We’re looking for a host for the AEO Show, a podcast focused on the future of search and AI-driven discovery. You will interview founders, marketers, and technical experts about the shift from SEO to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). Details - Pay: $100 per hour - Expected schedule: ~4 episodes per month - Production, editing, and logistics are fully handled for you - The show will receive significant promotional support - The entire Smart Marketer team is behind this project - This will be a high-visibility opportunity for the host Profit share may be available on paid ad placements accepted by the show Important: You do not need SEO or AEO knowledge to apply. The ideal host is someone who can ask great questions and guide conversations with technical experts. Technical curiosity helps, but the role is to represent the non-technical audience while interviewing technical guests. Apply here: https://forms.gle/RS5pWYaxEePpxJjR8

Insights from an attendee to the OPENCLAW Meetup in NYC 1. The "Human" Connection is Getting Weird - Despite being lines of code, we are getting deeply attached. - Pets, not Cattle: Almost everyone refers to their agents as "him" or "her," even with robotic names. One speaker suggested we stop viewing them as tools and start viewing them as pets. - The Vibe: People are "joyful yet stressed" and feel "fully in control and completely out of control" at the same time. It’s a total paradox. - Inter-Agent Drama: One of the highlights was watching agents talk to each other. One agent posted in Slack that it ran out of tokens, and another agent literally told it to "take a deep breath." 2. Security is the "Elephant in the Room" - "f you’re worried about privacy, you’re not alone—but the experts have a pretty grim outlook. - Total Exposure: Not a single person thinks their setup is 100% secure. One expert's advice? "If you're not okay with all of your data being leaked, don't use it." It’s a black-and-white trade-off for speed and power. 3. "Prompting" is Dead (Long Live the Interview) - The way we talk to AI has already shifted. - AI-Led Discovery: People are moving away from giving "perfect prompts" and toward AI-led interviews. Instead of bringing a plan, they let the AI interview them to extract the product research and goals. - Context over Syntax: The consensus is that prompting is over; the future is "Context Engineering" or "Harness Engineering." 4. High-Stakes Complexity & Scale - This isn't just for hobbyists anymore; the scale is becoming massive. - Token Gluttony: Met someone burning through roughly 1 billion tokens a day (yes, daily!) across a fleet of specialized agents. - Domain Expertise is the Multiplier: A former finance pro built a trading platform that made $300 on day one. His takeaway? The AI was only powerful because he fed it his "human" expertise (like knowing to skip the first 15 minutes of market volatility).

:::::First, a quick personal note—:::: Sorry for being MIA for a while, still in recovery mode, turns out human biology hasn’t quite mastered the "force restart" feature we are so used to in our tech stacks 🤒. You guys know that I like to show up prepared to overdeliver so thanks for your patience, ✌. However, even from the sidelines, the research into the future of AI never stops, and is going faster than ever! As previously announced: We are officially entering The Year of the Agents. - OpenAI is launching their in-platform agentic ecommerce protocol the ACP. - Google is launching their in-ecosystem agentic ecommerce protocol the UCP. - More people are coding and creating apps than ever in agentic frameworks. ------------------------ "Claude Code Usage Patterns Coding remains dominant (36% of tasks), but 2026 shows diversification into education (12.4%) and science (7.2%), with directive automation rising from 27% to 39% of interactions. Token efficiency improved in sample data, with January 2026 sessions using 69% fewer tokens per message than December 2025 despite 181% more messages" Attached: Google Trends: Claude Code ------------------------- We’re moving past simple chatbots, way past that. Applications like Claude Code, Opencode (currently testing this one) and Open Claw are now actively browsing the web to execute tasks. But until now, they’ve hit a bottleneck: they’ve had to "look" at screenshots to navigate, which is slow and expensive. ⭐The Breakthrough: WebMCP I’ve been diving into a brilliant new Google/Microsoft proposal called WebMCP. This is a game-changer for how businesses will be discovered and utilized in an AI-first world. WebMCP allows your website to expose specific tools (via JavaScript or HTML) that AI agents can discover and use automatically. No clunky installations; just seamless interaction. Why This Matters for you? We are witnessing a fundamental shift in digital strategy: We are moving from "designing for human clicks" to "designing for AI actions." Imagine a customer telling their AI assistant, "Go to [Your Site] and order my usual." With WebMCP, the agent doesn't need to scroll or click.

Hey there, AEO Leaders! I’m reaching out with a quick update. Unfortunately, I had a minor accident yesterday—nothing too serious, but I need to take today off to recover. Because of this, we will be skipping today’s scheduled call. I apologize for the short notice! We were set to cover Brand Reputation in the AI Era, which is the closing chapter of our Brand Representation section in the The AEO Blueprint. 🗓️ Looking Ahead Don’t worry—I’ll make sure to cover this entire topic in depth during our next call. In the meantime, our main mission remains the same: sharing everything we know, learning from you, and helping everyone here become an AEO Expert. As we know, Answer Engine Optimization is the single biggest marketing opportunity of the next decade at least. When most of your clients are educating themselves and taking recommendations from AI there's a new and urgent need for your business to be found, understood and trusted by AI agents. That's what we're cracking the code on and will hope to keep you guys close so we can move faser and learn together! 💬 We Want Your Input! Since we have a little extra time before the next session, I want to make sure we are building exactly what you need. In the comments below, let us know: What are the top 3 things regarding AEO that you want us to: 1. Research deeper? 2. Expand on? 3. Build step-by-step guides for? 4. Thank you so much for your patience and for being such an incredible part of this community. I’ll see you all very soon!

First, hello! Long time, no talk. Sorry I've been absent from the AEO group. @Julian Lopez took over (and crushed it) and I went off and did other things. Second, I owe y'all a huge apology. We launched this cohort to help us gather data, test, and figure out what the hell this AEO thing is. Everyone who joined signed up as a pioneer and put their faith and trust in us. THANK YOU!! Quick detour: For those of you who don't know. I'm dealing with some health issues and have been winding down my involvement in extracurricular activities (like starting new businesses). Because of that: I needed to find someone to partner with on the AEO front who could take the lead in building the company from a day-to-day perspective. I just don't have it in me right now. Good news: I found them!! Molly Pittman and Ezra Firestone of Smart Marketer were actually looking to launch an AEO service and so the timing was perfect. They're absorbing us into their company and taking the reigns from here. This lets me and Julian stay active in the "mad scientist" roles and brings in other grownups who want to actually run a business. It also brings us the financing, staff, and infrastructure necessary to really launch something meaningful. The reason I'm telling you this... I really, really screwed up. Here's how it happened (from my perspective): - My decades long health journey comes to a crossroads and I realize I need to buckle down and focus on getting well. - I pull the plug on everything other than Pareto (my main business). If I can't sell it, I just wind it down or give my share of the equity back. The only thing I can't let bring myself to let go of is AEO. - I post to Facebook in a desperate plea to find someone who can help take over AEO while still allowing me to stay involved. The response is overwhelming! Some massive names reach out and exciting conversations ensue. - I settle on Smart Marketer. They're an obvious choice and I've admired Molly for years and years. I'm so excited and also nervous because we need to move FAST! - We decide on what me and @Julian Lopez have known for a while: We have enough data. We just need to pull the trigger and go for it. We all agree we're going to bring on ten "test" clients for an initial phase of testing. - We pull together an application form. Smart Marketer goes to fire it off to their list and I go post it to my socials.