AI search engines are not just search engines with a chat box on top. Traditional search engines mostly return ranked pages. AI search engines can interpret a query, retrieve information, synthesize an answer, cite sources, compare options, and sometimes recommend a brand before the user clicks a website. That changes what it means to be visible. Classic SEO still matters. Crawlability, links, site structure, content quality, and authority are still part of the foundation. But AI search adds another layer: your content has to be easy for AI systems to retrieve, understand, extract, trust, and cite. What is an AI search engine? An AI search engine is a search system that uses artificial intelligence to interpret queries, retrieve information, generate answers, and often cite or recommend sources inside the response.…