I keep up with AI news using three YouTube channels, two newsletters, two communities, and a steady stream of experiments we run inside the agency. The experiments matter most. At TJ Digital, about half of all the work we do is experimental, so we usually find out what works before anyone writes about it.
I get asked this constantly because I post every day about SEO, AI search, and putting AI to work inside a business. So here is the actual list, plus what I use each one for.
One thing worth understanding first. You cannot read everything, and trying to will make you worse at this.
The pace is the reason. Stanford’s 2026 AI Index found that scores on SWE-bench Verified, a widely used coding benchmark, rose from 60% to nearly 100% in a single year. So I keep my list short and spend the time I save running tests.
Which YouTube Channels Are Best for Keeping Up with AI?
For keeping up on the latest AI models, my favorite channel is AI Explained. It covers new model releases with enough depth that you understand what actually changed under the hood.
For advanced guidance on how to use large language models, my favorite channel is Nate B. Jones. He publishes most days, and his focus is the workflows, context, and rules you build around the model.
For setting up automations and structuring your knowledge base, my favorite channel is Ben AI. If you have domain expertise and want to turn it into systems that run without you, that is the channel to watch.
Where Should You Get SEO Opinions on AI Search?
Edward Sturm’s podcast is my main source, and he publishes a new episode every day. I have been on that podcast, and I am going back on soon with David Quaid, who runs the SEO subreddit.
A wide range of opinions matters more here than picking one guru. Nobody has this fully figured out yet, and the people who sound most certain are usually the ones I trust least.
David is a fountain of information on his own. You can find him in the comment section of almost any post talking about SEO. For local SEO specifically, I follow Joy Hawkins at Sterling Sky and Darren Shaw at Whitespark.
Which Newsletters Should You Subscribe To?
Two newsletters earn a spot in my inbox.
- Search News You Can Use by Marie Haynes. She covers all things SEO and AI with a heavy emphasis on Google.
- Growth Memo by Kevin Indig. He focuses heavily on AI, AI search, and SEO, and he backs his frameworks with real testing.
Which AI and SEO Communities Are Worth Joining?
The two I am active in are Marie Haynes’ Search Bar community and a Discord community called Syndicate of Agency Owners. Both put you in a room with people running real campaigns and comparing notes.
Communities are where you hear what other practitioners are seeing in their own data, usually weeks before anyone publishes it. Consuming content on its own leaves you a step behind that.
TikTok is also its own kind of community, and I have met a lot of great people there. Nearly every client we work with found us through short-form video first.
Here is the full list in one place, with what each source is good for.
| Resource | Format | What I use it for |
| AI Explained | YouTube | New model releases and what they mean |
| Nate B. Jones | YouTube | Advanced LLM usage and workflows |
| Ben AI | YouTube | Automations and knowledge base structure |
| Edward Sturm’s podcast | Podcast (daily) | Wide range of expert SEO opinions |
| Search News You Can Use | Newsletter | SEO and AI with a Google focus |
| Growth Memo | Newsletter | AI search and SEO frameworks |
| Search Bar | Community | Discussion with working SEOs |
| Syndicate of Agency Owners | Discord | Agency operations and AI adoption |
Why Running Your Own Experiments Beats Reading About Them
When things are moving this fast, you have to be running your own experiments too. Reading tells you what worked for someone else’s site three months ago. Testing tells you what works on yours right now.
About half of all the work we do as an agency is experimental. I have been in digital marketing for 17 years and have never had to relearn the job this fast. We have been fortunate that the clients we attract from TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram are usually open to experimentation, which lets us try things, iterate, and learn quickly.
That feedback loop is why I do not recommend courses for this. I wrote more about that in my breakdown of how to learn AI search, including the three practitioners I think are worth following closely. The short version is that best practices change faster than any curriculum can be updated.
If you want to run your own tests, start by tracking which sources AI models cite before recommending a business in your industry. We use a tool for this, and I broke down how AI rank tracking works in a separate post.
How Do You Hire People Who Keep Up with AI?
I also just love to hire nerds. The number one thing we look for when hiring is someone who is legitimately excited about AI and how things are progressing.
SEO knowledge can be taught in a few months. Curiosity about where this is all going takes a lot longer to install in someone.
That is really my number one piece of advice. Surround yourself with people who are obsessed with this stuff.
How Do You Stop Your Feed from Showing You AI Junk?
When you are scrolling social media, be careful about what you watch and click on. Every view, like, and skip is a signal, and the platforms respond to those signals in real time.
If you send signals to the algorithm that this is the kind of content you want to watch, it will listen. These systems are very good at finding good content once they know what you are looking for.
The flip side is that a few minutes of low-effort AI hype content will pollute your feed for weeks. Scroll past it, and give your attention to the accounts you would actually pay to read.
How Much Time Should You Spend Keeping Up with AI News Each Week?
There is no correct number, and chasing volume is what burns people out. Keep the list short enough that you finish it, then spend the rest of your time on work that produces your own data.
Do You Need a Course to Keep Up with AI Search?
No. This field is new enough that most courses are outdated by the time you finish them. Follow a few practitioners who publish for free, then validate everything with live queries in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity.
What Is the Fastest Way to Test an AI Tactic on Your Own Site?
Pick five to ten questions your customers actually ask, run them through the major AI platforms, and write down which sources get cited. Change one thing on one page, wait a few weeks, then run the same questions again.
Get a Read on Where Your Business Stands
Keeping up is half the job. The other half is knowing whether any of it is working for your business.
At TJ Digital, we help small and medium-sized businesses show up when people search using ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity. Book a free marketing audit and we will show you where you currently stand in AI search and what to do about it.