🔬 The science of how AI picks its sources
AI search tools are highly selective about which sources they cite, and how your brand gets discovered may come down to whether your content is longer, structured, and front-loads its key points in the first third of the page. With just 30 domains capturing 67% of AI citations, the gap between brands that show up and those that don’t is widening fast.
Our Take: The ‘first 30% of the page’ finding is the one I’d act on immediately, most brand pages bury the good stuff way too deep, which works fine for humans skimming but kills you with AI readers.
♟️ 3 strategies that can survive AI search in 2026: What I shared at SEJ Live
AI-powered search is quietly reshaping how your brand gets discovered, and chasing traditional keyword rankings may no longer be enough to stay visible to buyers. These three strategies offer a more durable framework for maintaining presence as AI-driven search continues to evolve.
Our Take: The shift from ‘ranking on page one’ to ‘being the answer AI surfaces’ is real, and most companies are still optimizing for a game that’s already changed.
📉 ChatGPT’s ad pilot has no ROI proof
ChatGPT’s ad platform is drawing early interest, but advertisers aren’t getting the data they need to know if their spend is actually working — no ROI visibility, minimal targeting, and no automated buying tools. Before your brand allocates serious budget here, the infrastructure simply isn’t ready to justify it.
Our Take: We’re watching this closely for our clients, but right now it’s more of a ‘plant your flag early’ play than a real performance channel. The moment they open up measurement, that changes fast. We discussed on a Little Talks podcast earlier this year. 🎙️🎧
👔 OpenAI taps former Meta executive to lead ad push
OpenAI hiring a former Meta ad executive signals that paid placements inside ChatGPT and other AI products are closer than most brands are planning for—which means your media mix and where your budget goes may look very different within the next 12–18 months.
Our Take: This is the clearest sign yet that AI platforms are coming for ad dollars.
📚 6 AI search resources for CMOs/marketing leaders
As AI-powered search changes the way buyers find and evaluate your business, understanding where and how your brand surfaces in these results is no longer optional. This curated list of AI search resources covers user behavior, visibility tools, and citation tracking, the building blocks of any serious AI search strategy.
Our Take: The citation piece is what most people overlook. It’s not just about showing up in AI results, it’s about which sources those tools are pulling from to talk about you. Worth knowing before your competitors figure it out first.
🛠️ The SEO skills gap: Why technical expertise alone won’t cut it anymore
The SEO professionals managing your search visibility are increasingly expected to do more than fix crawl errors, the real skills gap in SEO is now about business acumen and proving how search drives revenue, which means the bar for who you trust with your organic strategy just got higher.
Our Take: Honestly, this tracks with what we see at Littlefield. Technical SEO without a strategic business lens is basically just overhead.
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