Surviving the search revolution: 7 lessons from losing weight with AI
By DynamicSEO
No, this isn’t clickbait. It’s a story of how everything is about to change.
Lately in SEO circles, there’s been a debate: will AI “search” overtake Google search?
Some insist yes, Google’s days are over. This is usually followed by a pitch for them to do AIO for you (or GEO or AEO or whatever it’s being called this week).
And then there are some who confidently say news of Google’s demise is greatly exaggerated.
Most of the talk about AI is just hype, and Google’s not going anywhere. Just do SEO the way you’ve always done it and you’ll be fine.
I hear many opinions on both sides, but there’s one thing I’ve never heard anyone articulate.
What exactly will “search” look like in a few years?
Déjà vu all over again
These days remind me of 1995.
Back then, the internet was mostly email, Usenet groups, and chat with fellow students and nerds across the country.
As an undergrad at Rutgers, I did a project called Business Uses of the Internet.
I sent a short questionnaire to webmasters of well-known brands. Most replied kindly, but very few predicted what was coming next.
I pulled up pizzahut.com during my final presentation and said one day we’d all order pizza from our computers.
My professor and classmates stared in disbelief. (This was three months before amazon.com launched.)
Today feels the same with AI and large language models (LLMs).
Everyone agrees AI will change the world, but nobody knows exactly how.
Right now, AI feels like a parlor trick – fun but not practical – much like Pizza Hut’s website was back then.
But just like online ordering revolutionized food delivery, AI is poised to disrupt industries in ways we can barely imagine.
What seems small today will look monumental in 30 years.
Saddle up
Like many Americans, I’ve struggled with weight loss for years.
In 2009, I ran a blog about using Wii games and a popular diet plan to lose weight.
I lost 40 pounds that year (and gained it back), then 25 pounds in 2012 (and gained it back again).
This year, I hit my highest weight ever – 238 pounds.
My daughter started fourth grade, qualifying her and our family for a free Every Kid Outdoors pass to National Parks.
We planned two trips: one to Utah and Arizona in February and another to Montana and Wyoming in July.
Both were planned with the help of ChatGPT and ended up being among the best trips of my life.
One must-do activity on our list? Horseback riding in Glacier National Park.
The concessionaire was clear. You must weigh 225 pounds or less to ride, no exceptions, no refunds. I had seven months to lose 13 pounds.
For months, I watched my diet and hit the gym a few times a week. By mid-June, I was still 231 – only seven pounds lost in seven months.
At a doctor’s appointment, I asked for a quick fix to lose six pounds in 20 days. “Cut out carbs,” he said. Simple enough.
When I got home, I turned to ChatGPT.
Here’s a copy of the actual chat so you can read it for yourself:
Good basic information from AI, but nothing ground-breaking
ChatGPT gave me advice I’d heard all my life: create a calorie deficit, cut carbs, hydrate, walk, get good sleep.
But here’s where things changed.
I gave ChatGPT my weight, and it told me my exact maintenance calories and how big a deficit I’d need daily to start losing weight.
I’d developed a rough idea of what “maintenance calories” meant for years, but I’d never had anyone calculate mine so precisely.
Intrigued, I started asking questions, including some questions I’d be hesitant to ask a human for fear it was a “dumb question.”
- Would working out add muscle weight?
- How many steps are 20 minutes on a treadmill?
- Why can’t I get rid of belly fat?
ChatGPT answered each one clearly in a way that was tailored to me.
Finally, I asked it to put together a 20-day plan for me.
It came through with a plan telling me the exact calories to eat and calories to burn each day.
It threw in reminders to focus on high protein, high fiber, low carbs, and no sugar, alcohol, or refined carbs.
It even made me a spreadsheet to track weight loss.
Helpful. But so far, nothing a good diet coach couldn’t do.
Dig deeper: How to blend AI and human input in your content approach
The real game changer
One morning at breakfast, I told it what I ate and asked it to calculate the calories. It did.
Then I asked if it could track them daily rather than having me fill out a spreadsheet. It agreed to.
From then on, after every meal and even after every little impromptu snack, I’d pull out my phone and tell ChatGPT exactly what I ate.
When I exercised, I’d report that too.
No “points,” no “diet,” no coaches, just me opening my phone (which I had with me at all times anyway).
Over time, I started getting more creative in what I’d ask.
While I was standing in the middle of Costco one day, I asked it for a shopping list of healthy snack ideas and for “permission” to eat a $1.50 hot dog. (It gave both to me.)
There were a few times that my daughter wanted to eat dessert with me.
If I’d been managing on my own, I would have said absolutely not.
But ChatGPT gave me advice about portion size that literally let me have my cake and eat it too.
There were a few times my weight shot up 3-4 pounds, causing me to panic.
When I told ChatGPT, it reassured me that it was just water retention from salty food.
There was one time I had an overripe banana and some strawberries.
I asked for a simple recipe for a banana smoothie that I could make with my portable blender. It came through.
At one point, I got tired of typing in every piece of food I was eating, so I started sending it photos of my plate.
It analyzed the photos and gave me an accurate breakdown of the calorie count.
In short, ChatGPT was the embodiment of the “butler” I mentioned in my article back in April 2024.
At the end of each day, it gave me a calorie rundown. Each morning, I weighed in.
I hit 225 in four days.
By Day 8, I was 219.
On Day 15, I was down to 217.
Travel test
On Day 17, we flew to Montana.
Travel would be dangerous for me. Unlimited plane snacks, airport lounges, and restaurant food were a recipe for disaster.
Worse, I had no scale for the next three days, so I’d be flying blind. So I asked it to tailor my diet for the rest of the trip.
Finally, the moment of truth. The time came for me to step on the scale.
Final weigh-in: 209 lbs.
Here’s what I looked like on the horse.
And here’s what I would have missed out on (in addition to $150) if I didn’t make it.
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Welcome to the future
Why did AI succeed where my own attempts at dieting failed?
Like I said, this moment in history reminds me of 1995.
At the time, the Pizza Hut site was considered cutting-edge. No one could imagine how the web would change in just a few years.
Most people I observe using AI today are still in the “dabble” phase.
Some use it like a search engine, and others use it occasionally for a quick task or two.
But it’s when people start to incorporate AI into their daily lives that everything will change.
In this case, here’s why I think AI worked for me when so many diets, programs, and books didn’t.
It gave me solid, basic information, which is all I really needed
Most people don’t need cutting-edge research for something like dieting. We just need the fundamentals applied to our situation.
AI happens to be good at the basics because the web is saturated with basic content, and we have Google to thank for that.
For the last 27 years, it has conditioned us to create endless content for head terms while largely ignoring the vast long tail.
It didn’t judge me
I was able to ask ChatGPT “dumb” questions, sometimes over and over again, without feeling embarrassed or self-conscious.
That encouraged me to ask more questions.
It talked directly to me
There wasn’t a lot that ChatGPT told me that I couldn’t find on a blog or forum.
The difference is that I didn’t have to dig for it; it distilled exactly what I needed and filtered out the noise.
It encouraged me
We’ve all experienced where ChatGPT can get a little too flattering and unctuous.
But for something like losing weight, the encouragement and motivation completely worked.
It had endless patience
A human coach would’ve gotten sick of me by Day 2. ChatGPT never tires.
I wasn’t programming the AI. The AI was programming me – in a good way.
Now, I have experience, knowledge, and tools I can use the next time my weight balloons out of control.
And I find myself instinctively being “good” in my day-to-day after this experience.
Editor’s note: This story reflects a personal journey using AI to assist with weight loss. It is not medical advice. Readers should consult healthcare professionals before making changes to diet or exercise routines.
SEO is dead – long live SEO
For 27 years, Google has conditioned all of us in SEO to focus on the head.
Create content such as “What is SEO,” rank in the top 3, and watch the money pour in.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that that hasn’t been the case for a while now.
Search Engine Land has the Position 2 organic ranking for “SEO.”
But that ranking doesn’t mean what it meant 10 years ago.
For years, we’ve looked at these SERP changes as nothing but a cash grab from Google.
The reality? It might be Google trying to survive.
Google sees the writing on the wall.
For searches with informational search intent, people just want the answer.
If they don’t find it on Google, they’ll go to ChatGPT or another AI chatbot.
Does that mean SEO is dead?
No, as long as humans are looking for things, search engine optimization will exist.
But the concept of a “search engine” is changing right in front of us.
If your whole business model is built on being the top Google result for a generic question that AI can now answer in two seconds, you’re on borrowed time.
Those “searches” will be happening somewhere else.
In the past, SEO was about getting people to find your content.
Going forward, SEO will be about getting people to find your brand, making sure it’s in the conversation when your topic comes up.
The days of ranking generic content for a head term, sitting in the top spot, and driving huge traffic are almost over.
When users ask AI about your topic, it will give a solid answer without necessarily citing you (and even if it does cite you, most people won’t click).
“Ranking” in Google is about positions, clicks, and impressions.
“Ranking” in AI means something altogether different:
- Will AI recommend your brand over your competitors when it’s having a conversation with the user?
The opportunity now is to ensure that your brand is top-of-mind for AI so that it mentions you naturally in the flow of conversation or in response to a follow-up question.
Dig deeper: AI search is booming, but SEO is still not dead
How to thrive in this new world
Ironically, there has never been more opportunity than today to be a search expert.
Think about it. When someone has a “conversation” with AI and asks it something that’s beyond its training data, how does it learn more?
It searches.
And not just Google or Bing.
AI will query every searchable place it can find, including Amazon, YouTube, Reddit, and your own site’s search engine.
It’s not looking for broad, generic info.
It’s looking for detail and nuance – the kind of specific, in-the-weeds knowledge most SEOs have been ignoring for the last 27 years.
That’s where the opportunity is: Search isn’t dead. It’s about to explode.
Here’s what you need to do to get ready.
1. Be an indispensable brand
Nobody searches “books” to find Amazon.
Nobody searches “hamburgers” to find McDonald’s.
Nobody searches “video game console” to find Nintendo.
These brands have executed so well that people skip the search step entirely.
And their brands have reached the point where Google or AI will look foolish for not recommending them when the subject comes up.
A lot of companies hiring SEO talent don’t have SEO problems, they have brand problems.
They’re frustrating customers, alienating prospects, and burning employees.
No amount of “SEO” will ever fix that, and their problems will only be compounded in the coming age if they don’t fix them.
Dig deeper: The new SEO imperative: Building your brand
2. Stop ignoring the niches
Google has trained us for the last 27 years to chase the big head terms.
If Semrush shows a keyword with under “10” searches a month, we dismiss it as worthless.
In the AI era, those extreme long-tail queries are where the real opportunity is.
AI will likely be the one conducting those searches on the user’s behalf.
The first step is to identify underserved niches by geography, audience segment, or specific use case.
And no, the answer is not to hire an army of inexperienced freelancers, and it’s definitely not to have AI churn out watered-down content.
3. Publish deep knowledge and original insights
Go way beyond “FAQs.”
Build rich knowledge bases and web content that take the expertise locked inside your team’s heads and internal documents and make it public for AI, Google, and, most importantly, your customers to find.
Make sure it’s crawlable. Go deep.
Provide insights and helpful information, especially around your brand and your unique value propositions, including things that have never been told before.
The stuff you think is “too detailed” or “too obvious” is often exactly what people need and will be asking their AIs about.
Yes, you’re letting AI “learn” from your content. But you’re also training it to trust you.
If AI sees your site as a reliable source of useful, relevant, and solid information, it’s going to remember you when someone asks for recommendations.
Dig deeper: Want to beat AI Overviews? Produce unmistakably human content
4. Share real stories, not soulless content
The “uncanny valley” used to refer to AI-generated work that just seemed “off.”
These days, of course, generative AI can produce images and videos that look completely real.
A new “uncanny valley” is taking its place, especially as generative AI starts to be used universally.
You may have experienced it yourself.
The words or images may be perfect, but there’s still something hollow and soulless about them.
Tell stories on your site. I’m not talking about fake-sounding “testimonials” or overly polished case studies.
I’m talking about authentic conversations with real people about your products and services.
- How they used your product.
- What went right (and wrong).
- What they were able to accomplish.
- What they learned.
These are all details that humans will crave after AI gives them generic answers.
5. Build communities
Google and OpenAI are paying millions to access Reddit’s data for a reason: it’s still one of the last places on the web where authentic conversations are happening.
A lot of those conversations aren’t exactly high quality.
Brands have an opportunity to bring back their own moderated spaces where people can have real, troll-free discussions.
Well-moderated forums continue to be the most effective method of generating relevant, helpful, timely, and detailed content at scale.
It always has been, but brands couldn’t justify the ROI.
Since I wrote this article last year, Reddit’s market cap has gone up $25 billion. It might be time to redo the math on that one.
And don’t forget the “community” of reviewers, whether on your site or third-party sites like Trustpilot, Amazon, Yelp, or Glassdoor.
Those are going to become even more valuable as AI leans on them for signals. That doesn’t mean faking reviews, it means doing item 1 above.
6. Stop acting like a robot
For years, SEO professionals (and the people hiring us) have thought of our job as “understanding the tech.” That used to be true.
Not anymore.
In the AI era, the technology matters less. Understanding humanity matters more.
Stop thinking:
- “How do I get a million visitors from one keyword?”
Start thinking:
- “How do I be the brand that can answer a million different questions in ways that actually help people?”
7. Understand your users and how they’ll use AI
Here’s a good exercise. Just like I did with my diet plan, go to your favorite chatbot and try to accomplish a goal, the way your customers would.
Don’t just type a keyword into the box like you would on Google.
Have a conversation. Try to get something done.
You’ll find some things AI gets uncannily right, some it gets embarrassingly wrong, and some it can’t do at all. Those last two are your opportunities.
Dig deeper: How generative answers are changing the user journey
Conclusion
Hall of Fame baseball player “Wee Willie” Keeler famously said “Keep your eye on the ball and hit ‘em where they ain’t.”
I think that’s fitting advice for the coming AI age.
The ball is and always has been your customer.
AI can do a lot of things well – scarily well.
If it ultimately helps your customers, embrace it and figure out how to make your brand top-of-mind in conversations.
But there are some things it can’t do yet, and there are some things it’ll never be able to do.
Figure out what those are, and do them, starting with this list.
