The short answer: AI SEO means getting your business named when people ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot for a recommendation. Before you pay anyone for it, ask for one screenshot of an AI assistant naming one of their clients, with the question and the date. If they cannot show one, you are buying ordinary SEO with a new label.
I have worked in search for over twenty years, so I can say this about my own industry. Your buyers started asking AI for answers, and a lot of SEO agencies changed one thing in response. They changed the name on the invoice.
Same monthly package. Same blog posts. Now it is called “AI SEO”.
If you run a business in Kenya and you pay someone for SEO, this is worth five minutes of your time. There is a simple test below that you can use today.
What we all sold for twenty years
For two decades the SEO industry sold one thing: a higher position on Google. I sold it too.
It was a fair product. Google showed ten links, your buyer clicked a few of them, compared, and then picked up the phone. If you were on that first page, you were in the running.
That buyer still exists. But more and more people now skip the list. They ask an AI assistant a question and get back one or two names. Nothing to scroll through and nothing to compare. They call the name they were given.
That is a different game, and it needed a different product. In too many cases it just got a new label. The same content factories kept going, turning out articles that nobody inside the client’s business wrote, or would want their name on.
The 90-second test for any AI SEO agency
Ask whoever bills you for SEO to show you one thing.
One page, from any client, that an AI assistant named or quoted. With the screenshot, the question that was asked, and the date.
Not a ranking report. Not a traffic graph. A screenshot of an AI saying the client’s name.
If they can show you that, good. You are probably in safe hands. If they change the subject, you have learnt something useful for free.
One screenshot is only a start, because AI answers change from one run to the next. A good agency will also tell you how many times they asked, and on which tools. Our own numbers are in what our own AI visibility test showed, including the parts that do not flatter us.
Be just as careful with tools that give you an “AI visibility score” out of 100 and nothing else. A score with no explanation is like a bank that turns down your loan and will not say why. You are left worried, and you still do not know what to fix.
What seems to get a business named by AI
Nobody outside the AI companies knows the full recipe, and anyone who says they do is selling. What I can say is what makes sense given how these tools work.
Google gave people a list to choose from. An AI assistant picks a source, sometimes two, and builds its answer from that. So a general article written to match a keyword does little for you. It reads like a summary of nine other websites, and the AI has no reason to pick yours over theirs.
What stands a chance is narrow. Take one real question your buyer asks just before they spend money. Answer it with something only you can say:
- how you do the job, step by step
- what it costs, and why
- what you have seen go wrong, and what you tell customers to do about it
That is the part that cannot be faked, and it cannot be copied across a hundred clients from a template. It has to come out of your business, from the people who do the work.
We go deeper on this in how Google’s AI Overviews decides who to quote. And if you want to check where you stand yourself before you talk to anyone, our 30-minute AI test for Nairobi businesses shows you how.
You are not behind because you did something wrong. Most owners I meet have simply been sold the old product under a new name.
Key points
- AI SEO is the work of getting a business named in answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and similar assistants.
- The quickest check on any AI SEO agency is one screenshot of an AI assistant naming a client, with the question asked and the date.
- AI answers change between runs, so ask how many times they asked and on which tools.
- An AI assistant picks one or two sources. A general keyword article gives it no reason to pick you.
- Pages that stand a chance answer one real buyer question with detail only that business has.
Questions people ask about AI SEO
What is AI SEO?
AI SEO is the work of getting your business mentioned or quoted when someone asks an AI assistant a question. Ordinary SEO aims for a high place in a list of links. AI SEO aims to be the name inside the answer.
What is AI SEO called now?
It goes by several names: generative engine optimisation (GEO), answer engine optimisation (AEO) and AI visibility. They overlap a lot. Our guide on SEO, GEO and AEO explains the differences.
What is an AI SEO agency?
An AI SEO agency is a firm that works to get its clients named by AI assistants. A real one can show you where a client was named, in which assistant, for which question and on what date.
Can anyone guarantee I will be named by AI?
No. Nobody outside the AI companies controls the answers. Be wary of anyone who promises a place.
Is SEO still worth it?
Yes. People still use Google, and good pages help in both Google and AI answers. The point is that Google alone is no longer enough.
Ask us for the screenshot
If you would like to know whether AI names your business, let us sit down together in Nairobi.
Bring the questions your customers ask before they buy. We will put them to the AI assistants in front of you, and you will see for yourself who gets named. If it is your competitor, we will look at why.
There will be no slides. You leave knowing where you stand, whether or not we ever work together.
Mehul Shah, Founder and Managing Director, SEO Smart Limited
Mehul Shah is the Founder and Managing Director of SEO Smart Limited, a specialised SEO, GEO and AEO agency based in Kenya. With nearly 20 years of experience, Mehul helps agencies and businesses build scalable SEO strategies, performance-optimised websites, and conversion-driven content marketing frameworks.