While industry professionals have debates over nomenclature of SEO, GEO, or AEO, and if ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews will replace traditional search, a more fundamental shift is happening that could disrupt the entire industry business model.
To get a better understanding of this, I spoke to the 25-year veteran and SEO pioneer Duane Forrester to discuss some of his recent articles about the shift from traditional SEO and the impact on how SEO roles are changing and adapting.
Duane previously worked at Microsoft as a senior program manager of SEO, where he helped to launch Bing Webmaster Tools and bring Schema.org to life. He has a deep understanding of how search engines work and has now turned his attention to adapting to the realities of AI-powered search and digital discovery.
His belief is that the real disruption isn’t AI replacing search engines; it’s the rise of AI agents. These “Agentic AI” systems will empower individuals to work like small agencies, and the jobs that thrive will be those that can effectively manage an AI team.
The Rise Of Agentic AI: Virtual Team Members
In Duane’s recent article “SEO’s Existential Threat is AI, but Not in the Way You Think,” he said it’s the rise of AI agents and retrieval-based systems that are already transforming how people interact with information, quietly eroding SEO’s return on investment. So, I asked him how agents and not SERPs are the future.
Duane explained:
“The most significant development isn’t AI replacing search engines; it’s the emergence of Agentic AI systems that can be given tasks and execute them autonomously … This is really a personal thing and I’ve been following this since I worked at Microsoft. I did some early work with Cortana with that program and training it for language recognition.”
Within six months, Duane predicts professionals will routinely instruct AI agents to perform work while they focus on higher-value activities. This is going to have the impact where individuals can behave much more like a small agency.
“If I can create a process and the process is largely executed by agents, then the 100% of my time that I can devote can be reapportioned to human-in-the-loop analysis.
This is going to be the way for us to create virtual players on our team and to do specific tasks to enable us to define the most valuable use of our time, whatever it happens to be. That valuable use of time for some people may be closing their next client. It may simply be the sales cycle. For other people who, maybe, lack knowledge and experience, it may actually be executing on what you promised the client.”
However, Dunae thinks that developing people management skills will be critical to success:
“If you step into the world of Agentic AI and you’re going down that path, you better have people management skills because you’re going to need them. That’s the skill set that will prove most valuable to managing Agentic AI work. You have to think of them not necessarily as humans, but as systems that need guidance.”
The Job Transformation: Writers As AI Instructors
I then asked Duane about his latest article, where he wrote about which SEO jobs AI will reshape and which might disappear.
He responded that the most dramatic changes will impact content creators, but not in the way many expect.
Duanes thinks that traditional writing roles face automation, but professionals who adapt will become more valuable than ever.
“If your full-time job is sitting down writing, that’s in jeopardy,” Duane acknowledges.
“The new model transforms writers from creators to instructors, managing multiple AI agents across different clients simultaneously. Instead of spending hours researching and writing, professionals can brief a dozen agents in minutes and focus on editing, refining tone, and ensuring accuracy.”
“You can tell a dozen agents for a dozen clients to all start and you can get them all started in less than two minutes and then in about 10 minutes have all of the output that you now will go in and edit one by one.”
Paradoxically, he thinks the role most in demand will be quality experienced writers, but only those who learn how to embrace and integrate AI to be efficient and effectively manage an AI team of writers.
By becoming a “human in the loop” editor who can guide AI output, an experienced writer can add value in ways machines can’t by refining tone, ensuring factual accuracy, and aligning copy with brand voice and client needs.
“I recently wrote about a Microsoft survey that showed the overlay of how AI can do a job versus humans doing that same job … their point was, if you’re in these jobs, you kind of want to figure out how to pivot to something different.”
Strategic Roles Remain Safe
The jobs that are vulnerable to AI are those with a repetitive nature that can be done by an AI faster, easier, and cheaper than a human.
While these execution-focused roles face disruption, strategic positions like CMOs remain relatively protected. These roles survive because they require experience-based decision-making that AI cannot replicate.
“It’s going to be harder to replace that level of experience because the system doesn’t have the experience,” Duane emphasizes.
The distinction isn’t about seniority but about the nature of the work. Repetitive tasks get automated first, while roles requiring strategic thinking, relationship building, and complex problem-solving remain human-dominated.
CMOs are considered “safe” not because they are senior, but because they are thinking in terms of strategy. They succeed by analyzing consumer behavior, identifying monetization opportunities, and aligning products with customer problems, capabilities that demand human insight and industry knowledge.
“They’re watching consumer behavior, and they’re trying to tease out from the consumer behavior: How do we make money from that? How do we align our product to solve a customer’s problem? And then that generates more sales. That’s the job of the CMO.
And then everything else under it, which is building and maintaining the team, running all the groups, and making sure everything is on track. It’s going to be harder to replace that level of experience because the system doesn’t have the experience.”
Preparing For The Future
Success in these evolving times requires immediate action on hiring and training. Companies must update job descriptions today to reflect skills needed in two to three years, or develop comprehensive training programs for existing staff.
“The people you’re hiring today, in theory, should still be with you in a couple of years. And if they are still with you in a couple of years and you don’t hire these new skills today, well then, you better have a training plan to get them there.”
I compared the current transformation with the early days of SEO, when pioneers navigated uncharted territory. Today’s professionals face a similar challenge of adapting to work alongside AI systems or risking obsolescence.
The future belongs to those who can embrace AI as a productivity multiplier rather than a replacement threat. Those who learn to instruct, guide, and optimize AI agents will find themselves more valuable than ever, while those who resist change may find themselves left behind.
“This isn’t just about surviving disruption,” Duane concluded. “It’s about positioning yourself to benefit from it.”
Watch the full video interview with Duane Forrester below.
Duane is currently writing about the shift from traditional SEO to vector-driven retrieval and AI-generated answers at Duane Forrester Decodes and featured here at Search Engine Journal.
Thank you to Duane for offering his insights and being my guest on IMHO.
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Featured Image: Shelley Walsh/Search Engine Journal