Guest posting might matter more now, not less (AI Overviews)

Everyone in here keeps saying link building is dying because of AI Overviews and zero-click search. I think it might be the opposite, for a specific reason - hear me out.

If AI Overviews/ChatGPT/Perplexity pull their answers from sites that already rank top 10, then getting a client's content or contextual link onto a page likely to rank and get cited isn't just "SEO juice" anymore; it's a shot at getting the brand baked into an AI-generated answer. One guest post on the right site can now do double duty: rankings + AI citation exposure.

Some things I'm curious about:

• Is anyone actually seeing their placements/guest posts show up as sources in AI Overviews, or is this still mostly theory?
• Has anyone changed their site selection criteria because of this (going more for topical authority sites vs just DA/traffic)?
• Is anyone tracking this properly, or is most of the industry still just reporting rankings + backlinks like it's 2022?

Feels like a lot of people are still pricing and pitching link building the old way while the actual value proposition quietly changed underneath everyone.

Genuinely curious - is this real, or is it overthinking a trend?

Link buiding and zero click search have nothing in common. To get to AIO you still need a linkbuilding. Google has changed a lot, but linkbuilding will stay as one of the top factors in your positions. There is no chance they might cancel it because there will be almost nothing left: reviews can be bought, and all other factors are relatively small.