5 Pillars for Winning in AI Search - Daniel Liddle (Senior SEO Director at iCrossing)

Most brands are asking how to rank in AI search. That's the wrong question. The right one is why an AI would surface them at all. Five pillars for brands worth surfacing, beyond optimisation theatre. From BrightonSEO, May 2026.

Transcript

1. 5 Pillars for Winning in AI Search A framework for brands worth surfacing Spring 2026
2. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 2 Question: What’s the first word that comes to mind?
3. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 3 Answer: Elizabethan astrologer & occultist Simon Forman
4. The Noise The Signal The Value Why most AI search thinking starts from the wrong question. What determines whether AI systems surface your brand. How to change in a way that protects budget. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 4 What we’ll cover today
5. The Noise The Signal The Value Why most AI search thinking starts from the wrong question. What determines whether AI systems surface your brand. How to change in a way that protects budget. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 5 What we’ll cover today
6. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 6 Something has shifted. The Noise
7. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 7 This shift is not only algorithmic, it is commercial and cultural. The Noise
8. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 8 Global AI hype: Every headline, every board meeting, every OpenAI announcement. Accelerating expectation faster than the market can mature. The Noise
9. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 9 Board Mandate: Budgets earmarked. "AI search strategy" on every leadership agenda. Before there is even a consistent industry definition. The Noise
10. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 10 Team Transition: Quick evolution. Retraining, reshaping offers, adapting structures. While what good looks like is still being defined. The Noise
11. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 11 SEO in Flux: Practitioners caught between the old playbook and an undefined new one. Different briefs but the same set of shared standards. The Noise
12. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 12 Imperfect measurement: No industry standard. No consensus on what visibility in AI actually means yet. The Noise
13. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 13 The truth is you can’t influence LLMs with web alone The Noise
14. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 14 So, how do we move through this? The Noise
15. The Noise The Signal The Value Why most AI search thinking starts from the wrong question. What determines whether AI systems surface your brand. How to change in a way that protects budget. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 15 What we’ll cover today
16. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 16 The wrong question: How do I rank in AI search? The right question: Why would an AI surface me at all? The Signal
17. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 17 Every discovery system has optimised for the same thing. We have a need The system finds us the best answer The best answer comes from a credible source That source gets surfaced We are satisfied with the experience The Signal
18. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 18 Uniqueness was always valuable. It's now structural. The Signal
19. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 19 What is Value? Value User-first Answers genuine questions Adds something the web doesn't already have Earning Trust Consistent credibility built over time Credible to people who know the subject Being Findable Technically accessible to any discovery system The Signal
20. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 20 How to vet your value? The Noise
21. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 21 If anyone can write it, what reason is there to surface you? 1. Do we have the expertise to answer this better than anyone else? The Signal
22. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 22 Citations follow credibility. Credibility can't be shortcut. 2. Do we actually change what people think or do? The Signal
23. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 23 If your brand only exists on your own website, it barely exists at all. 3. Are we consistent across every surface an AI system learns from? The Signal
24. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 24 If the system can't read you, the content doesn't exist. 4. Can any discovery system actually read us? The Signal
25. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 25 Attribution is how your team earns its seat at the table. 5. Can we prove that any of this is working? The Signal
26. The Noise The Signal The Value Why most AI search thinking starts from the wrong question. What determines whether AI systems surface your brand. How to change in a way that protects budget. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 26 What we’ll cover today
27. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 27 Vendors are filling the gaps - defining the problem for us. The Noise
28. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 28 • The teams winning right now are winning on frameworks and judgment, not stack size. • €1.5 billion has been invested in SEO and AI visibility tools. None of it tells you what to think. • We are too early in this cycle for efficiency to be a differentiator. Thinking is the differentiator. • Automation aggregates the average. In an emerging channel, average is invisible. • The race to automate is a race to sameness. The opportunity is still in the ideas. Tools are not the strategy The Value
29. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 29 SXI Method: Changing your approach to understand search Audience Insight Authority Mapping Visibility Analysis Authority Gaps Strategy Measurement & Learning Authority* is built by aligning audience needs, value, competitive context and AI mediated-visibility into one connected strategy Define who we need to influence & why Understand who has authority in the category Assess brand presence across systems Identify priority gaps in expertise, trust and validation Define priority moves across direct, indirect and influenceable channels Track movement and refine *Authority = The ability to change user behaviour The Value
30. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 30 Pillar questions Absent Emerging Established Leading 1. Do we have more expertise on this topic than anyone publishing about it? Content mirrors what already ranks, no original knowledge Some first-hand experience referenced, not substantiated Content built on owned data, research or direct expertise others can't replicate Externally recognised as the go- to source on this topic, cited without prompting 2. Does our content on this topic actually change what people do next? Users read and leave, no onward behaviour Some click-through or return visits but no commercial signal Content demonstrably influences decisions at this stage of the journey Attributable behaviour change, users act differently after engaging with this content 3. Is our position on this topic consistent across every surface an AI might learn from? Only exists on owned web pages Mentioned occasionally in press or social, no coherent narrative Reviews, forums, third-party references reinforce the same position Active presence across all influenceable channels, monitored and managed 4. Can any discovery system actually find and read what we've published on this topic? Rendering issues, thin structure, poor entity signals Indexable but no structured data or entity clarity Schema in place, topic cluster structured, tested across crawlers Optimised for AI agent retrieval, regular technical gap analysis per topic 5. Can we prove this content is contributing value on this topic specifically? No measurement beyond rankings Traffic visible but not connected to outcomes Commercial attribution in place for this topic area Dark traffic accounted for, retrieval monitored, impact reportable at topic level Find what value you can add to search for a topic The Value
31. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 31 Nobody is lying. Just Nobody is sure. SEO GEO AEO The Value
32. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 32 Your C-suite has already decided CMO AI is being treated as either the end of SEO or the solution to it – and budgets are being allocated accordingly right now. The Value
33. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 33 The noise is loud But the signal is clear And creating the value is in your hands The Noise
34. iCrossing Proprietary and Confidential I 34 Join us in shaping the next era of search