Observed Signal · Apr 10, 2026 · In-housing · Source: Digiday · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Brands Bring SEO and AI Search In-House
Major advertisers are moving SEO and generative-AI search expertise in-house as LLMs and AI chatbots reshape how consumers discover brands. Pfizer this week shifted SEO and AI discoverability to an internal team after building the capability in roughly 60 days and hiring industry talent. Other advertisers — including Georgia Pacific and U.S. Bank — have recently stood up internal teams, while Adobe, Hertz, T‑Mobile, Lowe’s and Skims are recruiting for SEO/AI discoverability roles. Agencies and consultancies report a rising volume of RFPs for in-housing work; Brandtech/Oliver says eight global clients have brought capabilities in-house in nine months and that typical core teams are 5–10 people using a hub-and-spoke model. The change is driven by sharp traffic volatility (clients seeing 30–70% drops in unbranded search) and forecasts that generative AI search adoption will expand materially.
Major advertisers shifting SEO and AI search capabilities in-house signals a structural change in how brands will manage discoverability amid LLM-driven search disruption; this affects agency demand, vendor opportunity, and search monetization strategies.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Pfizer transitioned its SEO and AI discoverability efforts to an in-house team, completing the capability build in about 60 days.
- Georgia Pacific and U.S. Bank have set up internal SEO/AI search teams; multiple major advertisers are hiring for related managerial roles.
- Brandtech/Oliver reports eight global clients have in-housed SEO and AI discoverability capabilities in the past nine months and notes typical central teams of 5–10 staff in a hub-and-spoke model.
- Jellyfish clients recorded decreases in web traffic from unbranded searches between 30% and 70%, according to the company’s chief strategy officer.
- eMarketer’s June 2025 forecast estimates more than 26.4% of the U.S. population will use generative AI for search this year (a 12.7% growth).
Connected Companies & Entities
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Related Market Signals & Shifts
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Agencies Compete for SEO and AI Discoverability Talent
Ad agencies and brands are aggressively recruiting senior organic search and AI-discoverability specialists as client demand for zero-click and AI-driven discoverability grows. Digiday identified eight agencies advertising director- to manager-level SEO roles. Firms cited include Brainlabs, Wpromote, Tinuiti, Kinesso, Digitas, Kepler, Critical Mass and Mindgruve. Advertised salaries ranged from about $100,000–$150,000, with one Brainlabs managing director role listing $260,000. Agencies are seeking candidates skilled in traditional SEO plus newer AI search tools (e.g., Profound, Scrunch) and LLM workflows. Several agencies report expanding SEO teams and expect further hiring as combined paid/organic search briefs and AI search discoverability become core client priorities.
AI Search Fuels Content Budgets Before Media Buys
Marketers are redirecting marketing dollars toward creators, content, agency services and tools to improve how brands are cited inside large language models and AI-generated answers, rather than immediately buying AI-search ads. WPP has forecast AI search advertising will become the fastest-growing channel, but agencies and brands say measurement, attribution and inventory clarity are still unresolved. Examples include Butterball hiring Carmichael Lynch for AI visibility work and Priceline increasing creator and social spend while piloting ChatGPT ads and testing Google AI Max. Agency leaders quoted in the piece argue many brands are prioritizing organic ‘AI visibility’ (optimizing owned and creator content for LLMs) now, while remaining ready to scale paid AI-search placements once ad formats and metrics mature.
Marketers Build Infrastructure for AI Search Visibility
Marketers are reallocating search and content budgets and reorganizing teams to win visibility within AI-powered search and answer engines. Multiple industry surveys show brands are dedicating meaningful budget — Fractl reports roughly 24% of search/content budgets routed to AI visibility and 82% of marketers allocating some funds — while B2B firms increasingly view AI-generated answers as a distribution channel. However, execution lags: many brands have only a minority of content optimized for AI discovery, and most do not track AI share-of-voice, sentiment, or bot traffic. Platform fragmentation and opaque LLM sourcing (Semrush data shows differing source mixes across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Gemini) mean marketers need varied strategies for different AI systems.
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