Mavlers Agency heads to Ahrefs Evolve 2026 with hard questions about AI search

Who: Mavlers Agency leadership - Darshan Modi, Director of Digital Marketing and Tanuj Gupta, Director of Client Growth & Success

When: October 12–13, 2026.

Where: InterContinental San Diego, California.

Why: To navigate the shift from traditional SEO to GEO - and bring those answers back to our 600+ agency partners worldwide.

Search is changing. So are the questions agencies need to ask about it.

Most agencies attend conferences to collect business cards and LinkedIn photos.

Mavlers Agency attends conferences to answer probing questions. 

How should AI visibility be measured?

What earns AI citations and recommendations?

How do agencies adapt their services sustainably? 

On October 12–13, Mavlers Agency leadership will be in San Diego for Ahrefs Evolve 2026. Darshan Modi and Tanuj Gupta will be attending with a particular focus on AI Overviews, AI Search, GEO, and what these changes mean for agencies and their clients.

Why Ahrefs Evolve matters  

There is no dearth of POV about AI search. There are reports, LinkedIn posts, webinars, newsletters, tools, predictions, and a new acronym every other week.

The harder part is figuring out what deserves a place in client strategy.

That requires getting close to the active practitioners, comparing what we're seeing with what others are seeing, and being willing to change our approach when the evidence says we should.

That's why we invest in events like Ahrefs Evolve.

Ahrefs Evolve is going to be a two-day deep dive into what’s effective in AI search, AEO, GEO, modern SEO, and data-driven growth. 

For an agency working with 600+ agency partners contributing to the demand for AEO and GEO services and a large base of digital marketing work, staying current in search eventually finds its way into client conversations.

What this means for our agency partners 

1. We're investing in continuous learning.

AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini - they're all reshaping how buyers find answers. We can't rely on 2023 playbooks in 2026. Conference attendance is part of our professional development budget. 

2. We have the financial health to fund this work.

Conference tickets, flights, hotels, and time away from the office cost a significant investment per attendee. The fact that we're sending multiple team members signals something important: we have the financial stability to invest in our own education. We're not cutting corners. We're not skipping the events that matter.

3. We're bringing insights back to you.

This isn't about us collecting conference swag and LinkedIn photos. It's about translating what we learn into better strategies, better deliverables, and better results for our agency partners.

Expect:

• Internal debrief sessions where our team shares key takeaways.
• Updated playbooks and frameworks based on what's working now.
• New service offerings or refinements to existing ones.
• Blog posts and resources that distill conference insights for our partners.

4. We're networking with the people shaping the industry.

Conferences are about conversations. Comparing notes with other agencies facing the same challenges. Those conversations inform how we approach GEO, AEO, and AI search for our partners. They help us avoid dead ends and double down on what actually moves the needle.

What you can expect from us post-conference

When our team returns from San Diego, here's what happens:

Internal debrief
Our attendees share key takeaways with the broader team. We identify which insights are immediately actionable and which need more testing.

Resource updates
We update our internal playbooks, proposal templates, and reporting frameworks based on what we learned. If a speaker shared a new workflow for AEO or a new way to measure GEO ROI, we're testing it and incorporating it.

Partner communication
We publish blog posts, host webinars, or send detailed emails to our agency partners summarizing the most relevant insights. 

Ongoing: Continuous improvement
Conference learnings become part of how we deliver services every day.

Want to contribute your questions?

We're inviting our network to add their own questions. If you're grappling with something specific about AI search, GEO, or agency adaptation, drop it in the comments or reach out directly.

We'll address the best questions live from Ahrefs Evolve.

Follow Mavlers Agency as we unpack what we're learning from Ahrefs Evolve 2026 and the conversations shaping the next era of search. 

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