AI SEO
Definition
AI SEO is a label for two different jobs: getting a business cited or mentioned in answers from AI search tools, and using AI tools to do SEO work faster. Which one a speaker means decides what is actually being sold.
The first meaning overlaps with AEO and GEO. For Google's two AI search features, the documentation names just two conditions, being indexed and being eligible to appear with a snippet, and says no special schema is required. That makes ordinary SEO, done carefully, most of the job, so a pitch for Google's AI answers should name something ordinary SEO doesn't already cover. The documentation covers Google only, which leaves advice about ChatGPT or Perplexity as assumption until those companies say otherwise.
The second meaning is a question of method. Google's February 2023 guidance says content is judged on its quality however it is made, and that using AI primarily to game search rankings violates its spam policies. Both halves apply at once. AI can draft and sort, but a person has to supply the facts, check each claim and decide whether the page deserves to exist.
When an agency says it does AI SEO, ask which meaning it intends, then ask what will change on your site in the first month. A specific answer names pages, prompts or reports. A vague one is the SEO you already pay for, renamed.
Definitions are free.So is the cost review.
A short call, then a written review inside 72 hours: what your marketing costs, what it produces, and what is worth fixing first.