AI Agent
An AI that does things rather than only answering — browsing a site, filling a form, completing a booking. It is why websites are starting to be judged on whether a machine can use them, not only read them.
Related terms
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
A technique where the AI first searches a set of documents, then writes its answer from what it found. It is how assistants quote current information rather than whatever was in their training data.
Transformer
The model architecture behind almost every modern AI system, introduced in 2017. Its trick is paying attention to how every word in a passage relates to every other, which is what made fluent machine writing possible.
Entity SEO
Optimising to be recognised as a specific, real thing rather than for particular keywords. In practice it means consistent naming, structured data, and being mentioned in enough other places to be corroborated.
Zero-Click Search
A search where the person gets their answer on the results page and never visits a website. Common for opening hours, definitions and conversions — and increasingly common for everything else as AI answers grow.
AI Readiness
Whether a website can be reached, understood and quoted by AI assistants. It covers crawler access, structured data, clear headings, published contact details and speed — the unglamorous things that decide whether a model will name you.
Answer Box
A boxed answer at the top of a results page, lifted from one page and credited to it. Winning one usually means having answered the question plainly and early rather than burying it.