From Keywords To AI Answers: Preparing Your Website For The Next Search Revolution

The way we search online is changing faster than most businesses realise. For nearly two decades, SEO was the undisputed king. If you wanted visibility, you had to optimise for keywords and fight for a place on Google’s first page. But with AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini now answering questions directly, the rules of discovery are being rewritten.

As the founder of Saint D, a tech company working with AI, I’ve seen first-hand how quickly these changes are unfolding and how deeply they affect businesses across every sector. Just as SEO once revolutionised marketing and became essential for digital growth, we are now entering a new era: the era of AI-optimisation.

 

From SEO To AI Answers

 

For years, SEO dictated success online. No business could afford to ignore it if they wanted to be found. But with the rise of AI assistants, that dominance is fading. Instead of “googling” everything, people now turn to AI tools for instant, summarised answers.

Imagine a future where everyone has their own personal AI agent. You simply say: “Find me good-looking casual brown shoes under £100.” In seconds, your agent curates the best options. You pick the one you like and instruct: “Order it to the office.”

This isn’t science fiction. The future is already here. The agents are ready. It’s the stores that need to catch up.

When a consumer asks, “What are the best running shoes under £100?”, they don’t scroll through 15 links. They get a curated list with direct recommendations and sources. If your website’s data isn’t structured in a way these models can easily interpret, your products may never appear, no matter how good they are.

Even Google has recognised this shift with AI Overviews, which place AI-generated summaries above traditional results. The landscape of visibility is changing, and fast. I believe the companies that treat AI-optimisation today the way they treated SEO twenty years ago will be the ones shaping tomorrow’s market.

 

Why Businesses Must Adapt Now

 

Google Search isn’t disappearing, but its role is being redefined. The importance of ranking on page one is already diminishing as AI tools transform how people search and consume information. If your website isn’t structured in a way AI can easily understand, you’re missing opportunities to be discovered.

By organising your data so AI can clearly interpret your products, services, and content, you increase your chances of being included in the answers customers see first. In practical terms, that means making sure your products, categories, FAQs and posts are all presented in a machine-friendly way.

Just as schema.org gave search engines a common language to interpret websites, the Model Context Protocol (MCP) is now doing the same for AI. And just as early adopters of SEO dominated search engines, those who embrace MCP early will be the ones AI favours.

How MCP Makes Your Business Discoverable By AI

 

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard developed by Anthropic, the company behind Claude. It’s designed to connect websites and applications directly with AI assistants in a structured, privacy-first way, and it’s quickly becoming the foundation for AI-friendly websites.

At its core, MCP provides a clear framework for how AI systems can securely discover and interact with a site’s capabilities. In other words, an AI agent doesn’t just scrape your content, it knows exactly what kind of data your site provides (products, categories, posts, FAQs) and how to request it reliably.

With MCP, AI agents can go beyond simple question answering and perform useful actions:

• Retrieve product details or service information
• Summarise articles or blog posts
• Connect with calendars to make appointments
• Integrate with existing tools or workflows

All of this is built with privacy by design. MCP only allows read-only access to selected, public-facing information, never sensitive customer data. That ensures businesses stay discoverable without compromising trust.

In short, MCP is the bridge between your business and the AI-powered internet. Just as schema.org gave search engines the structure to understand websites, MCP gives AI assistants the structure to include your business in their answers.

 

What This Means For CEOs And Founders

 

This is not just another buzzword or IT project. It’s a strategic business decision. The way customers find businesses is changing rapidly. AI tools are no longer just answering questions, they’re beginning to book appointments, recommend purchases, and soon will guide even more of the customer journey.

History tells us what happens next. The businesses that adopted SEO early enjoyed years of dominance on Google. The same will be true in the AI era. Leaders who treat AI-optimisation as a core part of growth strategy, not just a technical task, will be the ones who secure visibility and trust in this new landscape.

 

Looking Ahead

 

AI is only going to become more central to discovery, comparison, and purchasing. What schema.org did for Google and Bing a decade ago, MCP is now set to do for AI assistants.

One of MCP’s most powerful features is capability discovery. Think of it like a menu: it tells AI assistants exactly what your site can offer, from product details to structured content, so they interact only with what’s relevant. The result is a connection that’s faster, smarter, and far more reliable than today’s scraping-based systems.

And importantly, adopting MCP doesn’t mean exposing sensitive data. Only the public information you choose to share is made available, ensuring privacy and trust are preserved.

We are at the very beginning of this new wave. Just as SEO became a non-negotiable part of digital strategy, AI-optimisation will soon be baseline for any business that wants to be found online. Forward-thinking companies are already preparing.