AI Search RFPs are going out en masse — and getting paused, revealing a market in chaos
gaganghotra_ · x · 2026-10-11
A wave of AI Search RFPs has gone out in recent months, followed by a wave of those same RFPs being paused. The pausing is the tell: RFPs are built for mature markets where everyone shares vocabulary, deliverables, and measurement — AI Search isn't that market yet, so one RFP yields eleven responses with no shared scope or price range, leaving buyers more confused. Another view: agencies are repackaging SEO as "AI SEO" at 10x pricing. The better move while the market sorts itself out is identifying who is doing real thinking and who actually shows up in the systems you want to be in.
Related event: AI Search RFPs Surge Then Stall, Signaling an Immature Market(2 posts)→
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