Businesses Large and Small Will Be Taken Out By AI and They Won’t Know How or Why It Happened

When Google announced in July that News Articles may be read aloud by the Google Assistant, most paying attention could see the gravity of what the next generation of SEO is in the process of changing and how the impact is going to affect businesses.

Google announced a beta program that will allow US Google News publishers, “to mark up sections of a news article that are most relevant to be read aloud by the Google Assistant.”

Putting on a intelligent content hat, this has interesting implications for how (audio-targeted) news content is produced. Assistant isn't going to read out a whole news article, maybe around 20-30 seconds of content per section, roughly two to three sentences, so this will impact how content is put together editorially.

When a press release is written on a new product, service or business, Google Assistant is going to read it and present it.

This is important to every business on and offline. The reason is every business needs to get their product, service or business BRANDED before AI verbal assist becomes dominate.

Google is working with Anker and JBL to build Google Assistant into car accessories. For instance, plug into any car's socket, so the user can connect their phone to their car’s stereo via Bluetooth or AUX. Once the accessories are connected, it becomes Assistant hands-free, with hotword support. Everything is going to eventually be connected in one form or another. Every business will be affected.

There's support for Google Assistant in many wireless devices like Headphones and earbuds. With this kind of integration, customers can access the AI assistant without opening their phone - usually they just press a button and start talking to Google Assistant. Google Assistant is built into a lot of headphones.

Set-top boxes like Nvidia Shield TV also support Google Assistant and the list of popular media and entertainment devices supporting Assistant is constantly expanding, with TVs in the mix, as well as DISH's Hopper family of receivers. With Google Assistant built-in, cable users can use their voice to turn on the TV, change volume and channels, and switch between inputs. Ask for the channel or show them what they want to watch.

Google Assistant can help navigate in Google Maps, on mobile devices. With voice, people can share their ETA with friends and family, reply to texts, play music and podcasts, search for places along the route, or add a new stop, all in Google Maps. With Google Assistant built-in, a person can ask where to buy a favorite product at the store closest to them. Find the favorite restaurant near by. Google Assistant can also auto-punctuate the message and read back and reply to all the notifications.

Google Assistant is now available to just about all modern Android devices, including Wear OS devices, Android TV, and in some cars if they offer support for Android Auto.

Google Assistant is native to Google Home smart speakers, but it's also widely available on other smart speakers from third-party manufacturers.

Every aspect of consumer's technical life is being co-mingled with AI, this is why it could be so important to every business large and small to their company branded and ready for this next revolution. People will learn its is much easier to ask Google Assistant verbally than it is to get on a mobile device or desktop and type in a search.

Like Gary Vanderchuck announced a few weeks back, "If your business isn't branded online soon, your business will be nowhere to be found."

Gary went on to say, "there are going to be some very large companies that don't do this, (get brand recognition), and that will be their detriment, they will disappear!"

It is important for businesses to see what is already here when it comes to AI, and what is to come, most can see the urgency to get ahead of the wave.

A company needs to get started to be recognized by Google and the other search engines so that their brand is at least known if not well known to consumers.

Google My Business Expert Paul Fussell says, “It all starts with a business listing, Google My Business, (GMB). With a GMB listing, the business/entity is verified and validated by Google. That’s the first step, and I go into it in more detail in my book, titled Google My Business.”

He goes on to explain, “Step 2 is getting your business branded online. I explain how to do that in my book, and also how you can accelerate the process faster by using a branded social media network. A Branded Network is a host of social properties with your brand of your product, service or business. With this type of social network, your brand is recognized by Google and all of the other search engines. It also shows the search engines the amount of social engagement that your brand/entity/business is getting. Social engagement is the number one metric Google uses to rank anything online.”

“The number one question asked the most when business owners see the urgency, is How long does it take? The default answer to that question is every business owner's work ethics and commitment is different but, It takes as long as it takes. I don't own or control Google, so I can't say,” says Paul. ”I follow that up by saying in most cases it can happen in less than 90 days. But it takes commitment and you have to work at it.”

Serious business owners need to focus on this 3 pronged approach if they are going to be seen by any of the search engines when it comes to verbal search.

In the next 2 years, verbal search will be the dominant method of search from the consumers.