The Google Ads advice that only works if you're rich

Google Ads CTRs dropped 68% on queries triggering AI Overviews. Learn how SMBs can survive the 'Great Decoupling' by pivoting budget to owned audiences and deeper ICP targeting.

Answer Engine Optimization: The Small Business Guide To AI Search. How Small Businesses Get Found When Customers Ask AI Instead Of Google

The difference between AI success and expensive experimentation comes down to one discipline: evaluating opportunities through business fundamentals, not technological sophistication.

AI-ready data is clean, structured, well-governed information that's readily discoverable, comprehensible, accessible, and usable by both humans and AI apps.

AI agents represent the evolution beyond simple chatbots, capable of autonomously planning and executing complex business workflows from start to finish.

You use AI for success by turning static, rule-based automation into adaptive systems that see, predict, act, and learn from every process.

AI search fundamentally changed the game from "rank once, win consistently" to "appear reliably across probabilistic outcomes." The real challenge isn't visibility—it's consistency across disconnected conversations where context resets and your brand presence becomes a probability distribution, not a position. Smart brands are already measuring citation stability, not just citation frequency.

The shift from "AI will replace enterprise software" to "customers are building agents that chip away at specific workflows" reveals where the real transformation is happening. It's not wholesale replacement—it's strategic unbundling of expensive platforms, one automated helpdesk ticket at a time. The question isn't if this works, but which functions justify the build-versus-buy risk.