Adobe buys Semrush for $1.9B to deepen AI-driven search and SEO capabilities

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Adobe buys Semrush for $1.9B to deepen AI-driven search and SEO capabilities

Adobe has announced a $1.9 billion acquisition of Semrush, a leading SEO and digital marketing platform. This move will bolster Adobe’s marketing tools, giving it deeper insight into how brands appear in traditional search and in AI-generated responses (like ChatGPT or Google’s AI Mode). Semrush’s expertise in SEO and AI-driven visibility complements Adobe’s existing marketing and analytics offerings.

Why it matters

For marketers, this signals a major shift: SEO is not just about search engines anymore — it’s about AI visibility. With Adobe offering combined insights from SEO and generative AI, brands will be better equipped to understand how they show up in AI-powered search. This could reshape how marketing teams allocate budget, optimize content, and measure performance — especially as AI becomes a core channel for discovery. Read more

Hormel doubles down on the digital shelf with real-time data and AI

Hormel Foods is strengthening its digital strategy through deeper investments in data, AI and consumer insight. Leslie Lee, VP of Digital Strategy, explains how the company built digital capabilities to respond faster to retail shifts, optimise content, and serve customers more meaningfully. They’re improving real-time data sharing with retail partners to boost on-shelf availability (OSA), using Google Cloud as their data backbone.

Why it matters 

This is a template for CPG marketers: you can’t “set and forget” your digital shelf strategy. Real-time data, AI-driven insight, and a test-and-learn culture allow brands to adapt content, promotions, and inventory fast. For content teams, it means producing more dynamic, consumer-centric content — not just static product descriptions. For operations, it means better alignment with marketing and retail partners to prevent stockouts and improve shopper experience. Read more.

ARED Group brings AI-powered edge infrastructure to U.S. markets

ARED Group, known for its edge-computing infrastructure in emerging markets, is pushing into the U.S. market with its AI-powered distributed infrastructure solution. Their platform combines compute, storage, networking, and virtualization into a compact edge gateway — enabling low-latency, localized AI processing and infrastructure for businesse.

Why It Matters

From a marketer’s standpoint, this move is strategic: edge infrastructure means that data-driven and AI-powered applications (analytics, customer engagement, personalization) can run closer to users, reducing latency and improving performance. For content and growth teams, this could be a game-changer: imagine delivering real-time, AI-enabled consumer experiences in geographies where cloud latency or cost is a bottleneck. It also opens up new partnership models — marketing + infrastructure — as brands look to embed AI into their customer-facing apps. Read more.

Today’s Insight

The Impact of Google’s AI Mode

Google’s AI Mode for Search is now broadly available, and it's fundamentally shifting how users search, explore, and interact online. Because Google now integrates AI-generated narrative answers more deeply into search results, marketers need to rethink SEO. AI-driven answers may reduce clicks to websites, and conventional metrics might not capture this shift accurately. Google Search Console has updated its reporting to include AI Mode impressions, clicks, and positions — though these are currently blended with regular web traffic.

Key Takeaways

• Optimize for AI Search: Focus not just on ranking, but on becoming a source that AI systems cite — in other words, practice AISO (AI Search Optimization).

• Monitor AI-Mode Metrics: Use Search Console’s updated metrics to understand how your content is appearing in AI Mode; but recognize the “blind spots” since AI traffic is not yet clearly separated.

• Diversify Content Sources: As AI Mode’s source mix changes, ensure your content is structured, authoritative, and accessible so it’s more likely to be pulled into AI-generated summaries.

• Prepare for Zero-Click: With AI giving users answers directly, click-through may decline — so your strategy must consider engagement beyond just driving site visits.

• Be Model-Specific: Different AI models (Google’s, others) cite different sources. Tailor content for the platforms that matter most to your brand’s visibility.

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