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May 27, 2026

Google I/O made it official: AI-generated answers are now front and center in search, and most brands have almost no visibility into how AI is describing them to their customers. For anyone who has spent years building a strategy around 10 blue links, the rules just changed in a pretty significant way. 

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan caught up with Matt Thompson, VP of partnerships at Scrunch, a startup positioning itself at the center of the AI search shift, to talk about what Google’s changes mean and what marketers and founders should actually do about it. 

Listen to the full episode to hear: 

  • Why AI referrals are converting at 400% higher than traditional organic search, and what that means for how to think about traffic. 
  • How ChatGPT still has the lion’s share of AI search traffic, and why optimizing only for Google means missing most of the market. 
  • Why Google’s own SEO best practices might be leading marketers in the wrong direction. 
  • What it actually means to make your website “agent ready” and why most enterprise sites aren’t. 

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