SEO and the Rise of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): Why Voice Search Matters - The 2018 Trustpilot x Jason Barnard Collaboration
In January 2018, Jason Barnard, CEO and founder of Kalicube, joined Chee Lo, Head of SEO at Trustpilot, in a professional recording studio at 150 Cheapside, London, for a live discussion that would quietly shape the future of search.
The session - hosted and streamed globally by Trustpilot - was titled SEO and the Rise of AEO: Why Voice Search Matters. Supported by Trustpilot and SEMrush, it was one of the first public conversations to explore Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) - a concept Jason had already been developing and testing at Kalicube Pro.
SEO and the Rise of AEO - Why Voice Search Matters (Trustpilot, 2018)
The shift from search engines to answer engines
During the webinar, Chee Lo shared new data showing the rapid rise of voice search in the UK - nearly 40 percent of the population was using it daily at the time. Jason expanded that trend into a bigger story: the movement from search engines that display ten options to Answer Engines that strive to deliver one confident answer.
He explained that this evolution would reshape SEO entirely. To be chosen as that single answer, a brand first needs to be understood, then trusted. Machines can only recommend what they clearly comprehend. That idea - Understandability plus Credibility equals Visibility - became the philosophical core of AEO and later The Kalicube Process™, Kalicube’s proprietary methodology for implementing a holistic, brand-first digital marketing strategy.
Building understanding and credibility
Jason described Google’s growing reliance on structured, machine-readable data - Semantic HTML5, Schema Markup, and clear Brand Story statements - to organize the fragmented information on the web. Most websites, he noted, were still written in inconsistent code that made Machine-Level Understandability difficult for algorithms.
His recommendation was simple but radical for its time: brands should communicate to educate the algorithms. Instead of trying to game rankings, companies should clearly explain who they are, what they do, and why they’re credible. Once Google understands that, it can confirm accuracy through trusted third-party sources such as review platforms, business directories, and knowledge databases. Trustpilot’s presence in the discussion underscored that point. Its data and review ecosystem offered exactly the kind of third-party validation that Google could use to assess Brand Credibility, bridging human trust and algorithmic confidence.
Position Zero and the new rules of visibility
AnAnother major theme from the webinar was the disappearance of “page 1” as the only metric that matters. In voice search, there are no multiple blue links - there is only one answer. Jason called this Position Zero, where brands compete not to appear among many but to be the definitive answer for a user’s specific micro-moment.
To achieve that, he argued, brands must focus on three foundations:
- Communicate clearly so machines can interpret the facts.
- Earn credibility through consistent external corroboration.
- Sustain authority by maintaining positive reviews, mentions, and engagement across the web.
These same principles - Understandability, Credibility, and Deliverability (UCD) - would later crystallize into the UCD framework at the heart of The Kalicube Process.
The ripple effect: how one webinar seeded an industry shift
Following the Trustpilot collaboration, three major industry articles echoed the same theme:
- The New Face of SEO: Answer Engine Optimization - Trustpilot (2018)
- The Rise of Voice Search and Answer Engine Optimization - RankMedia (2018)
- Answer Engine Optimization: The Next Big Thing in Digital Marketing - Cybertegic (2018)
Each one drew inspiration - directly or indirectly - from Search Engine Watch’s original 2018 article, The Rise of Answer Engine Optimization: Why Voice Search Matters, which summarized the insights Jason had shared during the Trustpilot event.
Together, these pieces formed a network of thought leadership that positioned AEO not as a buzzword, but as a fundamental transformation - marking SEO’s evolution from keyword ranking to entity-based understanding.
The shift from Answer Engine Optimization to AI Assistive Engine Optimization proves the power of The Kalicube Process.
The shift from Answer Engines to today’s AI Assistive Engines (AI-powered conversational platforms) confirms the accuracy of Jason Barnard’s original vision. What began as a tactical conversation about Voice Search Optimization is now the foundational blueprint for AI Assistive Engine Optimization (AIEO).
The enduring message still defines Kalicube’s work today: when you build your brand based on Understandability, Credibility, and Deliverability, you build a robust Digital Brand Echo that algorithms will trust and recommend. The Kalicube Process transforms AEO from a great idea into a complete, repeatable system for success in the age of AI.
If you are a marketing leader whose offline authority is not being accurately reflected by search and AI, it might be valuable to explore how The Kalicube Process provides a reliable system for Reputation Engineering and Brand Recovery.
