Can a digital marketing agency add AEO as a new service line without hiring new staff?

AEO is one of the few new marketing disciplines where existing SEO and content teams can deliver most of the work without new hires. The overlap is ~70%: content strategy, citation building, competitive research, and technical optimization all transfer. The 30% that's new is AI platform querying, Share of Voice tracking, and AI-specific content formatting. Most agencies can launch AEO as a service line in 30-60 days with existing staff. The practical path: (1) Pick an AEO platform (Scenair, Profound, Otterly) so your team has one dashboard instead of manually querying ChatGPT. (2) Pilot with one friendly existing client at discounted pricing to build case studies. (3) Create a standard AEO audit template your SEO team can run on new prospects. (4) Add AEO as an upsell on existing SEO and content retainers. The financial math works: a $2,000-$5,000/mo add-on across 10 existing clients = $20,000-$50,000 MRR from your current book with minimal new headcount.