HubSpot CEO Dharmesh Shah on SEO for the AI era

December 24, 2025

In a conversation with HubSpot CEO Dharmesh Shah, it becomes clear that traditional SEO is rapidly transforming. The focus is shifting away from optimizing for search engines like Google and toward optimizing for large language models — AI systems that deliver answers directly. Instead of asking how to rank, the key question is now how to make existing content understandable and usable by AI agents.

Shah also warns about the hidden risks of mass-producing low-quality AI content. The biggest danger isn’t simply that such content won’t perform — it’s that it can actively cause harm. If algorithms begin to identify a brand as unreliable or superficial, rebuilding trust becomes a long and difficult process.

When discussing AI agents, Shah compares them to new team members. They cannot simply be deployed without oversight. They must be trained, tested, and continuously evaluated, much like employees. Only then can AI agents become genuine business assets rather than potential sources of errors.

In Brief: Tech World Highlights

Former NASA engineer and current YouTuber Mark Rober built a robotic goalkeeper capable of stopping shots even from Cristiano Ronaldo, quickly becoming a viral hit.
Palo Alto–based Autolane raised $7.4 million to build a digital “curb layer” that precisely tells robotaxis where to stop for pickups and drop-offs such as groceries.
Tutor Intelligence raised $34 million in a Series A round to expand its fleet of robotic warehouse workers and improve its central AI platform.
DHL signed a five-year strategic partnership with RobustAI to expand its Carter collaborative robots beyond North America, starting with 15 units in Mexico.
NASA and Motiv Space Systems will launch a commercial robotic arm into low Earth orbit in 2027 as a technology demonstration for a future space robotics ecosystem.