TL;DR – Key Takeaways:
If you’re short on time, here’s what you need to know: 95% of enterprise AI pilots are failing while small marketing teams are achieving 2.8x productivity gains. The difference isn’t budget or technology, it’s mindset and agility. In this conversation with Brett Schklar (CEO of GROW Powered, who’s talked to 1,400+ CEOs about AI adoption), we reveal why 20-person teams are outpacing 200-person competitors, how to avoid the IT department blocker that kills most initiatives, and the human-driven, AI-assisted approach that actually works. If you’re ready to implement AI without joining the 95% failure pile, this is your playbook.
95% of generative AI pilots are failing. Not struggling, failing completely.
While Fortune 500 companies with unlimited budgets are getting zero return on their AI investments, my 20-person boutique local SEO agency has figured out how to get cited regularly in AI Overviews and AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude, and we’re creating content that hits page one in 24 hours.
What’s the difference?
It’s not budget, technology, or team size. It’s something most AI adoption content completely misses, and it’s why your size might actually be your secret weapon.
Join Me at the Free AI SEO & GEO Online Summit
Before we dive deep, I want to invite you to something that will accelerate everything you’re about to learn here. I host a complimentary AI SEO & GEO Online Summit where I bring together world-class practitioners like Brett Schklar who are getting real results, not just talking about theory.
This isn’t another sales webinar. This is practitioners sharing actual implementations, real results, and tactical strategies you can deploy immediately. We cover AI adoption strategies that avoid the 95% failure rate, GEO techniques for getting cited in AI platforms, human-driven AI-assisted workflows that maintain quality, and how small teams weaponize agility against larger competitors.
The summit is entirely free and online. No travel, no credit card required. Just show up, learn from practitioners who’ve done it, and walk away with strategies you can implement starting immediately.
In Case You Don’t Know Who I Am
I’m Chris Raulf, a globally recognized AI SEO expert. I’ve been doing SEO for nearly 30 years, since before Google was called Google. In 2009, I founded a hyper-focused SEO agency called Boulder SEO Marketing, where we developed the Micro-SEO Strategies℠ methodology and pioneered what I call Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). I host the AI SEO Insighter Podcast and speak at conferences globally. Everything I share here comes from real implementation, not theory.
If you want to keep learning, I invite you to subscribe to my weekly AI and SEO newsletter on LinkedIn, where I share insights you can actually use.
Now let’s get into it.
The Conversation Every Marketing Leader Needs to Hear
I recently sat down with Brett Schklar, CEO of GROW Powered and author of AI Without the BS, on my AI SEO Insighter Podcast to discuss why marketers are winning the AI race while other departments struggle. Brett has talked to over 1,400 CEOs about AI adoption, and what he’s learned will change how you think about implementing AI in your marketing organization.
Watch the full conversation below, or keep reading for the key insights and implementation strategies that are transforming how smart marketing teams compete.
My Six-Day Sprint That Changed Everything
I’ve been doing SEO for nearly 30 years, since before Google was called Google, back when they were still called BackRub. When ChatGPT launched, I spent six days doing nothing but prompt engineering. I watched approximately 120 hours of AI content on YouTube. I tested prompts. I documented everything that worked. I created a library of prompts for our specific use cases.
Then I took those prompts to my business partner, Daniel Burns, our COO at Boulder SEO Marketing, who’s been building websites for 20 years, and said, “Build me an AI agent that does this.”
He created BSM Copilot, an AI SEO agent, in less than a week.
We automated three positions. Not because it was trendy, but because we had no choice after losing 80% of our organic traffic in a 2021 Google core algorithm update. The work those people did is now getting done better, faster, and more efficiently by AI agents we built ourselves. We redirected our human talent to strategic work, and everything changed.
When I spoke at DigiMarCon Denver and heard Brett’s presentation on Return on AI, I realized we’d independently discovered the same patterns. He was seeing it across 57 B2B clients as a fractional CMO. I was seeing it in SEO and what I call Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), optimizing for AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude, not just Google.
The small teams were winning. And we both knew why.
Why 95% of AI Initiatives Fail (And Why That’s Actually Good News)
The Failure Nobody’s Talking About
Brett dropped a statistic in his DigiMarCon presentation that stopped me cold: MIT research shows that 95% of all generative AI pilots are failing. Ninety-five percent.
Think about that. Companies with $500,000 consulting budgets, dedicated transformation teams, and C-suite buy-in are getting nowhere. Meanwhile, my 20-person agency is outranking enterprise competitors, and Brett’s fractional CMOs are delivering 2.8x productivity gains across mid-market companies.
What’s happening?
The problem isn’t technology. The problem is mindset. Enterprise companies are treating AI as a technology project to be managed by IT departments. Small, agile teams are treating it as a business transformation led by strategists who understand the work.
Here’s what Brett told me: “When a CEO says ‘go work with my IT department on this,’ I say two things. First, you didn’t read my book or hear my guidance. Second, we’re just going to go ahead and mark this as a failure.”
That might sound harsh, but he’s right. And I’ve lived it.
The 147-Movie Problem: Why We’re All Conditioned to Fear AI
Brett opened his DigiMarCon presentation with a question: How many movies have featured AI as part of the theme or storyline?
The answer: 147 movies since 1927.
From Metropolis (the first AI movie, a German silent film from 1927) to The Terminator to The Matrix, Hollywood has spent nearly 100 years conditioning us to fear AI. The message is consistent: AI wins, humans lose, game over.
This psychological conditioning shows up everywhere in organizations. Employees fear AI will take their jobs. Managers fear that team members who learn AI faster will outpace them. CEOs fear investing in the wrong platform and getting fired by their boards.
Brett’s insight: “The companies that are successful in implementing and deploying AI initiatives, they’re embracing the fear. They’re embracing the fact that employees are scared, that managers think their teams know more than they do, and that CEOs are dealing with massive uncertainty. And that spirit of experimentation, that spirit of being very agile, when that’s there, we’re seeing that fear take a backseat to productivity.”
I saw this play out in my own agency. After I spent those six days on prompt engineering and watching 120 hours of AI content on YouTube, I had to convince my team this wasn’t going to replace them, it was going to elevate them. The three positions we automated? Those were repetitive, tactical roles. The people we kept? They became strategists, not executors.
That’s the difference between companies that succeed and companies that fail. The successful ones embrace the fear and experiment anyway.
The IT Department Blocker Pattern
Here’s where Brett really challenged conventional wisdom, and I completely agree with him from experience.
When CEOs delegate AI adoption to their IT departments, they’re almost guaranteeing failure. Not because IT people aren’t smart, they are. The job of an IT department is to mitigate risk, establish control, and maintain stability.
AI is the opposite of all three.
AI requires experimentation. It requires accepting that some initiatives will fail. It requires moving fast and adjusting based on results, not six-month approval cycles.
Brett distinguishes between “IT mindset” and “technology mindset.” The IT mindset says, “We need 100% control before we deploy anything.” The technology mindset says: “Let’s test this, learn fast, and iterate.”
When we built BSM Copilot and Virtual Chris (my AI system trained on 30 years of my expertise), we didn’t ask permission from the security team. We built it, proved the ROI, and then got organizational buy-in. That’s the boutique agency advantage: founder-led decisions without bureaucratic approval chains.
Brett’s advice when a CEO says, “Talk to my IT department”: Pause the engagement. Either the CEO champions this transformation, or it’s going to join the 95% failure pile.
The Small Team Advantage: Why 20 People Beat 200 Every Time
Marketing’s 2.8x Productivity Secret
Brett shared data from his work with fractional CMOs that changed how I think about AI adoption across departments:
- Marketing productivity gains: 2.8x
- Sales productivity gains: 1.9x
- HR productivity gains: 1.5x
- Operations productivity gains: 1.4x
Marketing isn’t just doing well with AI; we’re dominating. Why?
Brett’s theory: “Marketers are closer to revenue. They’re more comfortable with experimentation. They’re used to rapid change because platforms and algorithms shift constantly. They think outside the box by default.”
I saw this firsthand. When Google rolled out AI Overviews, enterprise SEO agencies took six months to adjust their strategies. We pivoted in 72 hours. We analyzed which keywords triggered AI Overviews using SE Ranking (I’m a Brand Ambassador for their platform), identified content gaps, and rebuilt our entire approach around Generative Engine Optimization within three days.
That’s the agility advantage. Twenty people moving at startup speed beats 200 people navigating enterprise bureaucracy every single time in the AI era.
“Stealing Market Share Overnight”
Brett said something in our conversation that perfectly captures the opportunity: “I guarantee you can outflank companies that are 100 employees, 200 employees, 500 employees. You could probably grow faster than them and steal their mind share, which translates into stealing their market share overnight because you are adaptive, you are agile, and you’re willing to introduce new things, even if they’re a little bit risky.”
I’m living proof of this.
My Universal Content Engine (a system I developed to turn sales call transcripts into SEO-optimized thought leadership content) lets me create articles in 90 minutes that rank on page one within 24 hours. I built it by prompt engineering across multiple AI platforms, training Virtual Chris on my expertise, and establishing a workflow that maintains E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) while leveraging AI speed.
I recently presented this entire methodology at DigiMarCon Denver. If you want to see the complete system in action, watch the presentation below:
Enterprise competitors can’t match this. They have content approval workflows that take weeks. They have compliance reviews and legal sign-offs and multiple stakeholder meetings. By the time they publish, the search landscape has shifted.
This is what Brett means by “stealing market share overnight.” Small teams see an opportunity, build a solution in days, prove it works, and scale it, all while larger competitors are still scheduling kickoff meetings.
The Three Positions I Automated (And Why That Made Us Stronger)
Let’s be clear about something most AI adoption content avoids: we let three people go after implementing AI.
This wasn’t easy. But it was necessary, and it made our team stronger.
Those three positions handled repetitive, tactical work: keyword research, competitor analysis, content formatting, and reporting tasks that AI agents now handle better and faster. The work still gets done. It’s just done by BSM Copilot and other AI systems we built.
The people we kept? They became strategists. They moved from executing tasks to solving problems. They shifted from “create this meta description” to “how do we dominate this topic cluster across multiple platforms?”
This is what Brett calls “Reinvent Roles,” the first part of his Return on AI (ROAI) framework. When you automate the tactical work, you elevate your team to do the strategic thinking that AI can’t replicate.
Your 20-person marketing team can now do the work that used to require 50 people. That’s not a threat, it’s your competitive advantage.
Human-Driven, AI-Assisted: The Only Way to Win Long-Term
Why Pure AI-Generated Content Fails
Here’s something I need to be crystal clear about: AI-generated content doesn’t work for SEO. At least not the way most people are using it.
Google’s quality guidelines emphasize E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. AI can’t demonstrate genuine experience. It can’t prove expertise in a field. It certainly can’t build authority or trust on its own.
I get cited regularly in Google’s AI Overviews not because I use AI, but because of how I use AI. My content demonstrates real expertise backed by 30 years of experience, teaching credentials at University of Strasbourg, and measurable results clients can verify.
Competitors who are pumping out pure AI-generated content aren’t ranking. They’re creating digital noise that search engines ignore and readers abandon.
The winning approach isn’t “AI vs. human.” It’s human-driven, AI-assisted.
Virtual Chris: Training AI on Your Expertise
I built something I call Virtual Chris, a micro language model trained on 30 years of my expertise.
Here’s how it works: I’ve uploaded transcripts from hundreds of sales calls, client consultations, conference presentations, webinars, and podcast episodes. Virtual Chris has absorbed my voice, my frameworks (like Micro SEO℠ strategies), my way of explaining complex concepts, and my approach to solving client problems.
When I create content now, Virtual Chris drafts in my voice. It knows how I structure arguments. It understands my teaching patterns, phrases like “Here’s what I’ve learned…” and “The reality is…” that are natural to how I communicate.
But (and this is critical) I review everything.
Brett has a principle in his AI adoption roadmap: “Trust but verify.” It’s step nine out of ten, and it’s the difference between AI that builds authority and AI that destroys it.
Virtual Chris creates fast. I ensure it’s accurate, strategic, and genuinely helpful. This combination is why I can create content in 90 minutes that would take traditional agencies three weeks, while maintaining the quality standards that keep me getting cited in AI platforms.
The Universal Content Engine: Transcripts to Rankings in 24 Hours
Here’s exactly how this works in practice.
Every sales call I do, every client consultation, every podcast interview, I transcribe it using tools like Otter.ai or Google Meet’s built-in transcription. Those transcripts are goldmines. Every question a prospect asks, every objection they raise, every pain point they describe, that’s content waiting to be created.
I feed the transcript into Virtual Chris with specific prompts I’ve engineered to maintain my voice and strategic approach. Virtual Chris analyzes the conversation, identifies the core themes, researches related keywords using SE Ranking, and drafts a complete article that sounds exactly like me.
I review it. I add specific examples from my 30 years of experience. I integrate my proprietary frameworks like Micro SEO or GEO strategies. I ensure every claim is backed by my actual expertise, not generic AI knowledge.
Then I publish. And within 24 hours, it’s ranking on page one.
This is the Universal Content Engine, and it’s how small teams create more high-quality content than enterprise competitors with ten times the budget. AI handles the research and initial draft. I provide the expertise and strategic insight. The combination is unstoppable.
I’m always testing new approaches and refining this system. Right now, my team and I are actively working on implementing this AI SEO content engine for our clients. We’re building custom versions trained on their expertise, their voice, their frameworks. It’s one of the most exciting projects we’ve ever worked on because we’re seeing the same results for them that we achieved for ourselves.
Brett’s seeing the same pattern with his fractional CMOs. They’re using AI to handle tactical execution while they focus on strategic CMO-level thinking. The companies that try to use pure AI without this human strategic layer? They’re in the 95% failure group.
Beyond Vanity Metrics: Measuring What Actually Drives Growth
Why Your MQLs Are Lying to You
Brett challenged something in our conversation that most marketers accept as gospel: MQLs and SQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads and Sales Qualified Leads) as the primary success metrics.
His insight: “These are internal vanity metrics, not market metrics. We’re measuring our own activity, not the market’s perception of us.”
I’ve seen this play out in a way that perfectly illustrates his point. One of our clients saw their organic traffic decrease by about 15% after Google rolled out AI Overviews for their primary keywords. The traditional response would be panic: traffic down means fewer MQLs, which means marketing is failing.
But here’s what actually happened: their conversions went up. Significantly.
Why? Because AI Overviews were answering the basic, informational questions right in the search results. The tire-kickers who were just browsing never clicked through. The people who did click were serious buyers ready to engage.
AI Overviews filtered the traffic for us. Lower volume, higher quality. Fewer MQLs, more actual customers.
This is why Brett’s framework focuses on different metrics: pipeline velocity, deal closure rates, and what he calls “mind share,” the market’s perception of your brand and authority.
The Return on AI (ROAI) Framework
Brett introduced a concept that every marketing leader should be tracking: Return on AI, or ROAI.
His framework has three components:
- Reinvent Roles: Track the time AI saves and redirect that capacity to strategic work. Are your marketers becoming strategists, or are they still executing tactical tasks?
- Rebuild Support: Stop paying for labor, start paying for learning. Evaluate your agencies and vendors based on whether they’re innovating with AI or just billing hours.
- Redefine Marketing: Measure marketing’s impact on sales velocity. How much faster are deals closing because marketing is using AI to provide better insights, personalization, and content?
This framework gives you the language to talk to CFOs about AI investment. Not “we’re experimenting with cool tools,” but “we’ve increased pipeline velocity by X% and reduced deal closure time by Y days.”
When I automated those three positions, I didn’t just say “we’re saving salary costs.” I showed how redirecting that work to AI agents freed up strategic capacity, leading to regular AI Overview citations and the Universal Content Engine, which now drives consistent, qualified leads.
That’s ROAI. Quantifiable business impact, not just productivity theater.
Pipeline Velocity Over Lead Volume
Brett shared a story about working with a CFO who initially pushed back on investing in AI for marketing. The CFO’s question: “How do I know this isn’t just more marketing hype?”
Brett’s response: “Let’s measure what actually matters to you, how fast deals close and how efficiently we’re capturing market share.”
They stopped tracking MQLs. They started tracking:
- Time from first touch to closed deal
- Win rate changes as marketing provides AI-powered insights
- Market share shifts based on brand mentions and authority signals
- Mind share indicators: where conversations about the industry were happening, and whether the company was part of them
Within six months, they proved that marketing’s AI adoption accelerated sales cycles by 40%. That’s ROAI in action.
I’m doing something similar with GEO. Instead of obsessing over Google rankings alone, I’m tracking citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. When someone asks these AI platforms about SEO or AI marketing strategies, am I being cited as an authority? That’s the new competitive moat.
Getting cited in AI Overviews and AI platforms isn’t just vanity; it’s pipeline acceleration. When prospects research solutions using AI tools and your name keeps appearing as the expert, you’ve already won the trust battle before the first sales call.
The AI Adoption Playbook: How to Actually Implement This
Start With AIQ, Not Technology Selection
Brett introduced a concept that completely changed how I think about AI adoption: AIQ, the AI Intelligence Quotient of your organization.
It’s not about individual skills. It’s about organizational comfort, confidence, and knowledge around AI across your entire team.
Most companies start AI adoption by evaluating tools. “Should we use ChatGPT or Claude? What about Copilot?” Brett’s approach: start by building AIQ first.
Find your “Generation AI” employees —the people who already use AI tools regularly, even if they’re doing so quietly without official approval. These are your champions. They’re not necessarily your most senior people or your tech team. They’re the problem-solvers who’ve embraced experimentation.
Build a steering committee of 3-6 of these people from different functions. Not a 20-person transformation team. Not a formal innovation lab. Just a small group that can move fast, experiment boldly, and share learnings.
When I hire now, I’ve entirely changed my screening process. I don’t care as much about degrees or years of experience. I ask candidates to share their screen and show me their ChatGPT history. Show me how you prompt. Show me how you solve problems using AI.
The best hires are those who’ve already built their own workflows, created custom GPTs, and integrated AI into how they think —not just how they execute tasks.
The Six-Day Prompt Engineering Sprint That Changed Everything
Let me walk you through exactly what I did when ChatGPT launched, because this is replicable.
Days 1-3: Total Immersion
I watched approximately 120 hours of AI content on YouTube. Not casually, intensely. I took notes. I tested prompts. I learned how different AI platforms responded to other approaches.
Days 4-5: Prompt Engineering
I spent two full days crafting prompts for our specific use cases. How do we automate competitor analysis? How do we turn a sales call transcript into a content brief? How do we research keywords faster than humanly possible?
I documented every prompt that worked. I created a library.
Day 6: System Design
I mapped out how these prompts would connect into a workflow. What’s the input? What’s the output? Where does human review happen? What’s automated end-to-end?
Then I took this to Daniel, my COO at Boulder SEO Marketing, and said, “Build me an AI agent that does this.”
He created BSM Copilot in less than a week. It’s now our competitive advantage. We’ve reduced project timelines from 13-15 weeks to 4-6 weeks. The work quality improved because AI doesn’t have bad days or overlook details.
Here’s what’s important: if you work with us, you automatically get access to what we’ve developed. You don’t have to build BSM Copilot yourself. You don’t have to spend six days on prompt engineering. You get immediate access to our AI agent, our systems, and our technology. We’ve done the heavy lifting so you can focus on your business while benefiting from everything we’ve learned.
You don’t need to be technical to do this. You need to invest time in understanding how AI works, what it’s good at, and how to integrate it into your specific workflows.
Most companies skip this step. They buy tools and expect magic. The six-day sprint is the difference between AI adoption that works and AI pilots that join the 95% failure rate.
Build Your Own “Virtual You”
One of the most powerful things you can do is create an AI agent explicitly trained on your expertise.
Here’s my process for building Virtual Chris:
Step 1: Collect Your Expertise
I uploaded transcripts from every podcast interview, every conference presentation, every webinar, and every client consultation. Anything where I was explaining concepts, solving problems, or demonstrating expertise.
Step 2: Train on Voice and Patterns
I gave the AI examples of how I structure arguments, my teaching transitions (“Here’s what I’ve learned…”), my frameworks (Micro SEO℠, Universal Content Engine, GEO), and my communication style.
Step 3: Test and Refine
I asked Virtual Chris to draft content and compared it to what I would actually write. When it missed the mark, I gave it feedback: “I wouldn’t phrase it that way, I’d say this instead.”
Step 4: Build the Review Process
This is critical. Virtual Chris creates drafts, but I always review. I add specific examples from my 30 years of experience. I adjust strategy based on current search trends. I ensure every claim is accurate and valuable.
The result: I can create content 10x faster than before while maintaining the quality standards that keep me getting cited regularly in AI platforms.
Brett’s seeing his fractional CMOs do the same thing. They’re training AI on their strategic frameworks, their pitch processes, and their client onboarding approaches. The AI handles the repetitive parts and focuses on high-value strategic thinking.
This isn’t about replacing humans with AI. It’s about elevating humans by letting AI handle what it does best (research, analysis, drafting) while humans focus on what we do best (strategy, expertise, relationship building).
Prove ROI First, Then Get Buy-In
Here’s an approach that worked for me and that Brett recommends to his clients: don’t ask permission to experiment with AI. Just do it, prove the value, and then share the results.
When I built BSM Copilot and Virtual Chris, I didn’t create a formal proposal and present it to a board. I invested my own time, built the systems, demonstrated they worked, and then got organizational buy-in based on results.
This is the “act first, apologize later” approach that Brett says works for the companies that succeed. Not reckless experimentation, strategic pilots with explicit hypotheses and measurable outcomes.
Start with one use case that solves an immediate pain point. For me, it was: “How do I create SEO-optimized content faster without sacrificing quality?” I built the Universal Content Engine to solve that problem. It worked. So we expanded to other use cases.
For Brett’s fractional CMOs, it might be: “How do I reduce time spent on reporting and redirect it to strategy?” They build AI-powered reporting dashboards. It works. Then they tackle the following problem.
The companies that fail are the ones that try to boil the ocean: 18-month transformation roadmaps with every department involved and transformation consultants facilitating workshops. By the time they’re done planning, the AI landscape has shifted three times.
Move fast. Prove value. Scale what works. That’s the playbook.
GEO: The Future of Search Visibility
Why Google Rankings Aren’t Enough Anymore
I need to let you in on something that most SEO experts are still figuring out: Google rankings alone aren’t enough in 2025.
The search landscape is fragmenting. When someone wants information now, they don’t just Google it. They ask ChatGPT. They check Perplexity. They query Claude. They search on Reddit, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
This is why I coined the term GEO, Generative Engine Optimization. It’s the evolution beyond traditional SEO, and it’s where competitive advantage is being built right now.
Google’s AI Overviews are just the beginning. These AI summaries appear above traditional search results and cite specific sources. Getting cited in an AI Overview is the new page one ranking; it’s above everything else.
I am regularly cited in AI Overviews because my content demonstrates genuine, demonstrable expertise across multiple platforms.
How did I get there? Not by gaming the algorithm. By building genuine, demonstrable expertise across multiple platforms.
Multi-Platform Authority: The New SEO
Traditional SEO focused on one platform: Google. You optimized your website, built backlinks, created content, and hoped Google would rank you.
GEO requires a multi-platform presence. AI platforms don’t just scan your website; they scan LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, podcasts, conference presentations, academic citations, and everywhere else your expertise appears.
My strategy:
- Website (chrisraulf.com): Core content, methodology explanations, case studies
- Podcast (AI SEO Insighter): Long-form conversations with industry experts like Brett
- LinkedIn: Regular posts, newsletter, thought leadership
- YouTube: Video content, presentations, tutorials
- Conference Speaking: TCWorld, DigiMarCon, SearchCon, AgencyCon, etc., building visibility and authority
- Academic Teaching: University of Strasbourg TCLoc Master’s Program, institutional credibility
- Industry Partnerships: SE Ranking Brand Ambassador, platform recognition
Each platform reinforces the others. When AI platforms analyze who’s an authority in AI and SEO, they see my name consistently appearing across all these channels, demonstrating expertise through multiple signals.
Brett’s doing the same thing. His book (AI Without the BS), his podcast (The Grow Method), his speaking engagements, and his 57 client implementations all create a web of authority that AI platforms recognize.
This is the difference between SEO (optimizing for one algorithm) and GEO (building authority that AI platforms cite across all platforms).
The AI Citation Economy
Here’s what’s happening that most marketers haven’t fully grasped yet: we’re moving from a click economy to a citation economy.
In traditional SEO, success meant getting the click. Someone searched, found your result, and clicked through to your website. You measured success by traffic and conversions.
In the AI era, success increasingly means getting cited in the AI’s response, even if the person never clicks through to your site.
When someone asks ChatGPT, “What are the best AI SEO strategies?” and ChatGPT cites my frameworks (Micro SEO℠, Universal Content Engine, human-driven AI-assisted approach), I’ve won that conversation. My authority is established. My brand is reinforced. And when that person is ready to hire an expert, I’m the obvious choice.
This is why Brett and I both focus on creating frameworks, coining terms, and building proprietary methodologies. AI platforms love to cite original thinking backed by real implementation experience.
Your generic “10 AI Marketing Tips” blog post won’t get cited. Your proprietary framework for measuring Return on AI (like Brett’s ROAI) or your trademarked methodology (like my Micro SEO℠) becomes citation-worthy content that compounds in value over time.
The Bottom Line: Speed Beats Size in the AI Era
Let me bring this full circle.
95% of AI initiatives fail not because of technology, but because of mindset. Fortune 500 companies with unlimited budgets are treating AI as a technology project managed by IT departments. They’re building steering committees with 20 people. They’re conducting 18-month transformation assessments. They’re waiting for perfect conditions.
Meanwhile, small, agile teams are treating AI as a business transformation led by strategists who understand the actual work. We’re moving in days, not quarters. We’re experimenting without bureaucratic approval chains. We’re learning from failure without career-ending consequences.
We’re winning because we can move fast.
If you’re running a 20-person marketing team, your size isn’t a constraint; it’s your secret weapon. You can pivot within 72 hours of the AI Overviews launch. You can automate three positions and redirect capacity to strategic work. You can build your own AI agents instead of waiting two years for vendor solutions that never quite fit your needs.
Brett and I have proven this across SEO, content marketing, and fractional CMO work spanning 57 companies and 1,400 CEO conversations. The data is undeniable: marketing teams achieve 2.8x productivity gains with AI, the highest of any department. We’re leading this transformation at the small-team scale.
But speed without quality is just fast failure.
That’s why the human-driven, AI-assisted approach matters. Train AI on YOUR expertise, like I did with Virtual Chris. Maintain your review process, like Brett’s “trust but verify” principle. Build E-E-A-T into your workflow, not around it. This is how you get cited in AI Overviews and build authority that compounds over time.
And remember, we’re not just optimizing for Google anymore. GEO means building authority across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and platforms that don’t exist yet. Multi-platform presence, authentic expertise, and strategic distribution are the new competitive moats.
The question isn’t whether AI will transform marketing. It already has.
The question is whether you’ll be in the 5% that succeed or the 95% that fail.
Whether you join our summit, subscribe to my podcast, or start your own six-day prompt engineering sprint, the key is to start NOW. The 5% who succeed don’t wait for perfect conditions; they embrace the fear, experiment boldly, and learn faster than their competitors.
Which group will you be in?
Cheers,
Chris