Key Takeaways from Our AEO Webinar
Why We Hosted This Webinar?
On 18 December 2025, Sonar Group hosted an exclusive client webinar to address one of the most significant shifts in digital marketing today: the rise of AI-driven search and what it means for organic visibility. As more users turn to AI tools for answers, businesses must rethink how they appear, not just where they rank.
Titled Being the Answer: From SEO to AEO — Capturing High-Intent AI Traffic, the session brought together clients and partners to explore how search behaviour is changing and how brands can stay visible in an increasingly AI-first landscape.
Meet the Hosts
The webinar was led by Angus Gawn, Head of Website Optimisation at Sonar Group, alongside Raymond, SEO & AEO Specialist. Together, they combined strategic insight with hands-on experience to explain how SEO and AI search are converging and how brands are winning in this new era of search.
Search Is Changing: From Clicks to Answers
A central theme of the webinar was the shift in how users interact with search. Traditional SEO has focused on rankings, traffic, and clicks. Today, AI-powered experiences aim to deliver instant answers, often before a user ever reaches a website. As a result, organic click-through rates are declining, even when rankings remain strong. This change does not signal the end of SEO, but it does mark a new phase where visibility extends beyond blue links.
What the Data Tells Us About AI Search Growth
While Google still accounts for approximately 85% of total search activity. AI discovery is growing rapidly. Data shared during the webinar showed AI discovery increasing by over 500% year-on-year, with early signs that 10–15% of professional and knowledge-based searches are already shifting to AI tools (Semrush, 2025). This signals meaningful behavioural change rather than short-term experimentation.
Understanding SEO, GEO, AEO and AIO
The webinar clarified the increasingly common terms shaping modern search strategies. SEO remains the foundation, ensuring websites are discoverable in traditional search results. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) focuses on being cited within AI-generated answers, while Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) aims to position a brand as the direct answer to a user’s question. Artificial Intelligence Optimisation (AIO) underpins all of these, ensuring websites are structured so AI systems can understand, trust, and recommend their content. Rather than competing concepts, these approaches work together to support visibility across both traditional and AI-powered search experiences.
Why AI Search Platforms Matter?
The webinar explored the AI platforms shaping modern discovery. ChatGPT stands out as the world’s largest large language model, pulling live data from Bing and showing a strong correlation with Google Page 1 rankings. Google Gemini was discussed in the context of AI Overviews, which now sit prominently at the top of search results and enhance traditional listings rather than replacing them. Perplexity was highlighted for its fast-growing user base of high-income professionals and its ability to route queries across multiple AI models.
These platforms are no longer fringe tools; they are becoming primary research and discovery channels.
AI Visibility Starts With Strong SEO Foundations
One of the clearest messages from the session was that good AEO is often a by-product of good SEO. Websites that already demonstrate strong content quality, technical performance, and topical authority are better positioned to be surfaced and trusted by AI systems. In many cases, the work required to improve AI visibility builds naturally on existing SEO best practices.
What Comes Next for Search?
Looking ahead, organic click-through rates are expected to continue declining as AI Overviews expand. The vast majority of AI-triggered keywords today are informational, reinforcing the importance of educational content. New developments, such as OpenAI and Shopify enabling direct purchases through ChatGPT, suggest AI will increasingly support the full customer journey. Service-based businesses are already seeing high-intent referral traffic after users complete research within AI tools, and advertising within AI platforms is expected to follow.
The webinar concluded with client case studies demonstrating how businesses are already benefiting from early AI visibility. While tactics will continue to evolve, the direction of travel is clear: adapting now creates a long-term competitive advantage.
