AI Search Playbook: The Strategy Leaders Want — and Teams Can Act On

AI search is driving the biggest shift in consumer behavior in 20+ years.
Many teams are now chasing AI search visibility, but few know what the data truly means for their business or how to act on it.

That leaves SEOs, digital leaders, and executives with one pressing question: 
“What’s our AI search opportunity?”
In this webinar, join Mark Traphagen, VP of Product Marketing and Training at seoClarity, and Tania German, VP of Marketing at seoClarity, as they:
Unpack the AI data.
Explain the state of search right now (+ what’s coming fast),
Give you the executive-level playbook you need to lead your org through this change successfully.

You’ll walk away with clarity on:
Why consumer discovery is changing so rapidly.
How visibility becomes revenue with Instant Checkout in ChatGPT.
What Google’s AI Overviews (seen in 30% of searches) and AI Mode mean for your visibility
Tactics to improve mentions, citations, and brand visibility on AI search engines

Need to confidently answer “what’s our strategy?” This session gives you a clear, data-backed measurement framework to solidify your AI Search strategy for the new year.

1. AI Search Strategy for [Your Brand] Prepared by [Your Name]

2. How to Use This Deck 1. Start Conversations 3. Apply with Your Data 4. Keep it Evolving Replace the placeholders with your own visibility and performance metrics from seoClarity or ArcAI. AI search is changing fast. Revisit this framework regularly as your visibility, mentions, and business goals evolve. 2. Build Your Plan Follow the four strategy stages — Understand, Define, Invest, Execute — to identify where you stand and what comes next. Use the executive questions to guide internal discussions about AI search visibility, performance, and investment. This deck is your framework for building an AI Search Strategy that connects visibility to revenue. Here’s how to get the most from it:

3. AI SEARCH the largest shift in search behavior in 20 years

4. Search Behavior Has Changed Discovery is more conversational AI search fragments the journey The SERP answers the query Visibility ≠ Traffic anymore

5. Why Important *Source: seoClarity AI Overview Research Study August 2025 Grown to 30% of all searches Google AI Overviews

6. Google is Driving User Adaption *Source: seoClarity AI Overview Research Study August 2025 Recorded 100MM monthly active users Google AI Mode

7. Adoption of Answer Engines on the Rise *How People Use ChatGPT OpenAI Research, September 2025 ‘Search’ intent share is up to ~1B/day ChatGPT

8. Build [ Brand Name ]’s AI Search Strategy

9. Questions Every Company is Asking Where do we want to be? Where are we now? How do we get there? Where do we need to invest? Are we mentioned in ChatGPT? AIOs? Where are the gaps? Who else shows up for our topics? What’s our plan for AI search? Where does this connect to growth? How do we define success? What resources or data do we need? Do we need to create more content? What should be our priorities? How do we measure the results? What experiments do we need to run? What do we need to win in AI search?

10. 01 03 04 02 Decide where to play AND win. Translate those into areas of investment. Operate like a growth engine. Test tactics to improve mentions, citations, and revenue. Tie directly to your business and users. What’s the strategy meant to deliver? Ground your strategy in truth. Visibility. Competitors. Target audience. Know it all. WHERE DO WE INVEST? HOW DO WE GET THERE? WHERE DO WE WANT TO BE? WHERE ARE WE NOW? From Visibility to Revenue AI Search Strategy Execute and Iterate Define Success Invest in Priorities Understand the Landscape

11. Step 1: Where are we now? Ground your strategy in truth. Visibility. Competitors. Target audience. Know it all.

12. Understand the Landscape Consider our current state. What questions are important to our audience? Where are our competitors mentioned / cited? Determine the gaps. [ Use this space to add a view of the questions important to your brand’s audience ]

13. Understand the Landscape What’s our current visibility? [ Use this space to add a view of your brand’s visibility ]

14. Understand the Landscape Where are the gaps? [ Use this space to add a view of your brand’s gaps to help prioritize topics ]

15. Step 2: Where do we want to be? Tie directly to your business and users. What’s the strategy meant to deliver?

16. Strategic Pillars Be present when topic emerges Shape perception early Discovery Awareness Influence shortlists Consideration Drive action Transactional Retain, deepen relationships Support 1 2 3 4 5 Make it about business outcomes. Success is visibility + influence + revenue.

17. Repeatable for Any Industry. Any Enterprise. SaaS, B2B Intent Goal Priority Measurement Discovery Emerging topics Mentions Volume of brand mentions Awareness Shape perception early Mentions, Citations % of mentions in key topics % of citations in key topics Consideration Influence in shortlists Citations % of citations vs. competitors Transactional Drive action, make it easy to demo and see the product Citations % of answers w/ citations, links to our site Support Retain, drive success, service Citations, Mentions % of answers cited % of mentions, secondary

18. [Your Brand] SaaS, B2B Intent Example Discovery Awareness Consideration Transactional Support

19. Step 3: Where do we invest? Decide where to play AND win. Translate those into areas of investment.

20. Shifts in Discovery, Similar Approach Search Experience Optimization “ That means that “answer engine optimization” is basically the same as SEO because the underlying indexing, ranking and quality factors inherent to traditional SEO principles still apply to queries that the AI itself issues as part of the query fan-out process.” - Robby Stein, Google’s VP of Product

21. Investment: [AI] Search Experience Optimization Influence 3 1 Discovery 2 Content

22. Investment Levers: What Will It Take? Net new content with depth and coverage. Focus on usefulness and authority. Crawlability for HTML (no JS-only) Feeds, API if applicable Third party sites, outreach, original research, forums, online reviews Influence 3 2 1 Discovery Content

23. Strategic Focus Areas & Actionable Initiatives Mentions Citations Sentiment & Accuracy Influence Building Content Discovery / Crawlability Focus Areas Initiatives Topic [ Insert Topic Priority Here ] [ Insert Questions / Prompts Here ]

24. [Insert More Tactics Here] [ Consider what you are doing or what you could be doing to support your strategy.]

25. Step 4: How do we get there? Operate like a growth engine. Test tactics to improve mentions, citations, and revenue.

26. Improve traditional rankings Mentioned Only Best case! Mentioned and Cited Needs audit of all aspects. Not Mentioned or Cited Improve brand outreach Cited Only Here’s the Playbook to Put It Into Action

27. No Mention or Citation What to do: Check citations​. If mostly from 3rd-party sites get better known for the subject of the query. Do outreach to sources. If competitors are present, analyze what their pages rank for and optimize your content​ Make sure any relevant content on your site clearly speaks to the exact intent.​ Optimize to improve SEO rankings for keywords relevant to this query​ Mentioned Only Mentioned and Cited Neither Mentioned nor Cited Cited Only

28. Mentioned Only What to do Create content that specifically answers he question.​ Optimize to improve SEO rankings for relevant keywords your competitors rank for but you don’t​ Mentioned and Cited Neither Mentioned nor Cited Cited Only Mentioned Only

29. Cited Only What to do: Look at the query; it may be one that doesn’t warrant brand mentions. If so, the citation is enough.​​ If there are other brand mentions, check cited sources and outreach to those that should have mentioned you​. In your content, be very clear that your brand is a fit for the desire of the query​. Mentioned Only Mentioned and Cited Neither Mentioned nor Cited Cited Only

30. Your Brand’s Business Performance Use this space to share your brand’s business performance.

31. About Clarity ArcAI

32. 1 Most AI search tools show what’s happening, but not how to act on it. We turn complex AI search data into clear, actionable steps. How Clarity ArcAI Is Different 4 Dedicated client success and support team. Unlimited training. Enable additional value with industry experts and data science team. 2 18+ years of search expertise and a deep understanding of how LLMs surface and prioritize information. 3 We pioneered NLP content optimization in 2018 and delivered automated SEO execution in 2022. We evolve as search does. ACTIONS & INSIGHTS EXPERTISE INNOVATION SUPPORT Read the Full Press Release: www.seoclarity.net/resources/news/seoclarity-launches-clarity-arcai-the-industrys-first-end-to-end-platform-for-ai-search-visibility

33. Clarity ArcAI DISCOVER Has my content been discovered? RESEARCH How are my customers searching? OPTIMIZE How do I improve my content? MONITOR Is my brand visible ? Mentioned? Cited? PERFORM How much traffic & conversions to my site? ANALYZE How do I impact response accuracy & sentiment? The Only End-to-End AI Search Suite INSIGHTS What actions do I take next?

34. How to Build Your AI Search Strategy Audit your visibility  across AI engines (mentions, citations, and topics). Define success  aligned to your organization’s growth goals (i.e. protecting traffic, gaining influence in a new topic, increasing revenue, etc.) Invest in the right levers  — content, discovery, and influence. Operate like a growth engine  — test, learn, and refine. Turn visibility into revenue.  The goal isn’t just to show up, it’s to make visibility mean something to the business. Access the complete webinar and training here: https://www.seoclarity.net/blog/ai-search-playbook-webinar