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Hello and welcome back to episode four of That MarTech Girl, the podcast where MarTech meets culture, the business podcast with personality. I'm your host, Rachel Gray, and today we are going to be speaking about two very important topics that everybody seems to be talking about right now in the MarTech landscape. The first has to do with the possible end of search. Is SEO a and what are we doing about it, right? The second topic has to do with building teams now that AI agents are a thing. We have heard and we use AI as in chat GPT every single day as a chat bot, but now we have agents that are actually going to perform tasks for us. So how can we ensure that work is being done within the confines of how we've already structured the team and the time that we've put into organizational design, how can we make sure that our AI tools are adhering to the framework that we've already put in place? But first, let's catch up. I feel like right now my life is a whirlwind. It's between work, then there's school, then there's podcasts, and I think it's work, then school, then podcasts. And I know that's just three things and I really lift my hat to people who are doing all of this with kids with other responsibilities but for me this is just so new and it's definitely an adjustment right I feel like I'm kind of turning into a work machine but I'm trying trying so hard to still take time for myself it's incredibly hard balancing things it is so so hard. If you have no idea what I'm talking about and you're new here, just to recap and to get you up to speed, I started the executive MBA program at Vanderbilt University and I also started a new job a couple months ago at Optimizely. So now I have two really new things, including that MarTech girl to balance and learn everything I can about quickly, right? So that is is what I'm doing right now. Now in my life, I definitely have balanced different priorities before. And I think this started back in undergrad because I was balancing a dual degree in music and biology and chemistry. So I'm quite used to this duality of having multiple things to balance and prioritize, but it is different, right? I'm older now. It's been more than 10 years since I've been in college, right? So now it's different. I have a new perspective on life during that decade that's passed. And I realize now that relationships are essential. They're so important. And also taking care of myself, especially as I'm aging, is also incredibly important. So it's work, it's school, it's that MarTech girl, but but it's also growth and self-care that's in there as well, right? So I am now just trying to balance all of these things and I'm figuring it out as I go. But also I think it's very important to say that I chose this, right? I chose this hard. I chose to get this new job. I chose to pursue this new step in my career and in my educational career. So this is something to be grateful for. I chose these priorities and I have the privilege of being able to balance these three things. First, the wonderful people in my life. I am so grateful for them. Second, I am at the forefront of AI with my job and the work that we're doing at Optimizely. We're really shaping how marketing teams will use AI and engage with consumers. And this is really unique and a privilege, and I'm so happy that I get to do this. And then finally, I'm at one of the best institutions in the world, right? Vanderbilt is one of the best institutions in the world, and I have the ability here to learn from great minds and great thinkers on how to become a global leader and thinker, especially especially during this time, which is the AI revolution. So I am incredibly grateful. So this is just some encouragement for you. If you're going through a similar time with like competing priorities, they don't have to be the same as mine, of course. But if you are, I encourage you, like sometimes we just need to take a step back and get some perspective and realize, yes, this is incredibly hard, but you chose to be here. So putting some gratefulness in there is incredibly important. Now, shifting gears to work and the topics that we have to cover today, the topic of search is coming up so often. As you guys know, I talk to marketers on a day-to-day basis, and that was the point of starting that MarTech Girl, right? To really have these conversations in a casual format. And the topic of search now now is almost in every single conversation. Because intuitively, as a consumer, as I think of a question, where do I go to get the answer? Usually in the past, it was Google. I just type it in, I find a website, I click on that website, and I go try to find my answer. Now, I think personally, nine times out of 10, I'm not going to Google anymore. I'm going to an LLM, maybe ChatGPT, maybe Gemini, depends on what my question is, to get my answer. Like I literally have the app on my phone and I will talk to it and ask it my question. I will voice record myself and say, hey, can you tell me a little bit about that Marzak girl? And then I'll press send and I get my answer. And this is incredibly helpful, especially because I just mentioned I'm balancing so much So right now I really need quick answers and I need to be able to get information quickly. And to me, going to an LLM is so much faster and easier than going to Google and going and searching the more traditional way. And I think that is the case for most consumers. So the effect on the marketing ecosystem, if you will, is now that website traffic is decreasing incredibly. And the marketers I talk to on a day-to-day basis, they're panicking. And for good reason, I get it. I feel like every single day there is change and it's so rapid. It's insane. It's going so quick that there's a new problem to solve each and every day. But that's why you have companies who are really making this the forefront of their expertise and it's what they think about on a day-to-day basis really grateful to be a part of Optimizely as they think through these different topics so now that SEO is declining there's something new on the horizon something called AEO or GEO and I was on a call with a client recently he's like okay with all the acronyms and you know shortening of words can you actually actually tell me what that means. So it means AI engine optimization or generative engine optimization. So breaking this down, let's compare this to SEO or search engine optimization. Usually our goal with SEO was, okay, let's drive traffic and clicks to our website, right? So that's what we're trying to optimize for. When someone goes and searches in Google, we want our website to be number one on the list, so they click it, right? So we're driving clicks, and that was a metric that we tracked prior. Now, with GEO, AEO, we're optimizing the data on the website for visibility to AI, right? So when your consumer, when I, with my very, very busy schedule, am going and I'm typing into ChatGPT my question, that MarTechGirl website is optimizing optimized for ChatGPT so it can get that answer and make it most visible so it answers that consumer's question quickly and accurately, right? So we want to do this in a way that really promotes your product and it also increases conversions for you. The same thing that we were trying to accomplish with SEO, right? We want to be visible. We want to drive revenue. That's the whole point of optimization. I heard someone recently say search is dead. I think that's true, but they also said websites are dead. I don't know if that one is true. I don't know if I agree because sometimes I also visit a website because I just maybe want to shop or maybe I go the traditional route because I know exactly what I'm looking I know which website I want to browse, and I'm familiar with that website, right? So we actually do need to optimize for both. Just because we're optimizing for GEO doesn't mean that we're like, forget about SEO. I don't think that's the answer. I don't think search is dead completely. It's dying. Did I say it was dead prior? Yeah, maybe I did. No, let's correct that. Search isn't dead, but it is diminishing, right? But websites in particular aren't dead, right? So we still want to optimize our website for the consumers who are still looking for that place to come and engage with your brand, right? Because yes, we have a question. Yes, we go to ChatGPT to get that question answered. But after that question is answered, great. Now I want to go on the about, right? So I click into the website, I still want an experience that brings me value. So it's very important to optimize for both scenarios. Now, as a marketer, you're probably wondering, all right, what do I do? What do I need to do to optimize for GEO, AEO? I think the answer is more than ever before, your CMS is incredibly incredibly important. And the people who you have working on that CMS and the providers you have, and here's another acronym, I'm so sorry, but it's content management system, are incredibly important. We need to be asking them extremely pointed questions on what is their strategy with AEO and GEO. And Transparently, Optimizely does have a CMS, right? And this is really a part of our roadmap and strategy, we actually have a webinar this week on that strategy. So if you're interested in checking that out, I would say definitely go in. If you're an engineer and want more information on like how exactly is this happening, how are we optimizing with metadata, et cetera, you're not going to learn that here. We are non-technical users, but your CMS provider should be able to give you those points answers because having this system and a strategy in place especially now is extremely essential. This is only the beginning of this topic. I think there is so much more to learn here but as things shift I will be sure to share it with you. You'll be the first ones to know. So Now, I want to turn the conversation to the structure of marketing teams in this new age of AI agents that I discussed in the beginning, right? So something I've been thinking about because I'm going to Vanderbilt and having these leadership and organizational classes is how can we structure teams to fit within our brand ethos and within the culture of your organization. And one thing I learned in class is there's really three pillars of building a team. And one of those pillars is identity, right? Being able to have a shared purpose and identity. That is incredibly important. Now, shifting it back to AI and that conversation that we're all talking about and contemplating on, I've been thinking of how How exactly are we going to fit these pillars into having AI agents do our work for us, right? So first, let's take a step back. Let's define AI agents so we're all on the same page. Now, we talked about ChatGPT. That's a chat bot that we're typing with. We're getting answers from. You ask a question. It gives you an answer. Very simple. But AI agents go one step further where they're actually doing the work for you. And you can actually go further than that where you can have multiple agents and they can do entire workflows. Our AI tool at Optimizely is affectionately known as an AI workforce. So bringing it back to building sustainable teams How can we ensure that the identity of our team within its people is also replicated in the agents and how they go about doing work? This is something I think is incredibly important to think about when you're choosing your AI tools because this is going to impact your work, your brand identity, your brand voice. I think it's incredibly important to make sure that the tools that it can learn about your team identity, your brand identity, and not simply just follow instructions like a general computer and just get the job done. It has to be contextual. It has to be doing and producing work in the context of your organization and the team voice and the team identity that you have worked so hard to build because the So that way it can intersect seamlessly with the humans who are also kind of giving it the work to do, right? And this is an incredible thought process and structure that we're talking a lot about at Optimizely, so I'd encourage you to do your own research and really make sure that the tools you choose adhere to the structure that fits your organization. I hope today's discussion gave you a lot to think about. I know these are things I am really contemplating on. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of That Martech Girl. Please don't forget to follow us on whatever streaming platform that you are listening to this episode on and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn at That Martech Girl. Your support is greatly appreciated. don't forget to tune in next week we have so much more in store have a wonderful rest of your week