs actually look for.
GEO
+8
Voice search was the most overhyped trend in SEO, built on a stat that was never what people thought it was. With AI on the other end, people are talking instead of typing.
+11
Google closed off its results on 26 August. ChatGPT's shopping answers look very different, the US has a merchant feed to fall back on and the UK has nothing underneath. Plus why one prompt is never a number, and Obsero turns one.
+4
OpenAI's announcement mentioned better use of sources. It did not mention a 5x jump, or ChatGPT going to sites by name. This week I look at what actually changed in the data on 8 August, and what 1,500 fan-outs on Levi's say about buying prompts.
I wanted to know who AI actually cites when it answers questions about running apps. So I pointed an AI agent at the Obsero raw data and built a dashboard to show it, start to finish. Then Cannes made it timely: AI search was the top conversation there this year, every CMO asking the same thing, how do we show up in AI answers and how do we measure it.
There is a way to measure how strongly AI associates your brand with the subjects that matter, and most brands have never looked. Here is how the scoring works, and the gap it exposed.
+5
ChatGPT launched ten days into the last World Cup. When Lionel Messi lifted the trophy in Qatar, consumer AI basically didn't exist. Four years on, millions of people will ask AI who's winning this one. So I did exactly that, at scale.
Perplexity
Social media changed politics in 2016. AI search will change it in 2029. We pointed Obsero at 10,000 prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, AI Mode and Perplexity to see which parties they were surfacing, which sources they trusted and which issues each party owned. The findings tell us something the polls couldn't.
AI Search
Two stories told a single one this week. Anthropic is reportedly raising at a $900bn valuation while OpenAI is missing its user targets and its CFO Sarah Friar is being left out of key meetings. The gap between the two is no longer about models. It's about whose business the market believes in.
OpenAI shipped Images 2.0 and ChatGPT 5.5 in the same week, while still working out how to monetise the rest of it. BrightonSEO lands on Friday. And the GEO vs SEO debate continues to suck oxygen out of conversations that should be about helping clients adapt. Let's get into it.
Claude Design landed this week and it properly moves the dial on what a small team can ship. Slides, wireframes, prototypes, landing pages in one chat; your brand applied automatically. Plus OpenAI's ads get serious, the AI search category continues to grow and Obsero launches 'Obsero Local'.
Six months ago, you could spot AI-generated content a mile off. Robotic phrasing, no real data, zero personality. That gap has closed. This week, I'm breaking down why every marketer now needs an AI content optimisation workflow, what OpenAI's podcast acquisition and leadership reshuffle signals about the race to control narrative, and why Time magazine is now selling GEO insights directly to brands. Plus the tool we've built at Obsero to help you act on all of it.
+6
I connected it, audited 63 posts and found the one thing killing my open rates.
Tutorial
This week: Google AIOs are appearing for breaking news more than ever, and Top Stories are being pushed down as a result. Trustpilot's annual results put a number on what AI search citation visibility is actually worth (spoiler: it moved the share price). Plus, who's winning AI search in the protein category, why CX research now matters more than keyword volumes, and what Obsero shipped this week.
+7
This week: how GPT-5.3 Instant and GPT-5.4 Thinking behave differently and what it means for your brand, why Rightmove's ChatGPT app launch raises a bigger question about discovery, and the news clips worth your time from Harry Clarkson-Bennett of The Telegraph.
+3
ChatGPT's checkout dream is over for now, and OpenAI has a major rival breathing down its neck. Anthropic's revenue has doubled in two months and the AI arms race enters geopolitics.
This week in AI search: Perplexity has rejected ads to protect user trust, while OpenAI is scaling aggressively with higher revenue forecasts and rising costs. Meanwhile, Google is trying to address publisher concerns by promising more links as AI-driven, zero-click search continues to grow.
This week in AI Search 👉 ChatGPT ads are beginning to surface, Cloudflare is reshaping how content is delivered to AI agents, and generative video is once again pushing into Hollywood.
From the death of surveillance marketing to GPT-6's memory revolution, Christian J Ward breaks down the three fragmentations reshaping AI search - and why your structured data strategy is now make or break.
Video
This week in AI Search, the pace isn’t slowing. OpenAI is edging closer to IPO territory, Google is pushing users deeper into AI Mode, and ChatGPT ads are being priced at a $60 CPM - a level that raises serious questions about value, intent and where ad budgets go next.
As OpenAI moves ChatGPT towards advertising, trust becomes the central issue - not capability. This edition looks at Demis Hassabis’ critique of the timing, the growing confusion around content “chunking,” and why citation analysis now matters more than ever in AI search.
It’s been a pivotal week for AI search. ChatGPT confirmed ads are coming, Google doubled down with Personal Intelligence and UCP, and Gemini’s reach expanded again. I’m also delighted to share my conversation with Crystal Carter at Wix, where she talks through how she approaches the huge and fast-evolving role of AI Search communications at the company.
The first full week of 2026 showed how AI search is starting to settle into its next phase. OpenAI is pushing ChatGPT further into everyday use through health features, while Google continues to weave Gemini across its products.
As AI search accelerates into 2026, I've taken a look at the top stories shaping the industry. Will the AI search industry be worth $171bn by 2030? Will ChatGPT apps ever take off? Lets dive in.
This conversation with Mark Williams-Cook explores how trust, entity strength and off-site signals increasingly matter in an AI Search world.
