Conversations are the new keywords: what BrightonSEO taught us about AI search

Sophie Smith, our SEO Manager, and Dan Rowlands, our Senior SEO Manager, recently headed down to the seaside for BrightonSEO October 2025. One theme dominated every conversation: AI and its power to reshape the search landscape.

From generative engines to shifting user behaviour, the talks explored how SEO strategies must evolve to keep pace with this new reality.

The big question now: how can brands turn AI-driven change into SEO opportunity?

 

The future of search, one talk at a time

Sophie: Thursday was packed with insights on AI-driven discovery. We heard from Jérôme Salomon on how log files reveal your visibility in AI Search, Jason Forbes on making AI Search profitable through automation, and Jon Earnshaw on what happens when search becomes a true conversation. Dan: Across all those talks, three themes stood out: visibility, intent, and multi-turn journeys. Below, we’ve shared our biggest learnings from two standout sessions that really captured where search is heading next.  

“What log files tell about your visibility in AI Search” with Jérôme Salomon

As AI overviews and generative search experiences roll out, one of the biggest questions SEOs face is: how do we know if we’re being seen? As AI overviews roll out, one burning question remains: are we still being seen? In his session, Jérôme Salomon showed how log files can hold the answer. By tracking AI user bot visits, you can begin to see how often your content is being surfaced in response to user prompts. Every time an AI model searches for information, it crawls relevant sites, and those log entries represent a kind of “AI impression”. Jérôme’s advice: focus on URLs returning 200 or 304 codes to avoid overcounting. Once you clean the data, you’ll spot which pages AI crawlers love most — and that’s your clue to what’s working in this new landscape. The takeaway? Your log files might just be your new visibility report.

“The age of conversation: same question, different world,” with Jon Earnshaw

Jon Earnshaw’s session took a step back to explore the bigger shift: search is no longer a one-off question, it’s a conversation. With AI-driven, multi-turn search journeys, users don’t just ask – they chat. They follow up. They explore. And they expect brands to keep up. The challenge for SEOs is anticipating these multi-turn paths, understanding not just what people ask first, but what they’ll ask next. Jon’s advice: map out those follow-up questions before your audience asks them. Build connected, thoughtful content that keeps the conversation flowing. When you do, you’ll earn trust, relevance, and a stronger presence in conversational search.  

BrightonSEO October 2025 Key Learnings

From Jérôme’s data-led approach on AI visibility to Jon’s vision of a conversational future, one thing is clear: search is evolving, and fast. AI is pushing us to think bigger: to understand not just how people search, but how they talk. For SEOs, the challenge, and the opportunity, lies in staying curious, creative, and ready to adapt.