SEO & AI Update: AI Literacy Tops LinkedIn’s Skill List, Google Gemini Adds Interactive Canvas, & Bing’s LLM Schema Markup
21 Mar, 2025
6 mins read
Welcome to the latest edition of the Previsible SEO and AI Update, where each week we take a new look at the intersection of search and AI, and how the two combine to help improve how we search for and find key business answers.
The joint SEO and AI space continues to shift and evolve at a rapid pace, and this week brings us industry news from Microsoft’s Bing, Google, and Adobe, along with new report and survey data.
Let’s examine the ten top SEO and AI news items this week, and take a look at some of the areas on the fascinating periphery of the two, including the history of search technology and its future.
TOP 10 SEO & AI UPDATES OF THE WEEK
Gemini Gets New Coding and Writing Tools, Plus AI-Generated “Podcasts”
Google has rolled out an interactive Canvas element within its Gemini AI product, allowing users to manipulate documents and programming code, along with a new Audio Overview audio generation feature, the search giant recently announced . Ars Technica
SEO & AI IMPACT: With this Google Gemini update, SEO professionals have gained access to a new level of interactivity within Google’s flagship AI offering — the latest in a steady stream of new features that have been added recently — which will allow for greater flexibility working with text documents, PDF files, HTML or other code, along with an array of new audio generation capabilities.
LinkedIn Skills on the Rise 2025: The 15 Fastest-Growing Skills in the US [Research]
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has revealed that AI literacy was the fastest-growing skill among its U.S. users, topping a list of skills users added to their profiles on the professional social network during 2024, LinkedIn recently announced. LinkedIn
SEO & AI IMPACT: Joining AI literacy on the fastest-growing skill list was the more technical large language model (LLM) development and application competency, where there is a growing overlap between SEO professionals and AI engineering roles.
“Gen AIs value fresh content in particular, partly as a reference check of their LLM training data.”
— Fabrice Canel, Principal Product Manager AT Microsoft BING
What Content Works Well In LLMs? [Study]
Traditional SEO metrics may not have quite as much oomph when it comes to influencing generative AI mentions and citations, while high brand search volume was among the strongest predictors of AI chatbot mentions — two of numerous findings of interest to SEO professionals contained in new study data. Search Engine Journal
SEO & AI IMPACT: Looking at how the latest AI tools use retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to pull data from external resources, the study’s data suggests that greater importance may lie with content optimization that is focused on in-depth and comprehensive information, compared to more traditional keyword ranking and back-link metrics.
Bing Webmaster Tools Search Performance Reports Get Compare Filter
Microsoft’s Bing search engine has added new functionality for working with date-limited data, with the launch of its latest Bing Webmaster Tools feature, allowing comparisons of multiple data sets over time, Microsoft recently announced. Search Engine Roundtable
SEO & AI IMPACT: SEO professionals can use the new Bing data comparison tool to perform more complex search data analysis, providing a helpful look at trend data not previously possible without using third-party tools.
1 in 3 Marketers Believe AI Will Revolutionize Marketing
33 percent of marketers have said that they see AI as revolutionizing marketing over the next five years, introducing greater efficiencies and personalization, while the same portion of marketers viewed AI as a helpful tool that won’t fundamental change the marketing industry, according to newly-published survey data of interest to SEO professionals. MarketingCharts
SEO & AI IMPACT: With an even split between those who predict revolutionizing changes to arise from AI and those who view it as a helpful tool, ultimate clarity on the matter is more than likely to come long before five years passes, as the months ahead are set to see new AI tool advances that either convince those who are more pessimistic, or put the brakes on the AI optimism many professionals currently feel.
Where Are The Missing Data Holes In GA4 That Brands Need? [Data]
Nearly 68 percent of web traffic to the example account that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) provides to search professionals was from direct sources, according to a new examination of data over the past month, which explores some of the missing pieces in user acquisition measurement. Search Engine Journal
SEO & AI IMPACT: Industry veteran Greg Jarboe’s look a the strategies brands are using to find and work around missing web traffic data offers an array of helpful tactics and several examples for SEO professionals looking to make the most of this sometimes-overlooked area of Google Analytics.
Adobe’s Sora-Rivaling AI Video Generator is Now Available For Everyone
After a test period that began last year, Adobe has launched its Generate Video tool for turning text and image data into video footage, the firm recently announced during the week of its Adobe Summit conference event. The Verge
SEO & AI IMPACT: Search marketers can test Adobe’s latest AI video utility for generating clips up to ten seconds in length, with higher 1080p resolution than the company’s previous incarnation, which topped out at 720p video quality. Additional new tools bring multiple-language support and the ability to generate images from live sketching.
Google Assistant To Be Replaced By Gemini
Google’s Gemini will shift to being the search giant’s mobile assistance solution over the coming months, as Google Assistant is phased out for Android users, Google recently announced. Google’s The Keyword Blog
SEO & AI IMPACT: The shift to Gemini in more areas of Google’s sizable digital product ecosystem is evidence of a maturing AI tool landscape that is also being seen at Microsoft, OpenAI, and among other AI industry players — a move that may help SEO professionals who have had to optimize for a wide spectrum of AI search tools, especially in the mobile space.
B2B Marketers’ Goals for Improving Marketing Automation [Survey]
When it comes to the top goals B2B marketers have for the coming year, a leading 44 percent have said that improving the quality of their organization’s data will be paramount, while surfacing top customer prospects was the goal for some 41 percent of marketers, according to newly-released survey results. MarketingCharts
SEO & AI IMPACT: Surfacing the right data for the job is a familiar goal for SEO professionals, and with the growing recognition that this represents a top pain-point among organizations, greater resources may be given to search teams.
Microsoft Confirms Schema Helps Its LLMs (Copilot) Understand Your Content
The structured data of a website — often in schema markup format — has traditionally played a role in search engines’ understanding of a site’s primary functions, however just how schema data is used by the large language models of AI has been largely unknown, which is why recent news from Microsoft Bing that such data is used by AI has been embraced. Search Engine Roundtable
SEO & AI IMPACT: The acknowledgement from Microsoft Bing is set to help SEO professionals looking to tune existing website schema markup data for greater AI findability, and may mark a turning point as search engine firms work through the guidance they provide to search marketers.
SEARCH & TECHNOLOGY HISTORY & FUTURE:
AI Could Soon Tackle Projects that Take Humans Weeks — Nature
ICANN Update: Launching RDAP; Sunsetting WHOIS — ICANN
Introducing Command A: Max Performance, Minimal Compute — Cohere
VOICES OF SEARCH PODCAST LATEST EPISODES:
What is search experience optimization (SXO) and how can SEO professionals use it to spark engagement? Jellyfish SEO director Eric Hoover recently joined our CEO and co-founder Jordan Koene to explore SXO, shifting SEO metrics, and much more — you’ll find it all at “The Power of Search Experience Optimization.”
Why is blockchain technology relevant in today’s successful SEO efforts and how can SEO professionals best utilize it? Michael Sumner, CEO and founder at ScoreDetect recently sat down with our COO and co-founder Tyson Stockton to examine the topic, including the practical SEO applications of blockchain timestamping and more — you’ll find it all at “Blockchain Time-Stamping.”
FRIDAY FIVE SEARCH MARKETING & AI FAVORITES TO FOLLOW:
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Have you come across a key news item exploring the intersection between SEO and AI that we haven’t covered yet? If so, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line.
Thanks for taking the time to join us for this week’s edition of the Previsible SEO & AI Update, and we hope you’ll return next Friday for another array of the most up-to-date and relevant SEO and AI industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page for even more timely insight.
Lane R. Ellis has over 41 years’ experience working with and writing about the Internet. Lane's industry coverage has been featured regularly in LinkedIn’s “This Week in Marketing” newsletter with over 4.5 million readers, and he's published over 2,000 articles. When he's not writing about search technology, Lane enjoys distance running (he's completed 11 marathons including two ultra-marathons so far), genealogical research, cross-country skate skiing including a world-record 202-day streak, vegetarian cooking, collecting vintage computers, and spending time with his wonderful wife Julie Ahasay and their cats Kukla, Twister, and Arlo in beautiful Duluth, Minnesota.
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