Still thinking about the way AI is changing how people find answers? Me, too. And it’s time to start adapting.

So, what can we do?

Well, first, we need to understand how AI systems think and what they prioritize when presenting content. Each AI tool has its own “personality,” and recognizing how different systems operate is key.

Here’s a quick overview of the three types of AI search, summarized from a breakdown by ​Will Seer and Jason Stinnett​ at Seer Interactive:

• Training-first systems (like Claude and Llama): Generate answers based solely on their training data.
• Search-first systems (like Google AI Overviews): Real-time indexing with a heavy SEO element.
• Hybrid systems (like Gemini and ChatGPT): A mix of both — real-time decisions based on both training data and live web updates.

Knowing these differences helps us understand how content shows up in these AI systems and how to adjust our strategy for each.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to figure out which AI tool your audience is using the most, so you can direct your SEO efforts where they’ll have the most impact.

– Amy