Building Backlinks in an Age of AI

By Justin Davis

In the vibe-coding, AI-generated search results of today’s world, automation and efficiency are becoming the ultimate goal. Coders have already coded themselves out of half of the jobs. Will SEO link building be next?

I think so. In fact, I have already built the tool that will replace 95% of the “link builders” that reach out to me every day on Linkedin and in my inbox. For the self-proclaimed backlink gurus that use recycled lists of link farms and non-niche related sites, they are going to be out of a job soon.

Let’s pretend I already have the tool that all link builders could use to 10x themselves. With these types of capabilities, the user would be able to spend their time on more of the “important stuff”. For the people who think AI tools are an invitation to not have to work, I would say they are missing the point.

AI tools are supposed to help you get quicker results. Save time. Avoid some headache (and of course, create new ones).

But behind the tool, you need an expert navigator.

For example, say your fancy future backlink machine could automate 1,000 outreach emails by just entering a single keyword phrase (like your target keyword phrase). Pretend 10% of those contacts are bad. What are the repercussions of sending 100 bad emails to your email deliverability health?

The Problem With Spray and Pray

Most link builders operate on volume. Send 1,000 emails, get 10 responses, secure 2 links. That’s a 0.2% success rate that they’ll happily charge you $500 per link for. An AI tool could absolutely replicate this approach. It could probably do it faster and cheaper.

But here’s what the tool can’t tell you: those 998 failed outreach attempts might have just burned bridges with site owners who could have been valuable partners. Your domain is now associated with spam. Your sender reputation takes a hit. And those 2 links you did get? They’re probably from sites that accept links from anyone, which means they’re worth about as much as a participation trophy.

The real question isn’t “can AI send more emails?” It’s “does AI know which emails are worth sending in the first place?”

That’s one reason you need an experienced human operator at the wheel.

What AI Can’t Replace (Yet)

Here’s what separates a link builder who’s about to be automated from one who isn’t:

Strategic thinking. Before you build a single link, you need to understand the client’s niche, their competition, their content gaps, and what type of authority they actually need. A medical cannabis company doesn’t need the same link profile as a real estate brokerage. AI can help identify patterns, but it can’t intuit strategy based on years of seeing what actually moves the needle for different industries.

Quality assessment. Not all DR 50+ sites are created equal. I’ve seen sites with impressive metrics that are absolute link farms. I’ve also seen DR 30 sites that are editorial gold because they’re run by actual journalists with real audiences. Can AI scrape metrics? Sure. Can it tell you that the “health blog” accepting your guest post is actually a content farm in Bangladesh? Not reliably.

Relationship building. The best links I’ve ever secured came from understanding that the person on the other end of that email is a human being with their own goals and challenges. AI can’t grab coffee with an editor. It can’t remember that someone’s kid just started college or that they’re frustrated with their CMS.

Content that actually deserves links. This is the part that 90% of link builders completely ignore. They want to build links to mediocre content. Here’s a secret: if your content isn’t better than what’s already ranking, you’re wasting everyone’s time. AI can help you create content faster, but it can’t tell you why your “10 Tips for Better Sleep” article deserves a link when there are already 10,000 identical articles out there.

That requires understanding what makes content genuinely linkable. What angle hasn’t been covered? What data do you have that others don’t? What expertise can you bring that adds to the conversation rather than just echoing it?

What the “Important Stuff” Actually Is

So if AI is handling the grunt work, what should expert link builders be spending their time on?

Creating linkable assets that people actually want to reference. Original research. Proprietary data. Tools and resources. Content that makes someone’s job easier or answers a question that isn’t already answered 1,000 times on page one of Google.

Building actual relationships in your niche. The kind where someone thinks of you when they’re writing an article and need an expert quote. The kind where you’re connected enough to suggest a collaboration rather than begging for a link.

Understanding the evolving search scene. Google’s algorithms change. Not everything that worked in 2020 still works in 2025 (although a lot of the solid foundational stuff still applies). AI can tell you what tactics exist, but it takes human expertise to know which ones are going to get your client penalized and which ones are going to build sustainable authority.

The Final Wrap

AI is absolutely going to disrupt link building. It’s going to eliminate the low-effort, high-volume link builders who were essentially running scripts already. Good riddance.

But for the link builders who actually understand strategy, who know how to create assets worth linking to, who build relationships instead of just sending cold emails, AI is going to make them unstoppable. It’ll handle the research, the prospecting, the initial outreach templates. It’ll free up time to focus on the creative and strategic work that actually matters.

The question isn’t whether AI will replace link builders. It’s whether link builders will learn to use AI before it’s too late. Because the ones who adapt will 10x their effectiveness. And the ones who don’t will be competing with $5 Fiverr gigs run by bots.

Which side of that divide do you want to be on?