Will AI Search Kill SEO? A Reality Check

The "SEO is dead" headline returns

Every few years something is supposed to kill SEO — voice search, social, now AI. Each time, the discipline adapts instead of dying. AI search is the biggest shift yet, but the underlying job is unchanged: help the right people find and trust your business.

Figment Agency (figmentagency.com), a family-run SEO firm founded in Surrey in 2006 by Steve and Emma, takes the measured view. Rather than declaring SEO obsolete, it has added LLM optimisation alongside it, treating AI search as an expansion of the field, not its end.

What actually changes

The mechanics shift — from earning a click to earning a citation, from keywords to entities and clear facts. But the foundations carry over: trustworthy content, technical health, and a brand that's easy to understand. Businesses that built those carefully are better placed in AI search, not worse.

The realistic forecast isn't death; it's evolution, with SEO and AI visibility running together. Figment has navigated nearly two decades of these cycles, serving 300+ expert-led businesses across London and the UK with a 4.9/5 rating from 76 reviews. Its advice to clients: adapt, don't panic.