We’re running a free AI pilot on a client’s site, and publishing the results

Writing about AI is easy. We’ve just written a whole series about it. Proving it actually makes a difference is harder.

So we’re doing it in public.

One of our clients very kindly agreed to let us run everything we offer on their live site, free of charge, on the condition that we share what happens. Good results or disappointing ones. We’re running the same process on our own site alongside it.

What we’re doing to it

First an AI audit, to see where the site stands. Then an AEO retrofit: schema, rewritten key pages, proper FAQs and the technical fixes so AI tools can read and quote it. Then a chatbot trained on their products and content, to answer questions and catch enquiries. And smart tagging and alt text for their image library.

How we’ll know if it worked

Before we touched anything, we took a snapshot. Where they rank for the terms that matter to them. Whether AI assistants mention them when asked the sort of questions their customers ask. Their traffic and enquiries. Speed, accessibility and structured data scores. How many of their images actually had alt text.

Then we measure again at 30, 60 and 90 days after launch.

Nobody should expect fireworks in week two, including us.

Why on earth would we do it for free?

Two reasons, really. We want to learn. Every site is different, and we’d rather work from real data than from what we assume will happen. And we’d rather show the next client actual numbers than promises. If it works, the case study does the selling for us. If parts of it don’t, we’ll say so and change what we do.

What we’re expecting

We’re fairly confident about some things. We expect the chatbot to handle a good share of the repeat product questions. We expect alt text coverage to go to almost 100%, and structured data errors to drop to zero.

AI search visibility is the bit we’re genuinely curious about. It moves slowly, like SEO always has, and it builds over months. So nobody should expect fireworks in week two, including us.