SEO Reimagined: Winning in the Age of AI Search with Thomas Howell

🔍 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 88 🔍

What happens when the traffic your business built for years starts flowing into an AI answer instead of your website?

In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, Justin Dixon sits down with Thomas Howell, Co-founder & CEO of FancyAI, a generative engine optimization (GEO) company based in Austin, Texas. After spending over a decade running a search marketing agency, Tom watched the SEO playbook he'd built his career on get upended within months of the AI engines emerging — and rebuilt his business around a new question: how do you become the answer AI recommends, not just a link it might cite?

This conversation goes far beyond marketing tactics. It's a look at how AI-generated answers are quietly reshaping how customers find every kind of business, why small companies can still outmaneuver private equity-backed competitors, and why the next twelve months may determine who wins their market for the next decade.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why organic traffic is declining even for businesses doing everything "right"

The difference between eligibility and visibility in AI search

Why Reddit has become one of the most influential sources AI engines trust

How an "agent to agent" economy could eliminate websites and phone calls entirely

Why GEO strategies are outperforming traditional SEO, even on Google

Why small businesses are lagging behind enterprise on AI adoption, and what that will cost them

Whether you're a founder rethinking your marketing strategy, an operator competing against larger, better-funded rivals, or an investor trying to understand where AI is creating real business value, this episode offers a practical framework for showing up where your customers are actually looking.