Zero-click results are no longer an edge case; for informational queries they are the default. That does not kill SEO, it moves the goalpost from ranking to being quoted.
Three things move the needle: unambiguous entity signals, content structured as extractable answers, and third-party corroboration that makes your claims safe for a model to repeat.
Practically, that means shipping schema properly, keeping a single canonical source per topic, and investing in the digital PR that makes your brand name co-occur with your category.
Measurement shifts too. Track branded search volume, citation share in AI answers and assisted conversions alongside classic rankings.