SEO & AI Update: Gen AI Consumer Trust Study, Google’s New Gemini 2.5, & Previsible’s SEO Jobs Study

Welcome to the latest edition of the Previsible SEO and AI Update, where each week we take a fresh look at the intersection of search and AI, and how the two are combining.

The joint SEO and AI space continues to shift and evolve at a rapid pace, and this week brings us industry news from Google, Anthopic, and OpenAI, along with new report and survey data, including our own newly-released comprehensive Previsible 2025 State of SEO Jobs Report.

Let’s jump right in with 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 2.5 Pro is Here With Bigger Numbers and Great Vibes

Google has released Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, an experimental version derived from the search giant’s Gemini 2.5 Pro edition, offering the firm’s most advanced model for tackling ever more complex tasks, Google recently announced. Ars Technica

SEO & AI IMPACT: With initial tests placing Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental at the top of the Chatbot Arena crowdsourced AI benchmarking ranking list, Google’s latest release has upped the ante with a larger one million token context window upon which to operate, along with multimodal operation in what the firm has called its most intelligent AI model to date .

Anthropic’s Claude Can Search The Web, Closing Gap With ChatGPT

AI startup Anthropic has rolled out new web search capabilities for its Claude AI assistant product, offering paid account users access to up-to-date information via source citations, with a rollout to free accounts forthcoming, the company recently announced. Search Engine Journal

SEO & AI IMPACT: Anthropic’s Claude is set to join the fray of AI tools competing for a share of the burgeoning AI search market, which will present SEO professionals with new challenges alongside additional optimization opportunities.

So How Much Do Americans Use Google?

Over nine percent of active U.S. web desktop users perform between 250 and 500 Google searches every month, while 20.2 percent search Google between 100 and 250 times each month — two of several findings of interest to search professionals contained in newly-published survey data. MarketingCharts

SEO & AI IMPACT: The study revealed that the average U.S. desktop user conducted 126 unique Google web searches each month, including over 10 percent being accounted for within Google Image search. While excluding mobile Google search data, the findings set a benchmark upon which future comparisons can be made, as SEO professionals anticipate shifts brought about by the increasing amount of search traffic originating from AI tools.

Remote, Content SEO Roles in Decline: Report

When it comes to jobs in the SEO field, professionals skilled in AI, strategy, and technical areas were among those most in demand, with roles in leadership positions having grown by some 50 percent during 2024 — two of numerous findings of interest to SEO professionals included in our very own newly-published Previsible 2025 State of SEO Jobs Report. Search Engine Land

SEO & AI IMPACT: Whether you’re a seasoned SEO professional or just entering the industry, the free 2025 Previsible State of SEO Jobs Report offers 70-plus pages of essential insights to navigate the ever-changing search landscape.

70% Of Media Companies Not Fully Using AI, IAB Report Finds

34 percent of media agencies have implemented full-scale adoption of AI technology within campaigns, compared with only 19 percent of brands, while publishers had the greatest rate of AI adoption at 37 percent — three of the statistics of interest to SEO professionals contained in recently-released IAB report data. Search Engine Journal

SEO & AI IMPACT: With agencies the most likely to use their own proprietary AI tools, followed by publishers and brands, the IAB report data has shown the variety of approaches media firms have taken to navigate the sea of new AI tools.

State of the Stack 2025: Homegrown MarTech Surges as AI Accelerates Development

62.1 percent of marketers have said that they were using more tools in their marketing skill stacks than they were two years ago, with over 68 percent of organizations utilizing generative AI tools — placing such tools as the sixth most popular marketing technology tool overall, according to newly-released marketing tool data. MarTech

SEO & AI IMPACT: With a growing number of AI tools, increased data integration challenges have surfaced, as 65.7 percent of marketers cited this as their top obstacle when it came to managing technology tools.

Google Completes March 2025 Core Update Rollout

Google has fully implemented its March 2025 core Google Search update — the type of shift that typically brings broad changes to Google’s search algorithms and systems, the search giant recently announced. Search Engine Journal

SEO & AI IMPACT: Over the past two weeks since its initial rollout, Google’s March 2025 core Google Search update has largely seen decreasing search visibility for certain types of message forum content, along with a variety of changes felt across multiple industries, which SEO professionals will now be able to monitor more closely with the official rollout complete.

OpenAI rolls out image generation powered by GPT-4o to ChatGPT

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has rolled out more powerful image generation capabilities, with the launch of its GPT-4o Images in ChatGPT feature, the organization behind the popular AI tool recently announced. The Verge

SEO & AI IMPACT: By now offering image generation that can work simultaneously with up to 20 different visual elements, and so-called omni-modal functionality — capable of producing a variety of data in the form of text, video, images, and audio — ChatGPT has sought to build on its category-leading market share.

Open Source Devs Say AI Crawlers Dominate Traffic, Forcing Blocks on Entire Countries

Certain open source software development projects have seen significant increases in web traffic deriving from AI firm crawlers — with some reporting a whopping 97 percent of overall traffic coming from AI crawlers. Ars Technica

SEO & AI IMPACT: Safeguards such as the robots.txt standard developed in 1994 — put in place to protect web properties from being overwhelmed by web crawlers — are increasingly being abused or ignored by some AI tool crawlers, with crippling results hitting the open source community especially hard.

Most Consumers Say They Trust Gen AI At Least As Much – If Not More Than – Search Results

60 percent of consumers have said that they expected to increase their use of generative AI for search purposes over the next six months, with some 15 percent noting that they planned to decrease their use of traditional search engines during the same time-frame — two of several findings of interest to search marketers contained in newly-published survey data. MarketingCharts

SEO & AI IMPACT: These search trend data points highlight a small but significant shift in the multi-billion-dollar search industry, as more consumers adopt AI technology and put it to use in place of traditional Google and Bing searches. Tellingly, 40 percent of those surveyed noted that they trusted generative AI search results more than conventional search queries.

SEARCH & TECHNOLOGY HISTORY & FUTURE:

‘Open Source’ AI Isn’t Truly Open — Here’s How Researchers Can Reclaim the Term — Nature

Quantum Speedup Found for Huge Class of Hard Problems — Quanta Magazine

Zoom Bias: The Social Costs of Having a ‘Tinny’ Sound During Video Conferences — Phys.org

VOICES OF SEARCH PODCAST LATEST EPISODES:

Why is expertise-driven content more vital than ever in today’s AI age? Ruth Burr Reedy, senior SEO manager at Houzz recently joined our CEO and co-founder Jordan Koene to explore the value of engaging with industry experts to boost credibility and visibility — you’ll find it all at “Building Expertise-Driven Content in a World of AI-Created Slop.”

FRIDAY FIVE SEARCH MARKETING & AI FAVORITES TO FOLLOW:

• Ann Smarty
• Cindy Krum
• Eric Enge
• Nick LeRoy
• Michael King

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK FOR THE LATEST SEO & AI UPDATES

Learn more about Previsible‘s mission to unlock scalable organic growth with AI search optimization.

Have you come across a top 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.

Thank you for taking the time to join us for this week’s edition of the Previsible SEO & AI Update, and we hope that you will come back again next Friday for another selection 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.