Kevin Miller on GR0, AI Search and the New Rules of Digital Visibility

For more than two decades, digital marketing had a relatively clear centre of gravity. Brands wanted to rank on Google, capture intent, build authority and turn visibility into revenue. The work was never simple, but the destination was broadly understood. Today, that centre is shifting. Search is becoming more fragmented, discovery is spreading across platforms, and AI-generated answers are beginning to change what it means for a brand to be visible at all.

Kevin Miller has spent much of his career close to that shift. From his early years at Google’s Mountain View headquarters to growth roles at Open Listings and Opendoor, and later as co-founder and CEO of GR0, his work has been shaped by a practical understanding of how brands earn attention online. Now, as AI search changes the commercial logic of discovery, Miller is focused on a harder question: can a brand be found, and do AI systems trust it enough to cite it?

What did your early career teach you about how brands really win online?

My path to the C-suite was built on hands-on experience. I grew up in Ormond Beach, Florida, went to Georgetown University in Washington D.C., and then moved to California because I wanted to be at the centre of the tech industry. Google was the defining early experience. Being inside one of the world’s most important technology companies gave me a perspective on search and digital advertising that most marketers simply never get. I saw how the system worked, what Google actually valued, and how brands could position themselves to win organically over time. After that, growth roles at startups, Open Listings and Opendoor taught me how to build marketing engines with limited resources, move quickly, and understand what it takes to scale under real revenue pressure.

What made 2020 the right moment to build GR0?

Leaving Opendoor and starting GR0 was a leap, but it was also a decision that had been building for years. I had watched brands with strong products struggle to grow online because they did not have the right organic growth engine behind them. Starting an agency in 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic, was not exactly easy timing, but it clarified the opportunity. Brands were having to rethink digital growth very quickly, and we believed there was a better way to help them do it. I co-founded GR0 with my long-time friend Jonathan Zacharias, and we started with a clear conviction: organic visibility should be treated as a serious growth function, not a side channel. Since then, GR0 has grown from a two-person startup into a nationally recognised digital marketing agency, working with brands such as Theragun, Ritual, Pressed Juicery, Hydrow, Venus Et Fleur and Universal Music Group.

What principles shape the way you lead?

A few things are non-negotiable for me: honesty, speed and accountability. I want the people around me to tell me the truth, and I hold myself to the same standard with clients, partners and the team. Sugarcoating a problem does not make it smaller. It just gives it more time to grow. I also have a strong bias toward action. In a fast-moving industry, the cost of waiting too long to make a decision is almost always higher than the cost of making an imperfect one and adjusting. Accountability matters just as much. That does not mean being rigid, but it does mean owning outcomes fully, good and bad, and using both as fuel to get better.

How do you approach decisions when the answer is not obvious?

My default is to get as close to the actual problem as possible before trying to solve it. A lot of leadership mistakes come from acting on a summary of a situation rather than understanding it directly. I ask questions, bring in the people closest to the work, and make sure I know what is really happening before making decisions. From there, I lean on data, not because data has all the answers, but because it cuts through noise and gives everyone the same starting point. I also try to separate urgent problems from important ones. Some things genuinely need speed. Others need space and proper thought. And when I am stuck, I talk to people. Some of my best decisions have come from one conversation with someone who has already been through a version of what I am dealing with. There is no prize for figuring everything out alone.

Why is staying close to the craft still important as CEO?

A lot of agency leaders move further away from the actual work as the company scales. I have tried to resist that. I still want to understand what is working in search, what AI platforms are rewarding, and what our best strategists are thinking about. That keeps my instincts sharp, and it makes me a better leader for a team of people who care deeply about the quality of their work. In a service business, talent is the actual competitive advantage. Your job is to attract it, develop it and create the conditions for great people to do their best work. I care a lot about giving people real ownership. Micromanagement kills the initiative that makes great people great. I would rather hire people I trust, give them clear goals and get out of their way.

How is AI changing the rules of search and digital growth?

The biggest shift right now is the move from traditional search to AI-generated answers. For two decades, the goal for brands was to rank on page one of Google. That model is not going away entirely, but it is changing fast. More people are getting answers directly from AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews. That means the question is no longer just, “Can Google find you?” The question is, “Does AI trust you enough to cite you?” That is the shift GR0 has been building around through Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO. It is about helping brands become the sources AI systems pull from when answering questions in their space. We leaned into it early, developed real frameworks, and launched a dedicated GEO practice before many competitors fully understood the opportunity.

Where do you see GR0’s biggest opportunity now?

My vision for GR0 is to be the agency that the best brands trust when they want to win in AI search. That is the defining opportunity of this moment, and we are already far along in building the frameworks, talent and track record to deliver on it. In practical terms, that means continuing to invest heavily in our GEO practice, developing proprietary tools and methodologies, and staying close enough to how AI platforms work that we are ahead of the next change rather than reacting to it. Beyond AI search, discovery will continue to fragment. TikTok, YouTube, Reddit and AI platforms are all becoming search engines in their own right. Measurement is going to get harder before it gets easier, and old attribution models will break down as customer journeys become more complex. For me, the most important work in marketing is happening at the intersection of AI, search and trust. GR0 is positioned right at that intersection, and my job is to make sure we stay there.