I just got back from BrightonSEO in Brighton, UK. It ran October 8–9, 2026 at the Brighton Centre. I sat in on a Heads of SEO roundtable, gave a talk on local AEO, and had a lot of hallway conversations with agency folks.

I’ll be honest up front: you don’t get a lot of mind-blowing insights at a conference like this. The really wild stuff, the fringe and maybe gray-hat AEO tactics that are actually working, doesn’t get talked about on stage. Nobody wants to attach their name to that. Nobody wants to give away an edge either. Once a tactic is widely known, everybody uses it and it stops working. And you don’t want to risk your clients getting bad PR if something comes back as a gray initiative.

So you mostly hear things that make rational sense. Take my own talk. Proximity to the customer is huge for local AEO. But what do you actually do with that? Open offices near the biggest population centers? Maybe. Probably not.

What a conference like this is great for is getting a read on where the industry’s head is at. Here’s what stuck with me, and where I go deeper on each.

1. Nobody has AI search attribution figured out

This was the big one at the roundtable. How does all the AI search work (content, refreshes, tech SEO, citation building) actually turn into conversions and revenue? Nobody knows. Some teams have just stopped trying and report deliverables instead. I think that’s a mistake. I break it down in why “we delivered 60 articles” won’t get you renewed.

2. AI-generated audits fall flat

Everyone’s using AI to pop out SEO and AEO audits. They’re easy to make and just as easy to ignore. More on that in why nobody reads your AI-generated site audit.

3. Junior AEO folks are struggling

One well-known agency told me their junior team couldn’t keep up, and senior people kept having to rescue accounts. Here’s the case for senior-only AEO teams.

4. The expo floor all looked the same

You were either a prompt-tracking AI visibility tool or a link builder that rebranded as a citation builder. Meanwhile, AI citations churn way faster than people think. See citation decay and why buying AI mentions is a shaky bet.

5. Everybody says Reddit and YouTube matter

Almost nobody has a real strategy for them. I get into what a real Reddit and YouTube strategy for AI search looks like.

6. Europe does AI search differently

More talent than I expected, different adoption habits, and regulation on everyone’s mind. Full notes in what surprised me about AI search in Europe.

7. The industry moves like a hive

Five or six years ago, I heard about Pinterest constantly. This time? Not once. Something shiny catches everyone’s eye and the whole industry moves to it. It happens so gradually you barely notice, kind of like watching a kid grow up. I’d love to dig through the most-talked-about agency topics and vendors over the years and see what actually changed.

The thread through all of it

AI is making a lot of agencies faster at the same playbook. The ones pulling ahead are putting more human judgment into the work, not less. If you’re newer to this, start with my AI optimization checklist and how I structure websites for LLMs.

Want help building an AI search strategy you can actually measure? See our GEO and AI SEO services or get in touch.