Yext: Selling Search with Subtlety
January 27, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
Every company with AI is in the search and retrieval business. I want to be direct. I think AI is useful, but it is a utility. Integrated with thought into applications, smart software can smooth some of the potholes in a work process. But what happens when a company with search-and-retrieval technology embraces AI? Do customers beat a path to the firm’s office door? Do podcasters discuss the benefits of the approach? Do I see a revolution?
I thought about the marketing challenge facing Yext, a company whose shares were trading at about $20 in 2021 and today (January 26, 2026) listing at about $8 per share. On the surface, it would seem that AI has not boosted the market’s perception of the value of the value of the company. Two or three years ago, I spoke with a VP at the company. In my “Search” folder I added my text file with the url of the company, an observation about the firm’s use of the terms “search” and “SEO.” I commented, “Check out the company when something big hits.”
I find myself looking at a write up from a German online publication called Ad Hoc News. The article I read has a juicy title and a beefy subtitle; to wit:
The Truth about Yext Inc: Is This AI Search Stock a Hidden Gem or Dead App Walking? Everyone’s Suddenly Talking about Yext Inc and Its AI Search Platform. But Is Yext Stock a Must Cop or a Value Trap You Must Dodge?
I turned to my Overflight system and noticed announcements from the company of about the company like this:
- The CEO Michael Walrath wanted to take the company private in the autumn of 2025
- The company acquired two outfits: Hearsay Systems and Places Scout. (I am unfamiliar with these firms.)
- The firm launched Yext Social. I think this is a marketing and social media management service. (I don’t know anything about social media management.)
- Yext rolled out a white paper about the market.
My thought was that these initiatives represented diversification or amplification of the firm’s search solution. A couple of them could be interesting to learn more about. The winner in this list of Overflight items was the desire of Mr. Walrath to take the firm private. Why? Who will fund the play? What will the company do as a private enterprise that it cannot with access to the US NASDAQ market?
Which direction is this company executive taking the firm? AI, SEO, enterprise search, product shopping, customer service, or some combination of these options? Thanks, MidJourney. Good enough.
When I read through the write up “The Truth about Yext”, I was surprised. The German publication presented me with an English language write up. Plus, the word choice, tone, and structure of the article were quite different from the usual articles about search with smart software. Google writes as if it is a Greek deity with an inferiority complex. Microsoft writes to disguise how much people dislike Copilot using a mad dad tone. Elasticsearch writes in the manner of a GitHub page for those in the know.
But Yext? Here are three examples of the rhetoric in the article:
- Not exactly viral-core… but the AI angle is pulling it back into the chat.
- The AI Angle: Riding the Wave vs Getting Washed
- not a sleepy bond proxy
The German publication appears to have these rhetorical principles in mind when writing about Yext: [a] Use American AI systems to rewrite the German text in a hip, jazzy way, [b] a writer who studied in Berkeley, Calif. and absorbed the pseudo-hip style of those chilling at the Roast & Toast Café, [c] a gig worker hired to write about Yext and trying very hard to hit a home run.
Does the write up provide substantive information about Yext? Answer: From my point of view, the answer is, “No.” Years ago I did profiles of enterprise search vendors for the Enterprise Search Report. My approach can be seen in the profiles on my Xenky Web site. Although these documents are rough drafts and not the final versions for the Enterprise Search Report, you can get a sense of what I expect when reading about search and retrieval.
Does the write up present a clear picture of the firm’s secret sauce? Answer: Again I would answer, “No.” After reading the article and tapping the information at my fingertips about next, I would say that the write up is a play to make Yext into a meme stock. Place a bet and either win big or lose. That’s okay, but when writing about search solid information is needed.,
Do I understand how smart software (AI) integrates into the firm’s search and retrieval systems? My answer, “No.” I am not sure if the “search” is post-processed using smart software, if the queries are converted in some way to help deliver an on point answer. I don’t know if the smart software has been integrated into the standard workflow of acquiring, parsing, indexing, and outputting results that hopefully align with the user’s query. Changing underlying search plumbing is difficult. Gemini recycles and wraps Google’s search and ad injection methods with those quantumly supreme, best-est of the universe assertions. I have no idea what Yext purports to do.
Let me offer several observations whether you like it or not:
- I think the source article had some opportunity to get up close and personal with an AI system, maybe ChatGPT or Qwen?
- I think that Yext is doing some content marketing. Venture Beat is in this game, and I wonder why Yext did not target that type of publication.
- Based on the stock performance in the heart of the boom in AI, I have some difficulty identifying Yext’s unique selling proposition. The actions from taking the company private to buying an SEO services outfit don’t make sense to me. If the tie up worked, I would expect to see Yext in numerous sources to which I have access.
Net net: Yext, what’s next?
Stephen E Arnold, January 27, 2026
Comments
Got something to say?
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
