Emerging Tech Network #16 - Don't be Distracted!
- andrew821951
- Apr 16
- 1 min read
How do you stay focussed on SEO in the age of AI?
There's a conversation happening across every newsroom, every boardroom and every publishing leadership team right now. And it sounds something like this: what are we doing about AI?
It's a fair question. But Harry Clarkson-Bennett, SEO Director at The Telegraph, thinks we might be asking the wrong one.
In this session of the Emerging Tech Network, Harry makes a quietly compelling case that the publishers who come out of this period in the best shape won't necessarily be the ones who moved fastest on AI. They'll be the ones who stayed focused on the things that have always mattered, journalism people trust, audiences who keep coming back, and revenue models built around genuine value rather than search engine dependency.
That doesn't mean ignoring the technology. Harry's team at The Telegraph have been building their own tools, identifying content freshness, tracking how LLMs understand their brand, and finding ways to make workflows sharper without hollowing out what makes the work worth doing.
But he's honest about the traps too. Liquid content. AI-generated output that's close but not quite good enough. Leadership phrases that sound great in a board meeting and fall apart in practice.
This is a session for anyone trying to cut through the noise, whether you're in technology, publishing, or sitting somewhere in between trying to figure out where the real opportunities are.
Because as Harry puts it, we probably need good, fair media more than ever. The question is who's going to be left to deliver it.
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