I’ve been thinking a lot about visibility: how we earn it, how AI redistributes it, and what the rules are now. It’s not enough to “rank” anymore. The real game is getting recommended by the machines that run the show.
That’s why I’m obsessed with how LLMs find and favor content. SEO is morphing into "AI SEO". If you’re still optimizing for old rules, good luck.
Meanwhile, generative video is exploding. The IAB says over half of ad buyers are already using it. We’re seeing the same. Clients are swapping out long production cycles for AI-assisted workflows that ship daily.
Also, heads-up: if your CRM isn’t GPT-integrated yet, it will be. More on that in the growth deep dive. Bottom line: visibility is shifting upstream, workflows are collapsing, and the winners will be those who adapt fast.
Let’s get into it.
Patrick Patterson
CEO at Level Agency
What's interesting this week
How To Get Your Content Recommended by AI This is the new SEO. If your content isn’t being ingested, ranked, and surfaced by LLMs, it might as well not exist. Andreas Voniatis lays out a smart framework for making your content machine-readable and AI-relevant. Read more
AI Overviews: It's Not All About Position #1 Ahrefs’ data shows AI Overviews pulling content from Position #6. The implication? Traditional rank tracking is officially obsolete. It's not just about being “first.” It’s about being useful, trustworthy, and in the right format. Read more
Attribution in the AI Era is Broken If your reporting still relies on “direct” traffic as a catch-all, you’re blind to what AI is doing to discovery. This article nails a key point: search is being reshaped, and with it, our attribution models. We're experimenting with LLM-first journey mapping. Read more
AI Video Is Officially Mainstream The IAB confirms what we’re seeing every day: over half of ad buyers are using gen AI for video. The production bottleneck is gone. Now it’s about concept, prompt, and feedback loop. We’re coaching clients on prompt frameworks that match their funnel stage. Read more
Why AI Is Shifting From Chat to the Browser Great breakdown of why chatbots are losing steam and browser-based agents are winning. We’ve seen this too. People want tools that do, not just talk. It’s why integrations and browser-native workflows matter more than ever. Read more
The Biggest Non-AI Shift Marketers Shouldn’t Ignore Not every growth trend is about AI. Martech.org outlines one of the most important (and under-discussed) shifts: privacy-driven platform consolidation. We're seeing it affect media mix decisions across verticals. Read more
Should I Hire for AI Fluency or Traditional SEO Skills? The most valuable marketers today aren’t purists. They’re translators. They know how to turn AI output into outcomes and connect fast-moving tools to long-term strategy. That’s what we’re hiring for. They pair domain expertise with tool fluency, and that combination scales. Read more
OpenAI Might Launch Its Own AI Web Browser If this browser hits, it won't just compete with Google. It’ll reroute how consumers discover products. That means new ad formats, new data pipelines, and new playbooks for performance teams. If you haven’t started diversifying off Google, now’s the time. Read more
Google Animates Still Images with AI in Flow/Veo Suite Generative motion is a game-changer for DTC and B2B brands alike. We’ve used this to upgrade static product shots into animated assets that drive 2–3x engagement on paid and social. Fast creative, no video team required, and conversion-ready output. Read more
Shopify Quietly Added as OpenAI Shopping Partner This changes the buying journey. We’re experimenting with prompt-optimized product listings to get surfaced earlier. It’s already outperforming standard Google Shopping in some tests. Welcome to the era of AI-native commerce. Read more
Meta Acquires Voice AI Startup Play AI Voice AI is about to get personal. We’re building brand-specific voice flows now. Think follow-ups, demos, support. Clients are shocked by how real it feels. This isn’t novelty. It’s UX. Read more
AI Overviews Cite AI Content More Than Human Writing This is the content flywheel in action. We’re coaching clients to create machine-quotable content. Short, structured, and fact-forward. That’s what’s getting cited and surfaced. It’s SEO for machines now. Read more
Deep dive: AI
Before you scale AI, fix your data.
If AI is the engine, data is the fuel. And bad fuel kills performance.
We’ve seen too many brands jump into AI experiments without fixing the basics. Broken UTM structures, inconsistent naming conventions, duplicated records, half-implemented CRMs. It’s chaos, and AI only magnifies the mess.
What’s working instead: auditing the full stack (CRM, analytics, ads, and web), defining your core entities (lead, account, conversion), and setting strict rules for data hygiene. Only then does AI become an asset.
Otherwise, it’s a hallucinating liability.
If you’re a growth leader evaluating AI, here’s your checklist:
Run a quick audit of how clean and connected your core data is.
Don’t trust dashboards built on sand. Prioritize verified metrics.
Make sure every AI tool you try is pulling from structured, reliable sources.
Before you pilot any tool, ask yourself: "Would I trust this insight to make a budget decision?" If the answer is no, your data’s not ready.
How marketers are actually using AI content (new data)
New HubSpot data confirms what we’re seeing across the board: AI-generated content is working best in short-form. Social, email, product blurbs, FAQs. The stuff that used to take days now takes hours. If that.
At Level, we’ve helped clients go from quarterly blog calendars with weekly blog posts to multiple posts per week, and AI-assisted landing pages that actually convert. The magic isn’t in the tools. It’s in the workflows:
Start with clear input templates: What’s the goal, CTA, audience?
Use AI to draft multiple versions fast.
Layer in human review for tone and accuracy.
Run tests. Kill what doesn’t land.
If you’re just doing AI for "more content," you’re missing the point. The win is in faster feedback and smarter iteration.
Google’s AI-powered notebook is quietly becoming a killer productivity tool. It ingests your docs—PDFs, notes, discovery calls—and turns them into a queryable brain. Ask questions, summarize content, generate outlines, even prep presentations.
One of our team members is piloting it on a major redesign project. They loaded in everything from the SOW to early drafts and meeting notes, and it’s already saving them hours tracking down key details.
The Drive integration is seamless. No folder diving. Just type what you need, and it surfaces the right info.
For marketers or leaders juggling multiple initiatives, this is a clarity multiplier. Use it to accelerate research, align stakeholders, and stay on top of the details without drowning in them. Worth trying.
