Tom Vaughton
About
Tom Vaughton is the founder and CEO of Varn, an award-winning search marketing and SEO consultancy known for solving complex digital visibility challenges for ambitious brands. With over 25 years of experience in SEO, Tom leads a multidisciplinary team of technical SEO and GEO experts, data analysts, developers, and strategists, including Varn’s dedicated Innovation Team, which is pioneering new approaches to AI, agentic search, and brand visibility.
At the forefront of search evolution, Tom and the Varn team work with clients across healthcare, publishing, e-commerce, and B2B sectors to help them stay ahead in a world where AI is reshaping how information is found and trusted online. Varn has developed frameworks to audit and improve brand visibility across both traditional and AI-powered search engines.
As a regular speaker at industry-leading events, such as DME Lisbon 2026, BrightonSEO, and the NEXT Pharma Summit, Tom is known for sharing practical strategies that empower marketers to take action and drive measurable results for their brands and businesses.
Tom is a committed advocate for sustainable leadership, community engagement, and creating a people-first workplace culture. Varn’s woodland office in the UK reflects his belief in fostering environments that inspire creative thinking, support innovation, and promote team well-being.
Tom Vaughton | The rise of the agents: How to get your brand and marketing strategy ready for autonomous search and the new agentic economy
Search marketing is fundamentally shifting, and the days of simply ranking on page one of Google are long gone. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is currently the buzzword, with AI search visibility driving brand awareness and leads. However, brands need to look beyond the generative answer. In this talk, Tom Vaughton and Andy Mollison will share how AI agents like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s AI tools will be autonomously searching and transacting on behalf of target audiences and, importantly, what the agentic economy will mean for the future of brand marketing.
The traditional goal of winning a click is being replaced by the goal of being selected by an agent. As AI agents begin to search and transact on behalf of users, Tom and Andy will explain how to ensure a brand is “agent-ready” and why brands that rely on traditional SEO models risk total invisibility in an agent-led ecosystem. They will share practical tips on how to build high-trust signals and the technical structures that will allow autonomous systems to verify, cite, and recommend products or services.
Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of:
* The difference between generative search, which focuses on answers, and agentic search, which focuses on actions.
* Why brand authority is the new technical SEO, and how agents verify brand reliability.
* The risk of the agentic gap: what happens to revenue when no one clicks links.
* A framework for positioning a brand as the preferred choice for AI decision-makers.
By the end of the session, attendees will be able to:
* Identify the agentic readiness of their current brand.
* Understand the technical transparency required for non-human browsers.
* Refine their brand narrative to ensure clarity for both AI agents and humans.