In this second conversation, Sunny Ray talks with Jeff Atkinson, founder of Huckabee, about how AI is reshaping search and discovery and what businesses should do about it now. Atkinson argues that most AI marketing advice online is noise, and that customers are still buying, just in a different place and in a different way. He explains that three of the four major AI engines struggle to read JavaScript, which powers about 65 percent of the web, and points to structured data and dynamic rendering as the practical fixes. He shares findings that only four of the top 200 US SaaS companies could communicate with AI engines, leaving room for nimble competitors to take market share. The discussion also covers why page speed can outweigh personalization, how JavaScript-heavy tools can hurt revenue, why fresh content matters for AI visibility, and why he is not worried about the quality of AI-written copy. Atkinson closes by naming the two biggest revenue levers available today: communicating with AI engines and improving page speed.
Most Fortune 500 and SaaS sites are invisible to AI engines, and two fixes can unlock serious revenue today.
What should listeners walk away with from this conversation?
I want to cut through the misinformation. Maybe 80 to 90 percent of what's out there about AI is nonsense, including analytics tools that can't have real data behind them. You can't just tweak content and show up in AI. I want to explain what actually works, because showing up in AI can drive incredible revenue when it's done correctly.
Why can't most AI engines read so much of the web?
Three of the four major AIs most likely can't crawl your site today, and JavaScript is a big reason. About 65 percent of the internet runs on it. Google built Chrome partly to render JavaScript and has a long head start. Other AI bots are like infants, six to twelve months old, without a large search index.
What are the workarounds if your site relies on JavaScript?
Structured data, also called schema, gives bots a cheat sheet of authoritative information at the top of the page, and we see AI bots grab it and move on. The real workaround is dynamic rendering, which serves a non-JavaScript version with the same content. Without either, bots learn nothing and simply leave, so you won't be featured.
Why does page speed matter so much for AI crawling?
Bots dedicate a limited amount of time to each visit. An average page takes around 2,500 milliseconds, while our dynamic rendering delivers cached flat HTML at the edge in 50 to 100 milliseconds. You can do the math on how many more pages and how much more content a bot can download per visit.
How visible are large companies to AI engines right now?
It's alarming. We looked at the top 200 SaaS companies in the United States, and only four could communicate with AI engines. Outside tech, Fortune 500 sites are often completely unreadable. Their customers have moved to a new platform, and those brands are at risk of losing authority to companies that communicate with AI correctly.
Does page speed really beat personalization?
It does when the personalization is driven by JavaScript. Tools like Optimizely add processing time that can wipe out the gains, especially on mobile. I'd say try turning it off for a week and see if revenue goes up. If personalization is delivered directly or cached, it doesn't slow the page down.
How do you keep automated content from turning into slop?
I rely on the AI and the prompting we've written, but it's not a big concern, because AI engines don't penalize AI-written content and people rarely read page copy anyway. Fresh content is a major ranking factor, so our content curator adds relevant external content and commentary daily, often at the bottom of the page.
What are the most important things a business can do right now?
There are two levers. First, communicate with AI engines through structured data and dynamic rendering. Second, have really fast page speed. Those are the two largest things you can pull to grow revenue. If you're an ecommerce business preparing for the holidays, doing those two things should help you crush it.
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