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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
Tom Wilson played a bully in a film 40 years ago and has been answering the same questions ever since. This week, what he did about it, and why it is the most useful lesson in AI I can give you.
+6
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
+5
Google I/O this week brought over 100 announcements. Buried inside them were four changes that will directly affect how visible your brand is in AI search. Here's what you need to know. But first....
AI Search
+4
When I started in SEO, Google was practically the whole game. This week they've published their first official guide to AI search optimisation. A document about a world where Google is no longer the sole player. The bulk of the advice is solid. The framing tells you everything about where Google still wants the conversation to live.
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.
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 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.
Adobe’s $1.9B move for SEMrush, Google’s release of Gemini 3 and the first ads appearing inside AI answers all point to the same thing: the industry is shifting from SERPs to AI-driven answer engines. Here’s why this week matters more than most.
Survey
One thing is becoming clear: the fight for shopping isn’t happening on websites anymore - it’s happening inside AI assistants. Google’s latest update pushes the industry closer to a world where the buying journey is run by agents, not shoppers.
ChatGPT
+3
AppTweak’s Simon Thillay breaks down what’s driving app visibility in 2025 - from custom product pages and download velocity to AI’s role in discovery. Plus, inside: Apple’s $1B AI deal with Google, Perplexity’s clash with Amazon, and the rise of AI Search Intelligence platforms.
App marketing
+2
Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft all reported earnings this week. Alphabet impressed with strong ad and cloud growth and saw its stock rise, Microsoft beat expectations but dipped on AI-driven cost concerns, while Meta’s revenue beat was overshadowed by soaring expenses and weak profit, sending its shares sharply lower.
Search is changing faster than ever. As AI systems replace lists of links with direct answers, marketers face a seismic shift in how visibility is earned and measured. Drawing on decades at Microsoft and Bing, Duane Forrester explores how intent, context, and human understanding will define the next era of discovery - and what it really takes to stay visible when machines start thinking for themselves.
From ChatGPT’s explosive growth to the rise in attribution mentions and ad budgets, the data paints a clear picture - AI search isn’t a side trend, it’s a structural shift. These five charts show how discovery, attention, and money are rapidly flowing toward conversational platforms - and what that means for brands preparing for this new era.
US regulators go soft on Google as Europe fines €3.45bn. OpenAI turns to a human strategist, underlining the value of expertise even in the AI age. Meanwhile, AI search is continuing to eat clicks and reshaping the web’s traffic model.
