How is AI search optimization different from SEO?

SEO optimises a page for a position, AI search optimization optimises data for retrieval, and the practical difference is that a good ranking used to end in a visit and now often ends in an answer.

SEO optimises a page for a position. AI search optimization optimises data for retrieval. The overlap is real, since both reward being crawlable, explicit and authoritative, but the objective has moved.

Three things change in practice. The unit drops from the page to the passage, and for commerce from the product page to the product data. The outcome changes from a visit to an answer, which means a correct citation with no click counts as success rather than failure. And freshness matters more, because an assistant quoting a stale price does you more damage than not appearing at all.

This is not a replacement for SEO. It is a second job the same content now has to do.