The Top AI Search Engines Liaisons/Leaders to Follow in 2025 (John Mueller and Danny Sullivan are not in the list)

Excited to delve in…

Maximizing your efforts…

Unlocking the best…

I will start with a short/mid-long explanation.

This isn’t your typical “SEO Liaisons to Follow” post. I believe we’ve been deeply engaged in discussions about AI search innovations and products within our “traditional” SEO communities—and that’s great.

BUT…

At the end of the day, we’re still focused on what Danny Sullivan or John Mueller has to say. Most of us probably have notifications turned on for Google Search Central on X, right?

Now, I’m not saying this is wrong. Of course, we need to stay updated on all the latest news, developments, and updates. After Rand’s great post on LinkedIn, realized we might be looking in the wrong direction. And yes, this is more than a habit—it’s an obsession. It’s a cognitive bias shared by many SEOs.

Rather than concentrating on these traffic sources, we should focus on where our audience consumes content and spends their time.

After examining this visual, it’s evident that we’re concentrating on just 10.25% of the traffic funnel, which translates to focusing on 63.41% of that segment.

This raises a critical question for us as SEOs: Should we limit our attention solely to the search engine market share? Does this narrow focus ensure job security, or should we broaden our horizons by enhancing our skills, introducing innovative ideas to our marketing teams, and sharing exciting developments with stakeholders?

The landscape is ‘evolving’ rapidly. Platforms like Perplexity, SearchGPT, Mistral AI and Bing are making significant steps in the market. Mistral Web Search has recently launched, adding to the AI search environment. Yet, we often find ourselves discussing the Helpful Content Update (HCU), analyzing tweets from Google’s Search Liaison, or posing numerous questions to John Mueller.

To navigate these changes effectively, I’ve curated a list that diverges from typical SEO expert recommendations. If you’re keen on staying updated with the latest advancements in the AI search industry, consider following these influential leaders and talents.

An Unusual List for Traditional SEOs / Top AI Search Engines Leaders/Talents to Follow

Perplexity

Greg Feingold – Community & GTM @ Perplexity AI | ex-TikTok

Alexey Rybak – Product @ Perplexity | Partner @ DVC

Phi Hoang – Brand Experience at Perplexity

Ali Abbas Panju – Head of Special Projects @ Perplexity

Aravind Srinivas – Cofounder & CEO, Perplexity

OpenAI – SearchGPT

Adam Goldberg – GTM at OpenAI

Carry Hudson – Design Director @ OpenAI

Sundeep Tirumalareddy – Member of Technical Staff @ OpenAI (I’m not sure about this profile, all empty, but Sundeep has many academic contributions to the Search industry, you can look at scholar.google.com)