If you’re building a business in 2025, you’re competing in a world where visibility is no longer decided by the old rules of SEO. It’s now AI search that chooses who gets discovered, and that shift is reshaping how businesses show up online.
Robby Stein, Google’s VP of Product for Search, made this clear during a recent conversation on the Silicon Valley Girl podcast, where he explained how AI now drives the discovery process behind almost every query.
Stein described a search world that no longer relies on keywords and simple ranking signals. Instead, he said search has become a place where people can ask anything in natural language and expect a clear answer.
It’s not about typing “dog groomer Los Altos” anymore. Someone can ask where to get a dog haircut for under eighty dollars near Los Altos tomorrow, and the search engine understands the full context. Google then pulls in real data about pricing, availability, reviews, business listings, maps, and much more.
This shift means AI is no longer just retrieving information. It is doing the thinking for the user. It becomes the researcher that sorts through options, the recommender that ranks the best matches, and the decision-maker that brings everything together into one answer. Because of that, getting discovered now depends on how visible your business is inside the places where AI actually looks.
Stein was asked the question every entrepreneur wanted answered: How do you get recommended by Google’s AI system? He explained that AI models run multiple background searches to understand a query and map it to the best results.
These AI systems also look for signals from the broader web to understand which businesses and brands real people already trust. If a business is mentioned in top lists, articles, or credible online sources, those signals become meaningful to the AI model. Being cited, talked about, or written about increases the chance of being surfaced in AI-generated results.
This is why many founders now say PR has become the new SEO. Press coverage, interviews, expert commentary, and list features have turned into ranking signals for AI search.
When the AI model analyzes the web, those mentions help it understand not only that a business exists but that it is relevant enough to be recommended. Visibility across trusted sites builds what Stein described as “useful signals” that help the AI determine which businesses should show up for which types of questions.
Google’s AI systems rely on several layers of information to make these decisions. One layer is its massive knowledge graph, which contains over two hundred and fifty million real-world entities. Another layer is the constantly updated stream of local business data, which includes hours, pricing, photos, reviews, menus, and services.
A third layer comes from the public web, which includes blogs, product reviews, founder stories, industry write-ups, and news coverage. When these layers overlap, the AI gains confidence in recommending someone.
This brings entrepreneurs back to a simple but powerful truth. You must be visible in places that matter. It is not enough to update a website and hope search traffic arrives. Businesses now have to show up in ways that AI systems can understand.
That may mean improving online listings, encouraging customer reviews, getting mentioned in relevant industry blogs, sharing founder insights in public forums, or earning coverage in reputable media outlets. Every public signal feeds the AI model with more context about who you are and why you matter.
Many founders still believe that SEO tricks or keyword hacks can influence the algorithm the way they did years ago. But AI search changes the process entirely. Instead of matching exact keywords, the system tries to understand real meaning and real intent. It considers what people are actually looking for, not the text they type. And because AI can connect multiple sources of data, it rewards businesses that have built a strong presence online, not just optimized pages for one keyword.
This creates a new challenge, but also a major opportunity. Businesses that understand how AI search works can prepare for it long before competitors do. By creating a clear digital footprint across trusted sources, by keeping public information accurate, and by becoming part of conversations happening across the web, they position themselves to be found when AI systems search for answers. Visibility now begins outside your own website.
The future of discovery is moving quickly. AI models will continue to evolve, and their ability to understand context, intent, and relevance will get even sharper. That means entrepreneurs who invest early in building credibility across multiple public platforms will have an advantage. The more signals AI can find about your brand, the easier it becomes for the system to surface you in answers and recommendations.
In 2025, getting found is no longer a matter of ranking for keywords. It’s a matter of being present in the online spaces where AI search goes to understand the world. Those who show up there will be the ones AI recommends, and those recommendations will shape the next generation of online discovery.
