The "replacement" framing misses what's happening
SEO and AEO are answering different questions. Google still drives 80%+ of search-style queries; ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity capture a growing share of conversational queries. They overlap, but they're not interchangeable. Bain's 2025 enterprise search study found that only 12% of ChatGPT citations were in Google's top 10 results for the same query — a stark reminder that ranking in one doesn't mean ranking in the other.
What changed and what didn't
Didn't change: content quality, technical SEO, structured data, page experience signals, original research, and topical authority all still drive both systems. Did change: the value of being "ranked #4" on Google has dropped sharply because AI Overviews intercept the click. The compensating opportunity: being cited inside the AI Overview is high-leverage even if you're not in the top 10 organic. The same page can be invisible on the SERP and dominate the AI answer.
What to actually do
Keep doing SEO. Add three things on top: (1) an llms.txt file at your root domain, (2) FAQ-formatted content with proper schema, and (3) brand-mention building on third-party authoritative sites (G2, ProductHunt, Reddit, industry blogs). The third is the new "link building" — AI engines weight third-party mentions heavily because their training data oversamples curated lists and review sites.