January 2026 marks one of the biggest months yet for SEO, AI, and digital platforms. This episode breaks down how search, visibility, and trust are shifting as AI moves from an experiment to core infrastructure across search, shopping, health, and everyday technology.

🎬 Top Videos & Talks

This month’s videos focus on the rapid acceleration of AI and robotics, with humanoid robots learning tasks independently, predicting outcomes, and interacting with people in increasingly realistic ways. Several experiments explore what happens when large language models are embedded directly into robots, raising serious questions about autonomy, safety, and control. Alongside this, leading search and SEO voices explain how AI answers are reshaping discovery, why brand mentions often matter more than links, and how users are finding information without clicking through to websites.

📰 Top Stories

The biggest stories confirm that AI is no longer supporting search and commerce but actively replacing parts of them. Apple deepens its partnership with Google Gemini for Siri, while Google rolls out AI-powered shopping, virtual try-ons, and direct checkout directly in search. New data shows AI Overviews dominating medical queries, driving down organic click-through rates and raising concerns about misinformation and lost nuance. Google also introduces meaningful Search Console updates, including improved query grouping, Discover insights, and clearer reporting.

🌍 Other News

Beyond search, AI continues to reshape healthcare, work, and regulation. New tools analyse medical records, automation plans point to large-scale job losses, and AI hallucinations are appearing in courts and academic research. At the same time, global investment in AI infrastructure accelerates, while governments begin responding to safety concerns around children, surveillance, and AI-powered consumer products.

💬 Social & Industry Highlights

Across the industry, practitioners note that AI visibility no longer follows traditional ranking rules. Attention is spread across more sources, shorter and clearer content is often cited, informational blog content outperforms comparison pages, and social content from platforms like Reddit and X is appearing more frequently in search results.

Explore the majority of the stories covered here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vRgApI9fMAMVswEIcS8iz2HXYpWXPlA2hjHZs8B9stlS6s8mvX-cAkHydCWW2yvca6Jv2sn0xu6w4Eg/pubhtml