WORKING WITH US / AI SEARCH OPTIMIZATION MIGHT NOT WORK (FOR YOU)
Here's Exactly Why You Shouldn't Hire Us
AI Search Optimization (AISO) isn’t for everyone. Learn the honest limitations of AI search strategies and why Growth Marshal might not be the right fit for your business.
📑 Published: July 3, 2025
🏋️♂️ Updated: August 26, 2025
🕒 2 min. read
Kurt Fischman
Principal, Growth Marshal
Let's cut straight to it: AISO isn't magic. And Growth Marshal isn't for everybody. We could easily spin a shiny narrative, make lofty promises, hide behind buzzwords, and pretend it's all upside. But as Dutch says in the opening scene of Predator, “that’s not our style”. Here’s the cold water: AISO is powerful, yet imperfect. It requires a bit of patience, a lot of precision, and comfort with uncertainty. In this missive, I’ll openly discuss the limitations of AISO, clearly outline the tradeoffs you should consider, and explain exactly why we might not be your best choice. No smoke and mirrors. Just a healthy dose of transparency.
AISO Can’t Be Done at Programmatic Scale (Yet)
Despite all the buzz, true AI Search Optimization is a blended mix of art + science and can’t be automated at scale—at least, not yet (believe me, I’ve tried 😡). Sure, anyone can flood the web with thousands of AI-generated pages dressed up in schema. But if you’re expecting those pages to earn authoritative citations from LLMs or gain real brand visibility in AI-native platforms, you'll quickly hit a wall. AI retrieval systems don't reward content factories churning out hollow pages. Instead, they reward genuine topical depth, precise entity alignment, and clear, authoritative answers—qualities that (still) require a bit of human judgment.
AISO success is really a game of precision, not volume. And nowhere is this truer than in JSON structured data. Sloppy or generic JSON markup doesn’t just miss opportunities; it actively confuses LLMs and weakens your visibility in AI Search. Effective JSON-LD schema must be meticulously aligned with precise entities, topics, and relationships, and, be completely free of hallucinations! So, if your idea of success is mass-producing pages backed by cookie-cutter JSON hoping AI won't notice, Growth Marshal isn’t your agency. We trade volume for precision, crafting JSON structured data that LLMs trust.
But, what if you’re a business sitting on 700+ webpages, and you'd like to have precise JSON schema wrapped up in four weeks? Here's the reality check: it’s not going to happen. At least, not if you want it done correctly. Precision takes time, thoughtful mapping, and meticulous execution. Could we rush it? Sure. But what you’ll inevitably discover are micro hallucinations embedded in the data—making rushed schema markup potentially worse than no markup at all. And while we’d love nothing more than to dive head first into your site’s mosh pit and start throwing elbows, the sheer volume demands patience. Realistically, your 700-page JSON project is a multi-month journey, not a four-week sprint. If that's disappointing, we understand. But we'd rather disappoint upfront than underdeliver down the road.
AI Search Optimization Will Alter Your Brand Voice
If you're serious about AISO, your brand voice will change—not dramatically, but inevitably. Writing content that's entity-linked, semantically precise, and optimized for prompt surfaces means becoming fluent in two languages simultaneously: human and machine. Expect shorter sentences, explicit phrasing, and intentional repetition of core concepts. Founders usually hate this but its what LLMs demand.
This doesn’t mean losing your brand’s personality; it means consciously evolving it. You’re no longer writing solely for human audiences but also for structured-data parsers, embedding engines, and retrieval systems. Your narratives remain compelling but must now fit neatly within a structured lattice of defined rentities. If your brand voice is sacred and inflexible, AISO will feel constraining. In this game, clarity always wins while cleverness becomes invisible.
AI Search is (Possibly) the Wrong Channel
Let’s get real: AISO isn’t a universal growth hack. It’s powerful, sure, but only when your core business aligns with how AI-driven discovery actually operates.
First, if you're solving the wrong problem—or one your audience doesn’t care that much about—no amount of AI visibility will help. You could dominate every AI-generated response in your niche, but if users don't recognize their own need, they'll scroll right past you. AISO doesn't conjure demand; it captures intent. No intent means no conversions.
Second, if your total addressable market is microscopic, AISO won’t magically expand it. LLMs rely on broad semantic patterns, user queries, and well-defined concepts. If your niche lacks sufficient prompt volume—or clear semantic structure—your visibility will stall. In other words, you'll be optimizing content for questions nobody's asking.
Finally, ask yourself honestly: does my audience actually use ChatGPT? News flash: your parents probably don’t. If your customers are still glued to traditional channels—TV, direct mail, billboards—AISO isn’t the right investment.
Bottom line: AISO is potent, but only when you're serving real demand and showing up where your audience already searches. Otherwise, you’re shouting into the void.
Final Thoughts
If you've made it this far, you know we’re not selling shortcuts or fairy tales. AISO is powerful—but it's demanding. It requires precision, patience, and a willingness to evolve your brand’s voice. At Growth Marshal, we don’t promise magic; we can only provide strategy, discipline, and radical honesty about what it takes to build real AI discoverability. If that's the partner you're after, we'd love to talk. If not, we respect that too—because every business deserves clarity, whether they hire us or not.
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