The search industry is facing something many of us have never seen before.
The supply of search talent now exceeds the demand for search talent.
Blame artificial intelligence. Blame the economy. The age-old case for using the SEO checkbox is increasingly being sold.
Whatever the reason, the result is the same.
The search demolition is over. Job openings are low. The market is more competitive than at any time in my 15+ year career.
The unfortunate truth is that many of the skills that once made SEO important are becoming easier to automate, automate, or automate with AI.
He pulled out a chair.
Let’s talk about why this is happening, what skills are turning into table stakes, and what employers should look for when hiring SEO talent in 2026.
The first SEO tasks that AI comes up with
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding AI is that it is coming for SEO jobs.
I can’t believe that’s what’s happening.
What I believe is happening is that AI is changing what SEO skills employers are willing to pay a premium for.
Historically, a significant part of SEO work has revolved around gathering information and generating recommendations. Technical research, content summaries, keyword aggregation, schema markup, metadata recommendations, and competitive analysis all require time, knowledge, and effort.
Those works are still relevant today.
The difference is that they are becoming much easier to produce.
SEO can now use AI to perform a first pass test, content summary, or optimization recommendation in minutes. What once took hours can often be accomplished in seconds.
This does not make the output null. It simply changes where the value resides.
For years, many organizations have taken recommendations as deliverables. An audit was what was delivered. A road map could not be delivered. The deck could be delivered.
But the recommendations were not the final goal.
Recommendations create value only if they lead to meaningful placement, implementation, and measurable business results.
AI helps solve the idea generation problem.
It does very little to solve the implementation problem.
That’s why I believe that the first SEO tasks that AI comes to are those that focus on generating recommendations instead of driving results.
As the cost of generating recommendations approaches zero, employers naturally place a high value on people who can decide which recommendations are important and implement them.
In other words, AI is selling SEO components.
It is useless to judge.
That’s what AI still finds difficult to do
As AI gets better at generating recommendations, the value of SEO talent is shifting elsewhere.
Putting it first. Testing. Communication. Influence. Judgment.
These are not new skills. They always care.
The difference is that they quickly become the first classifiers.
Most organizations do not suffer from a lack of ideas. They suffer from a lack of direction, execution, and good decision making.
Finally, there is judgment.
A few weeks ago, I found myself disagreeing with Gemini on a topic I know very well. The answer made sense. The definition was polished. The problem was that it was wrong.
As AI becomes more powerful, the ability to confidently identify when it’s wrong becomes a skill in itself.
The SEO of the future is not someone who can generate a lot of recommendations.
It is someone who knows what recommendations are important.
A new framework for SEO work
For many years, the SEO career progression was straightforward.
- Learn more about SEO. Get promoted.
- Learn technical SEO. Get promoted.
- Read the content strategy. Get promoted.
- Learn math. Get promoted.
While those skills are still important, AI is rapidly reducing the importance of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. The ability to generate SEO recommendations is becoming more accessible every day.
That doesn’t mean technology is no longer important. It means that the skills placed on top of that technology are very important.
Today’s top search experts understand search. They understand AI. They understand how businesses work. Most importantly, they know how to bring people, priorities, and resources together for a common goal.
As you move up in the organization, your success depends largely on your own ability identifying problems also depends largely on your own abilities solve them.
AI scaling. The concept of measuring people.
What I will be looking for if I rent today
If I were hiring an SEO in 2026, I wouldn’t spend a lot of time asking about canonical tags, title tags, or XML sitemaps.
Not because those topics are unimportant, but because I can quickly determine if someone understands the basics.
What I really want to understand is how that person works when things are messed up.
I would ask them to share a recommendation that no one else has.
Years ago, I argued that H1 tags provide absolutely no ranking benefit.
People laughed. Others openly disagreed. Finally, John Mueller echoed the same sentiment, and Bill Slawski had been discussing the idea for years.
I don’t care if the candidate was right.
I care if they had the confidence to challenge ideas and the communication skills to resolve disagreements.
I would ask about the failed test.
Every experienced SEO has watched a seemingly great campaign die somewhere between hype and performance. The difference is what happens later. Do they move on to the next project, or do they find a way to clear the roadblocks and maintain momentum?
I was asking about a static project.
Every experienced SEO has watched a seemingly great campaign die somewhere between hype and performance. The difference is what happens later. Do they move on to the next project, or do they find a way to clear the roadblocks and keep the momentum going?
I also question if the AI gave them bad advice.
The common theme in all of these questions is simple.
I don’t want someone who knows SEO. I’m looking for someone who can turn SEO knowledge into results.
The easy part of SEO has always been knowing what to do. The hard part is doing it, producing tangible results.
AI will not replace SEOs, but the lazy ones are fried.
This post originally appeared on the author’s website and is republished here with permission.
Contributing writers are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are selected for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the supervision of editorial staff and contributions are assessed for quality and relevance to our students. Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. The contributor has not been asked to speak directly or indirectly about Semrush. The opinions they express are their own.
