The short version

Adrian Swinscoe predicted on December 18, 2025: “In 2026, marketers will need to find the balance between optimizing for agentic search and AI‑generated summaries and traditional SEO or paid channels.” Verdict: Called it. Marketers and SEOs have begun optimizing for AI‑generated answers (e.g., Google AI Overviews, OpenAI‑powered search interfaces) while still depending financially on classic organic search and paid ads.…

Prediction by

Adrian Swinscoe

On December 18, 2025

“In 2026, marketers will need to find the balance between optimizing for agentic search and AI‑generated summaries and traditional SEO or paid channels.”

Follow-up

Marketers and SEOs have begun optimizing for AI‑generated answers (e.g., Google AI Overviews, OpenAI‑powered search interfaces) while still depending financially on classic organic search and paid ads. Industry guidance and conference agendas in 2026 show practitioners treating AI search optimization as an additional layer rather than a replacement, consistent with Swinscoe’s forecast.

From the High Caliber AI network — see the AI for PR module in the course.