Turning AI Visibility Insights Into Action

Turning AI Visibility Insights Into Action

In this special edition of The Visibility Brief, Yext SVP of Marketing Rebecca Colwell is joined by Sam Rahimi, VP of Earned & Owned Media at AdCelerant, to discuss how AI is solving one of the hardest problems in marketing: turning data into concrete action. Marketers have never had a shortage of dashboards, reports, or performance metrics. The challenge has always been knowing what to do next. Which locations need attention? Which competitors are gaining ground? Where should teams really invest their time, budget, and resources? That’s where a new generation of AI-powered intelligence tools is changing the game. Drawing on his experience helping agencies and publishers support thousands of local businesses, Sam shares how AdCelerant is using Scout MCP to surface competitive insights, prioritize the right opportunities, and make faster, more informed decisions for clients at scale. THE EPISODE BREAKS DOWN: * How marketers can shift from collecting data to generating actionable recommendations * How AI helps with prioritization and resourcing * Why combining performance data, competitive insights, and AI-powered analysis creates a new operating model for marketers * How Scout MCP changes the marketer's workflow The future of marketing isn't about having more data. It's about having the right intelligence at the right moment — and being able to act on it immediately. If you're a marketing leader, agency, publisher, or local business strategist looking to move beyond reporting and toward real-time decision-making, this episode offers a practical look at how AI and competitive intelligence are changing the way visibility is managed.

Why ‘Visibility’ Without Trust is Meaningless in an AI-First World

In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Yext SVP of Marketing Rebecca Colwell sits down with Will Reynolds, CEO and VP of Innovation of Seer Interactive, for a conversation about how AI is reshaping not just search — but the fundamentals of marketing itself. For years, marketers have measured success in rankings, impressions, and traffic. But AI is changing what those numbers are worth. When a chatbot can summarize everything ever written about a brand into a single answer, being visible stops being a competitive edge and starts being table stakes. A brand can show up everywhere and still lose if it isn't believable and trustworthy to customers. And when this trust becomes the deciding factor, the old marketing playbook starts to break. Will's argument: AI is pushing marketing away from content built for scale and toward something much harder to fake: credibility. THE EPISODE BREAKS DOWN: * Why visibility alone no longer drives results * The risks of overusing AI-generated content * How unique perspectives, lived experience, and subject matter expertise are emerging as the most valuable signals * What marketers should stop, start, and rethink If you’re a marketing leader navigating the shift from visibility to credibility, this episode will help you rethink how your brand shows up — and whether it earns the trust required to win.

SEO Is at a Crossroads

In this special episode of The Visibility Brief, recorded live at SEO Week, Rebecca Colwell is joined by Garrett Sussman (Director of Marketing at iPullRank) and Christian Ward (Chief Data Officer at Yext) for a candid reflection on where the industry actually stands today. A year ago, AI search felt like a novelty. New tools, new ideas, and a lot of speculation. Today, the tone has shifted. The excitement hasn’t disappeared – but it’s been replaced by something more grounded: uncertainty, urgency, and a growing realization that the rules are changing faster than most teams can keep up. So what’s actually changed in the last 12 months? And more importantly, what hasn’t? This conversation goes beyond tactics. It’s about how SEO is evolving as a function, why so many teams are still “admiring the problem,” and what it will take to move from understanding AI to actually acting on it. THE EPISODE BREAKS DOWN: * Why the industry feels more mature, but still a bit stuck * The gap between understanding AI’s impact and actually changing strategy or execution * Why technical understanding of AI pipelines matters * Why SEO is positioned to lead…but often doesn’t * Why content strategy is shifting back toward uniqueness and context * Why brands are struggling to define success in AI visibility The tools are evolving. The models are improving. The opportunity is real. But most brands haven’t made the shift yet, and that gap is where the next wave of advantage will be created.

How AI Is Changing the Path from Search to Booking

In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Yext SVP of Marketing Rebecca Colwell is joined by Leah Hutcheon, Founder & CEO of Appointedd, to explore how AI is changing not just how people find brands, but how they move from discovery to action. As AI assistants take on more of the research process, customers are arriving at decisions faster, with more context and more confidence. That means less browsing, fewer clicks, and a much shorter path between “I’m interested” and “I’m ready.” And increasingly, that moment shows up as a booking. So what does it mean when customers commit their time before they ever step into a store or complete a purchase? And how should brands design for a world where intent is signaled earlier and more clearly than ever? Drawing on her experience building 'intent infrastructure' for global retailers, Leah reframes bookings as far more than a calendar slot. They're a signal of intent, a moment of trust, and one of the most valuable opportunities a brand has to create a meaningful experience. THE EPISODE BREAKS DOWN: * Why bookings are becoming a primary conversion signal * Why time is the most valuable signal customers give you * Why most brands underinvest in the booking experience * How leading retailers turn appointments into high-value interactions that drive higher spend * How intent data transforms the customer journey * What shifts when AI agents — not customers — do the browsing If you’re a marketing leader thinking about how AI is reshaping customer behavior, this episode will help you rethink where real intent emerges, how to design for it, and why the moment someone books may matter more than anything that came before.

What SEO Actually Looks Like in an AI-Driven World

In this episode of The Visibility Brief, Yext SVP of Marketing Rebecca Colwell is joined by Leigh McKenzie, Director of Online Visibility at Semrush, to explore how one of marketing’s most established roles is being fundamentally reshaped by AI. For more than two decades, SEO meant understanding Google—how it crawled, how it ranked, and how to win clicks. But that playbook is no longer enough. AI is changing how people search, how answers are delivered, and how brands get discovered. So what does the job of an SEO actually look like now? And how should teams evolve when visibility depends on much more than a website? Drawing on his experience at Semrush, where he's had a front-row seat to the evolution of search, Leigh makes the case that SEO isn't disappearing — it's growing into something bigger, more strategic, and more cross-functional than ever. The episode breaks down: * Why traditional SEO thinking is no longer enough * How consumer behavior is changing the search landscape * Why SEO is becoming a cross-functional discipline * Why your website is only part of the equation * How mass content and quick-win tactics can quietly hurt long-term visibility and trust * What SEO teams should stop, start, and rethink If you’re leading an SEO or marketing team and trying to understand how your role is changing, this episode will help you zoom out, rethink your priorities, and position yourself — and your brand – for what comes next.