Will Virtual Assistants Kill SEO As We Know It? Maybe...

It is safe to say that artificial intelligence is single handedly the most important technology to be introduced into search marketing in the last few years. From Google's RankBrain algorithm which feeds searches through machine learning technology, to Alexa, Siri, and Cortana for voice search, AI is changing the way we use and interact with search engines. This week Google made a big announcement at their 2016 I/O event, where CEO Sundar Pichai exhibited the company's new assistive search tool dubbed Google assistant. Google's choice to not capitalize "assistant" in the name is an interesting one, as it signifies that this is not a stand alone tool, but instead a technology that could be built into other Google platforms. Google assistant is not a tool or a service; it is a technology that could shape how searches are performed.