Is XEO Just Another Search Acronym?

From: Selling Signals Newsletter

Date: February 11, 2026

Feb 11, 2026

When every new acronym promises the future, what’s signal and what’s hype?

Recently, I attended the MarketingProfs’ event “XEO and the Future of Search,” which means I have officially seen into the future, and yes, it’s more AI search.

If you’ve read our newsletter on AI search terms, you can probably guess the energy in the virtual room: excitement, confusion, and a lot of questions about whether we’re witnessing a real shift or just the latest acronym race.

But, as someone with a research background, I tend to get cautious at moments like this. Algorithms change constantly, but what actually holds up over time isn’t hot takes, it’s longitudinal patterns. You don’t really know something until you’ve watched it behave consistently.

So the question I had going into this event wasn’t “How do we do XEO?”
It was: Is XEO a need-to-know shift, or a hype-driven rebrand of work we should already be doing?

Let’s separate the signal from the noise.

Sales Action

What XEO actually changes for sales (and what it doesn’t)

From a sales perspective, XEO doesn’t suddenly rewrite the playbook. But it does reinforce a few truths that reps are already feeling.

Buyers use AI differently from search: As Andy Crestodina noted in the keynote, people use AI tools for recommendations and summaries, but they still turn to search when they want options and variety. That means buyers may arrive at sales conversations pre-shaped by AI answers, even if they didn’t “search” traditionally.
Context matters more than ever: If AI surfaces answers, sales need to know where those answers came from. Which articles? Which comparisons? Which proof points? Reps who understand the content ecosystem can respond with clarity instead of re-pitching basics buyers already absorbed.
XEO favors interpretation over speed: The most interesting use of AI discussed at the event wasn’t about faster outreach. It was about using AI to identify gaps: missing objections, weak evidence, unclear value propositions. That’s gold for sales enablement.

🎯 Sales takeaway: XEO isn’t about chasing rankings. It’s about understanding how buyers are informed before they talk to you. Bonus: Crestodina provided prompts to assess how competitive your brand is in AI search (and to help with your FOMO, I've linked them here).

Sales Signals

🔍 From SEO to AIO: How visibility works in the age of AI - Forbes offers a clear explanation of how AI is changing discovery and why visibility now depends on authority, structure, and relevance, not just rankings. Helpful context for sales teams trying to understand how buyers are being shaped before the first conversation.

🗣️ How to ask for the sale: Questions, statements, closing scripts & expert tips - Written by Selling Signals co-author, Bianca Caballero, this guide breaks down how to close without forcing urgency or sounding scripted. A useful reminder that clarity and timing matter more than pressure, especially as buyers arrive more informed and more cautious.

🤖 Five ways B2B sales leaders can win with tech and AI - McKinsey outlines where AI actually creates value for sales leaders and where it doesn’t. The focus is less on speed and more on decision quality, data discipline, and enabling teams to work smarter instead of louder.

Marketing Movement

XEO without the hype

One of the most grounding moments of the event came from Crestodina’s framing: AIO is SEO plus conversion optimization. So, AIO is not a replacement for SEO, and the focus on XEO isn’t a call to abandon fundamentals; it's a call to refine how we evaluate them.

And you do that by paying attention to a few key signals:

Separate articles from money pages. Traffic to educational content and traffic to conversion pages behave differently. Lumping them together obscures what’s actually working.
Structure content for answers, not keywords. The ideal format discussed repeatedly was simple: answers, evidence, and a clear next step.
FAQs matter, but not as a trick. Whether FAQ schema or question-based headings become dominant isn’t settled yet. What matters is clarity, not formatting hacks.

🎯 Marketing takeaway: XEO is only hype if it distracts you from fundamentals. If it sharpens how you structure, support, and measure content, it’s simply good marketing with a new lens.

Marketing Signals

🤣 Marketoonist on AI adoption - Sometimes the best way to make sense of a trend is through humor. This cartoon illustrates the five stages of grief that many teams experience when confronting AI. If you’re juggling new acronyms, shifting expectations, or cultural fatigue around automation, it’s worth a chuckle and a mental reset.

📺 YouTube CEO reveals your video marketing strategy for 2026 - This piece from Search Engine Journal covers where video discovery, recommendations, and creator visibility are headed. Useful context for marketers thinking about how AI-driven platforms influence reach and trust, especially as search and video continue to blur.

🎟️ Digital summit 2026 - An upcoming industry event focused on digital strategy, marketing innovation, and practical skills. Worth bookmarking if you’re looking to stay grounded in what’s working now while preparing for how AI and search will continue to evolve.

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Mixed Signals

At the event, one question kept coming up: “Should we be adding FAQ schema everywhere now to rank in AI search?”

It’s a fair question. When search shifts, people look for something concrete to do, and optimizing the schema feels tangible, measurable, and safe.

But listening to the discussion, it became clear that these questions weren’t really about the FAQ schema at all. It was about wanting certainty in a moment where the data is still emerging.

→ Translation: FAQ formatting isn’t a shortcut to AI visibility. It’s a tool. The real signal from the event wasn’t “optimize everything as a question,” but “structure content clearly, support answers with evidence, and focus on what buyers actually need at each stage.” The rest will sort itself out with time and data.

Meet Our Writer

Bianca Caballero

Senior Staff Writer

Bianca has spent the past four years helping businesses strengthen relationships and boost performance through strategic sales and customer engagement initiatives. Drawing on her experience in field sales and territory management, she transforms real-world expertise into actionable insights that drive growth and foster lasting client partnerships.