Short answer
Most businesses do not need a separate AI search budget. Shift part of the existing SEO budget from volume work, such as many short blog posts and generic link building, toward technical access for AI crawlers, fewer but deeper pages, structured data, digital PR that earns trusted mentions, and tracking AI visibility.
A practical way to rebalance:
- Keep: technical SEO, content for high-intent pages, Google Business Profile.
- Cut back: thin informational posts, link packages, reports that only list rankings.
- Add: AI visibility tracking, original research or data, PR and partner mentions, schema and entity work.
Review the mix every quarter against leads and sales, not traffic, since AI answers can lower visits while demand stays the same.