--- type: Collection title: Research, Talks & Interviews person: Venkata Pagadala canonical: https://venkatapagadala.com/research-and-talks generated_from: src/data/research.ts, src/data/talks.ts generated_at: 2026-10-23 --- # Research, Talks & Interviews 2 peer-reviewed papers, 1 preprint, brightonSEO San Diego 2026, 8 podcasts, interviews and talks. Every item links to its source, and every claim is worded as its source words it. Canonical: https://venkatapagadala.com/research-and-talks Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=g6hMDGIAAAAJ&hl=en ## Contents - [Featured talk](#featured-talk): Industrial Level Classification with Intent - [Research papers](#research-papers): 3 - [Talks & workshops](#talks--workshops): 1 - [Podcasts & interviews](#podcasts--interviews): 8 - [Recognition](#recognition): 5 - [Related](#related) ## Featured talk ### Industrial Level Classification with Intent *User First, Algorithm Second* brightonSEO San Diego 2026 · Track 1 · Sep 15, 2026, 9:15 AM · San Diego, CA · 15 min edit Search volume is a direction, not a strategy. The talk walks through why a query with zero measured volume can still carry real demand, then the method: twenty places demand shows up outside the search box, classifying it by persona rather than by keyword, mapping a whole industry, and turning customer pain points into products. - [Session on brightonSEO](https://brightonseo.com/events/san-diego-2026/sessions/search-intent) - [Slides on Speaker Deck](https://speakerdeck.com/venkatapagadala1/industrial-context-graphs) - [The method, built: Audience Personas](https://venkatapagadala.com/personas) - [Thank you: the people who showed up](https://venkatapagadala.com/research-and-talks/brightonseo-san-diego-2026) Chapters in the fifteen-minute edit: - 0:00 Introduction - 2:15 Zero volume, real demand - 3:48 Case study: useful content - 4:51 The car-buying journey - 6:29 Queries become conversations - 7:01 AI retrieval - 7:44 The method - 8:00 Reviews and pain points - 8:32 Video and social platforms - 9:17 Conference insights - 9:43 Earnings calls and jobs - 10:33 Research and regulations - 11:00 Classify by persona - 11:33 Map the industry - 12:11 Market share - 12:41 Reviews into products - 13:47 Agent systems - 14:26 Dedication The recording is not published yet. The chapter list above is the outline of the talk as delivered, taken from the edit's own chapter file. ## Research papers ### The Disruption of Search Engine Optimization by Large Language Models: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of the Evolving Search Landscape - Status: Preprint, not peer reviewed - Citation: SSRN (2026) - Authors: Venkata Pagadala (Sole author) - DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6512878 - Publisher record: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6512878 - Access: Free to read - Keywords: Large Language Models, Search Engine Optimization, Generative Engine Optimization, AI Overviews, zero-click search, organic traffic, disruptive innovation, information foraging, platform economics Large Language Models have reshaped the search landscape in ways that are only beginning to be understood. Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT Search, and Perplexity AI now mediate a growing share of how people find information online, and the consequences for traditional Search Engine Optimization are substantial but unevenly distributed. This paper takes a mixed-methods approach to understanding what is actually happening. On the quantitative side, I draw on Semrush's analysis of over 10 million keywords, Previsible's dataset of 1.96 million LLM-referred sessions, and Chartbeat's global traffic analytics, among other sources. On the qualitative side, I analyze 23 publisher case studies and strategy documents through thematic coding. The picture that emerges is more complicated than either the "SEO is dead" or "nothing has changed" camps acknowledge. AI Overview prevalence fluctuated between 6.49% and 25% of queries throughout 2025. Click-through rates for top-ranking pages dropped 34.5% when AI Overviews appeared, yet Semrush's own before-and-after tracking found that zero-click rates for the same keywords actually decreased slightly, from 33.75% to 31.53%. I attempt to reconcile these tensions through what I call the Search Ecosystem Disruption Model (SEDM), which brings together Christensen's disruptive innovation theory, Pirolli and Card's information foraging theory, and platform economics. The data show striking asymmetries: Chartbeat documents 33-38% declines in Google Search referral traffic for publishers, with news sites losing up to 26% while e-commerce barely registers a change. I present five falsifiable predictions, a practitioner roadmap, and the roughly $2 billion in annual publisher advertising revenue at stake. ### Google, SEO and Helpful Content: How Artificial Intelligence Can Be Helpful for E-Commerce Websites - Status: Peer reviewed - Citation: Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 206-226 (2024) - Authors: Russ Macumber, Venkata Durga Eswar Pagadala (Co-author, 2 of 2) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.69554/RJUW9313 - Publisher record: https://hstalks.com/article/8917/google-seo-and-helpful-content-how-artificial-inte/ - Access: Subscriber access at the publisher - Keywords: SEO, helpful content, artificial intelligence, e-commerce How AI supports the helpful-content standard on e-commerce sites, from product data quality to editorial signals. ### A survey of reward hacking in agentic large language model systems - Status: Peer reviewed - Citation: Discover Artificial Intelligence, vol. 6, article 825 (2026) - Authors: Arun Morampudi, Ujval Irrinki, Rahul Grandhi, Venkata Pagadala, Madhavi Maddula (Co-author, 4 of 5) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44163-026-01980-z - Publisher record: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44163-026-01980-z - Access: Open access, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 - Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ - Keywords: reward hacking, agentic LLMs, alignment, RLHF, RLVR, LLM-as-a-judge A four-level taxonomy of how tool-using AI agents game their rewards, from verbosity and sycophancy up to modifying tests and disrupting monitors, compared across RLHF, RLAIF, RLVR and DPO, with a layered defense model for production systems. ### Listed without a public link Published, but no public repository record has been supplied, so no URL is given rather than a dead one: - AI-Assisted SEO: Leveraging Machine Learning for Search Engine Optimization. International Journal of Scientific Research in Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology, 2023. ## Talks & workshops ### Product Strategy Workshop AT&T, Atlanta · 2026 · Workshop A product strategy workshop with the team at AT&T in Atlanta. Recording: https://venkatapagadala.com/talks/att-product-strategy-workshop.mp4 The method from the talk, built as a tool: [Audience Personas](https://venkatapagadala.com/personas). Build any audience and see where it actually is, with the margin of error drawn rather than hidden. ## Podcasts & interviews ### Rethinking SEO for LLMs and Personalization Voices of Search (Previsible) · Oct 19, 2026 · Podcast · 44 min With host Tyson Stockton: how enterprise search is changing with LLMs. Mining first-party data and zero-volume queries, building topic hierarchies, and getting ready for personalized search and query fan-out. - [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctpzOwKYi98) - [Episode page on Previsible](https://previsible.com/seo-strategy/rethinking-seo-for-llms-and-personalization/) ### Building AI Agents for Marketing Functions with Venkata Pagadala The Free Coalition, Expert Series · Oct 15, 2026 · Talk · 59 min A session for marketers on building AI agents: how agents differ from scripts and workflows, when one agent is enough and when a multi-agent system makes sense, and how to test, measure and guard agents before scaling them. - [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J21YdzbNG8U) ### How to Find What AI Search Trust SEO Video Show · Oct 10, 2026 · Interview · 43 min Episode 302: the SEO data most teams are missing, and finding demand beyond Google. - [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrPWjyu0CKk) ### SEO Bytes Botpresso · May 25, 2026 · Interview A session on AI systems and their use cases: using AI to build scalable SEO systems, with an early look at the platform in development. - [Botpresso's post](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/botpresso_another-week-another-insightful-seo-bytes-activity-7464525687811489792-orQQ/) ### Enterprise AI SEO: Automation Pipelines, MCPs, and Future Proofing AI SEO Show · Oct 21, 2025 · Interview · 33 min How enterprise teams ship automation pipelines for metadata, schema and content drafts, classify queries at scale, and earn inclusion inside LLM answers. - [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwyIY0vWO8g) - [Keywords Everywhere's post](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/keywords-everywhere-tool_this-week-we-sat-down-with-venkata-pagadala-activity-7386420721540820992--hwM/) ### Trends and Takeaways from BrightonSEO - San Diego 2024 SEO Conference Opinionated SEO podcast · Nov 26, 2024 · Podcast · 18 min A guest on the conference recap: AI in SEO, brand consistency, and what the overlap with HeroConf added on reporting and data analysis. - [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1TcEeYSTgJquItuTpt0Zj7) ### Episode 39: SEO Success Stories - Talking SEO with Venkata Pagadala of Apartments.com Impressive Digital · Jan 24, 2024 · Interview Talking SEO with Venkata Pagadala, then at Apartments.com. - [Episode page](https://www.impressivedigital.com/seo_success_stories/episode-39-seo-success-stories-talking-seo-with-venkata-pagadala-of-apartments-com/) ### 360Degree Presents An Inspirational Talk With Vikas Mishra & Venkata Eswar Pagadala From USA 360Degree · Jun 22, 2020 · Talk A conversation published on Vikas Mishra's channel. - [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfTo6_Sp3r8) ## Recognition Each line says what its source says, and no more. ### Listed in Ansvisor's 100 AI Search, AEO, GEO & SEO Experts to Follow Cihan Geyik on Ansvisor · Oct 14, 2026 > building systems and processes using generative AI, AI agents, and classification models Source: https://www.ansvisor.com/blog/100-ai-search-aeo-geo-seo-experts-to-follow ### Named in Metehan Yeşilyurt's Best GEO and AEO Experts to Follow in 2026 Metehan Yeşilyurt on LinkedIn · Jul 24, 2026 > Strategy decks are cheap. He ships pipelines. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/best-geo-aeo-experts-follow-2026-37-people-whose-work-ye%C5%9Filyurt--oqhnc/ ### Cited in Clutch's guide to content gap analysis Clutch · May 25, 2026 > notable for his work with programmatic SEO and AI Source: https://clutch.co/resources/secret-sauce-content-gap-analysis ### Acknowledged as a contributor in Impressive's US Search Awards entry on ReserveBar's zero-loss SEO migration US Search Awards · Apr 16, 2026 > a clever mind we tapped into occasionally Source: https://ussearchawards.com/impressive-reserved-bar/ ### Listed in Plerdy's 41 Best San Diego SEO Experts Plerdy · Aug 10, 2022 Source: https://www.plerdy.com/seo-experts-san-diego/ ## Related - [Audience Personas](https://venkatapagadala.com/personas): build any audience and see where it is - [Publications](https://venkatapagadala.com/publications): full records, abstracts and keywords - [Conference Notebook](https://venkatapagadala.com/notebook/conference): talks and speakers tracked - [About](https://venkatapagadala.com/about)