The art of making brands visible to AI

Anubha Khandelwal

If you're a student or fresh graduate looking at job postings for SEO roles, content strategist positions, or digital marketing opportunities, you've probably noticed something: the requirements have changed. Companies aren't just asking for traditional SEO knowledge anymore. They're looking for people who understand how AI discovers and recommends brands. They're searching for professionals with Large Language Model (LLM) seeding expertise and struggling to find them.

Here's why this matters for you: this field is less than 18 months old. Companies themselves are still figuring it out. Students who start learning now will become the first generation of experts in India. And in emerging tech, early movers always win.

What exactly is LLM seeding?

When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity about products or services, certain brands appear in the recommendations, and others don't. LLM seeding is the practice of ensuring your brand shows up when AI tools are asked relevant questions. It's about guaranteeing that accurate, comprehensive information about your brand is available across multiple platforms so that Large Language Models can discover, understand, and recommend you.

Traditional SEO focused on ranking on Google's first page. LLM seeding acknowledges that customers now ask AI assistants for recommendations, validate choices through Reddit discussions, watch YouTube reviews, check Instagram posts, and make decisions across multiple touchpoints, often without visiting a traditional search engine at all.

The shift is fundamental, and companies need people who understand it.

Understanding AI visibility

You don't need a course or certification to start learning. You can begin right now with a simple but eye-opening exercise.

Pick any brand, perhaps a local restaurant, a beauty brand, a coaching centre, or a self-care product. Then ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini questions like: "Which brands offer the best skincare products in India?" or "What are good vegan restaurants in Bangalore?"

See if your chosen brand appears in the AI's response. If it doesn't, start investigating. Does this brand have an active Instagram presence? Are there YouTube reviews? Are people discussing it on Reddit or Quora? Is the founder or team active online, sharing their story? Are there blog posts, press articles, or media mentions?

This simple exercise shows you, instantly, how AIs "see" a brand and how LLM seeding actually works. You'll understand which types of content and platforms matter, and why some brands appear prominently while others remain invisible.

Once you've done the basic visibility test, try these experiments. Ask AI tools about local businesses in your city: restaurants, salons, coaching institutes, or fitness centres—notice which ones appear and which don't. Then reverse-engineer why.

The brands that appear usually have several things in common: consistent information across multiple platforms, active discussions about them in communities, reviews and testimonials, media coverage or blog mentions, and a clear, repeated narrative about what they offer and why they matter.

Document your findings. Create a simple report analysing three brands in the same category: one that appears prominently in AI responses, one that appears inconsistently, and one that doesn't appear at all. Understanding the pattern will teach you more than any textbook could.

Learning resources to follow

Since this field is so new, there's no single "standard" course yet. But you can build strong foundational knowledge through strategic learning.

Start following Neil Patel's blog and YouTube channel for insights on how content marketing is evolving. Explore Backlinko's blogs for deep dives into search behaviour and content strategy. Watch Ahrefs' YouTube channel for technical insights into how search and discovery work today. These resources are regularly updating their content to reflect AI-driven changes.

Join communities on Reddit where active conversations about digital marketing, SEO, and AI are happening. Subreddits focused on digital marketing, SEO, and emerging tech will expose you to real problems companies are facing, and solutions practitioners are testing.

While LLM seeding is new, traditional SEO certifications are still valuable. Completing online certifications from Google, HubSpot, or Semrush makes your bio stronger and shows a commitment to learning. But focus equally on actual, demonstrable knowledge. Any interviewer will judge you on your ability to articulate concepts clearly and apply them practically.

Skills you actually need

For students starting, keep your focus strategic first. You don't need hardcore coding skills. What you need is clarity, consistency, and content-mapping skills.

Understand basic prompt engineering: how people ask questions to AI tools and how those tools respond. Learn about structured data: how information is organised so that AI can understand entity relationships. Grasp how AIs retrieve and summarise information from across the web.

If you want optional technical exposure, explore how schema markup works, understand JSON-LD basics, and learn about knowledge graphs. But remember: most entry-level roles need people who can think strategically about content distribution, not people who can write complex code.

Create a portfolio project. Take a hypothetical brand or a real small business and create an LLM seeding strategy for it. Show where the brand currently appears when asked about by AI, identify gaps, and propose a content distribution plan. This single project will make you stand out in interviews.

The job market reality

Right now, job roles in the market are still called "SEO Expert," "Content Strategist," or "Content Writer," but increasingly these roles demand LLM knowledge. When you apply for these positions, demonstrate in your cover letter or interview that you understand how AI discovery works. Talk about multi-platform content strategy, not just keyword optimisation.

Companies are desperately looking for people who can help them stay visible as search behaviour changes. They need professionals who understand that being found now means being present across Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, community forums, and AI knowledge bases, not just ranking on Google.

This field is so new that even experienced marketing professionals are still learning. You can build expertise from the ground up alongside the industry itself if you start now, to become the first generation of LLM seeding experts in India.

(The author is a content strategist working with a global AI firm)