AI vs Super Intelligence (SI): What the US Rename Changes for Your Business, and What It Doesn’t

On 29 September 2026, the US government gave AI a new name. Federal agencies must now say “Super Intelligence (SI)” where they used to say “artificial intelligence”. So the obvious questions follow. Do you need to change your website, your service names, perhaps your domain?

For almost every business, no. The tools your clients use did not change with the label. Whether ChatGPT or Gemini names you still depends on the same three things as in August: can it read your website, is what it reads specific enough to trust, and do other sites back you up.

This article covers what happened, what it changes, what it doesn’t, and what you can check this week at no cost. If you would rather have someone check for you, that is what my AI Visibility Deep Audit covers, at a fixed price. One note on where I stand: I run this business on a .si domain, partly for the name. On the politics, this article takes no side.

The short version

• Only the word changed, and only inside the US federal government. The AI companies, California and your clients’ tools still say AI.
• So far the rename puts no new duties on private businesses. Watch for a federal definition and for what the new task force decides.
• Keep “AI” in page titles, service names and web addresses. Mention Super Intelligence (SI) only in context, spelled out.
• Don’t move your website to a .si address for this. A spare .si registration can make sense.
• Whether assistants recommend you still depends on three things: can they read your site, is it specific enough to quote, and do others mention you.

What exactly changed in the US, and when?

The US federal government changed the word it uses, in four steps:

• 22 September. At the UN General Assembly, President Trump said the US government would “officially” stop calling the technology artificial intelligence. The same day, a State Department bureau told its staff to switch to “Super Intelligence”, as the Associated Press reported.
• 29 September. An executive order told all federal departments and agencies to use “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in official documents, instead of “artificial intelligence” and “AI”. It also asks the President’s science and technology adviser to propose a federal definition, according to the White House fact sheet.
• The same week. California’s governor ordered state agencies to keep saying “artificial intelligence” and “AI”, as the San Francisco Standard reported.
• 4 October. The White House created a “Super Intelligence Force”, a federal task force led by the Director of National Intelligence, The Hill reported.

In plain terms, the order changes what federal employees write. On its face it adds no duties for private companies, changes no purchasing rules and regulates no product. Two things are still open and worth watching: the federal definition, and what the task force does next.

Did the technology itself change?

No. The assistants answering your clients this week are the same ones that answered them last month. The leading AI companies have not relabelled their products as SI, according to the San Francisco Standard. Their products and price lists still say AI.

There is also a gap in meaning. In research writing, “superintelligence” has long meant future systems that outperform people at almost everything. The federal label puts that word on today’s tools, which are useful and make very ordinary mistakes.

So if a supplier sells you “SI” as something new, ask one question. What does it do now that it did not do in August? Usually the honest answer is nothing new.

Does the rename affect my business at all?

For most firms, only in a few places: if you sell to US federal agencies, or to companies that work for them.

Say you run a 40-person engineering consultancy that bids for US federal work, directly or as a subcontractor. Expect those agencies’ documents to say “SI” from now on, because the order covers official documents. In those bids, use their word and add the common one once in brackets. That is ordinary good practice, like answering a German tender in German. It is not a political statement.

Your website is different. The people who find you there type what their own tools call things, and their tools still say AI.

Will my clients start searching for “SI” instead of “AI”?

Not in numbers worth planning around. Searches for “superintelligence” jumped after the White House event. But “artificial intelligence” is still the more common term, according to Google Trends data cited by the San Francisco Standard.

“SI” also has a second meaning in business. To many IT and purchasing managers it already means systems integrator, a firm that connects other companies’ software. A homepage offering “SI solutions” can read as a different kind of business.

So the rule I use on this site is simple. Keep “AI” where people search and decide: page titles, headings, service names, web addresses and price lists. Use Super Intelligence (SI) as context, spelled out the first time, never as a bare “SI”. In proposals, use your client’s words. Or, in one line:

Call it AI or Super Intelligence (SI). Your buyers already ask it before they ask you.

Should I rename my services or buy a .si domain?

Rename your services: no. Move your website to .si: no. Register the .si version of a valuable name as a spare: possibly.

Plenty of people bought .si addresses. Slovenia’s registry reported registrations up +2,199% in September, mostly from the US and India, TechCrunch reported. Only a small share of the new names were explicitly about AI.

Know the trade-off first. The .si ending is Slovenia’s country code. Google treats a few country codes as worldwide; .ai is one of them, .si is not, according to Google Search Central. So a .si site starts with a signal pointing at Slovenia.

I took that trade-off knowingly, for the brand: the double meaning suits a one-man agency that works with a team of software agents. To balance it, this site is in English only, has no Slovenian address or phone number, and shows prices in euros and dollars. For most businesses, I would advise this:

• Don’t move your main website for a news story. Years of links and search history sit on your current address.
• A spare .si can make sense. If your name is valuable, register the .si version and point it at your main site. It costs little and stops someone else using it.
• Keep your service names. Buyers search for “AI-ready website”. “SI-ready website” you would have to explain on every call.

What actually decides whether AI recommends my business?

Three things, and none of them changed on 29 September: can the assistant read your website, is what it reads specific enough to trust, and do other sites back you up.

This is the part that affects enquiries. In G2’s March 2026 research, 51% of B2B software buyers said they now begin their research in an AI chatbot rather than a search engine. And 6sense found that 85–95% of B2B buyers buy from the shortlist they had on day one, before speaking to any supplier. If the assistant leaves you off that list, the rest of your marketing works uphill.

Can the assistants read your website?

Each AI company sends out a crawler: a program that visits web pages and reads them. The crawlers behind ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity read what your server sends. They do not run the code many modern sites use to build the page inside the browser, according to Vercel’s analysis of AI crawler traffic. Gemini is the exception, because Google’s crawler does run it. If your site is built that way, as many site builders are, those assistants may receive an almost empty page.

I know this one from the inside. My previous website looked polished to people, and gave 0 words of content to crawlers that do not run that code. To ChatGPT it was blank. Security settings can do the same to a readable site, by turning crawlers away at the door.

That engine has no opinion about what Washington calls the technology. It records which crawlers arrive and what they read. That evidence is worth more than any naming debate.

Is what they read specific enough to quote?

Assistants quote pages that answer a question directly: who you are, what you do, for whom, at what price, with named people and dates. “Solutions for tomorrow’s challenges” gives them nothing to quote.

Google says there are no additional requirements and no special code needed to appear in its AI answers, according to Google Search Central. So there is nothing new to buy here. There is writing to do.

Do other sites back you up?

Assistants lean on what others say about you. In the same G2 research, citations from software review sites were the signal buyers most often named as making an AI answer trustworthy. For a service firm, the equivalent is client reviews, directory profiles, industry lists, the trade press and podcasts.

What would this look like in a firm like mine?

In short: an hour of checking tells you more than days of renaming. Here is a made-up but typical case. Picture a 12-person tax advisory firm in Munich, with several clients that are German subsidiaries of US companies. In October, the managing partner asks the office manager to “look into the SI thing”. There are two ways to spend that week.

Option one: follow the new word. Rename “AI-assisted bookkeeping” to “SI-assisted bookkeeping” on the website, in the brochure and in the proposal templates. In a firm this size, that typically takes two or three days of someone’s time, plus the designer. What it changes for buyers: very little. The finance directors the firm wants still type “AI”, or simply “tax adviser Munich for US subsidiaries”.

Option two: check the three things. Ask the assistants what a finance director would ask (twenty minutes). Run the free check on this site (a minute). Email the web developer about blocked crawlers. In a case like this, you can typically expect one of three findings:

• The site reads fine, but few other sites mention the firm, so assistants name better-known competitors.
• The service pages say too little to quote: no prices, no named partner, no word on who they are for.
• The crawlers get a near-empty page, or a security setting turns them away.

Each finding has a clear next step, and none needs the word SI. Option one costs days and changes nothing a buyer sees. Option two costs about an hour and shows where the enquiries are going.

Without the check, who would notice? Nobody. A finance director who never sees your name in an AI answer does not call to tell you. The gap shows up only as enquiries that never arrive.

What you can do this week

None of this needs a rebrand or a new budget. It needs a few focused hours.

1. Ask the assistants about your field (20 minutes). Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot what your clients ask, such as “best [your service] for [your industry] in [your city]”. Note whether you are named and which websites they cite.
2. Run the free check (about a minute). The scan on this site shows what AI crawlers actually receive from your homepage.
3. Email your web developer (10 minutes). Ask whether the site, the host or the security service blocks AI crawlers. Forward them the section below.
4. Rewrite the opening of each main service page (about an hour per page). Two or three sentences: what it is, who it is for, how it is priced.
5. Put a name and a date on what you publish (30 minutes). A named author and a recent date make a page safer to quote.
6. Publish prices, or at least ranges (a decision, then an hour). Shortlists form before anyone contacts you, and a hidden price is hard to shortlist.
7. Ask three happy clients for a review (an hour, spread over the week). Update your directory profiles while you are there.
8. Decide your AI and SI wording once (15 minutes). “AI” in titles and service names, Super Intelligence (SI) only in context. Write it down so everyone uses the same words.

Repeat step 1 once a month and keep the notes. That simple log will tell you more than any ranking report.

What happens if “SI” sticks?

It might. Government vocabulary sometimes spreads into tenders, the press and everyday speech, and sometimes it stays inside government. If it spreads, the change you need is editorial: a few headlines, a line in your proposals. I keep every “SI” phrase on this site in one file for that reason, so it can change in an afternoon. A one-page wording guide does the same for a firm.

The work underneath will not need changing. What counts is a site that crawlers can read, that makes specific and sourced claims, and that others vouch for. That gives you the best chance of being recommended, whatever Washington calls the technology.

For your web developer

If you pass this article on, this part is for them.

• Check the raw HTML, not the rendered page. View the source, or fetch with JavaScript off. Headings, service descriptions and prices must be in the server’s response. The crawlers behind ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity don’t execute JavaScript; Gemini relies on Googlebot, which renders (Vercel’s crawler analysis).
• Check robots.txt, then the CDN and firewall bot rules. Robots.txt is the file that tells crawlers what they may read. Allow the search and user-facing bots: OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot and Bingbot. Blocking training crawlers is a separate, legitimate decision.
• No special markup for Google’s AI features. Google Search Central lists no additional requirements for AI Overviews or AI Mode.
• A spare .si should redirect, not duplicate. A permanent redirect from every path to the same path on the main domain.
• Keep SI wording in one config or copy file. A future change is then an afternoon’s work.

When is it worth bringing someone in?

When the checks turn up something you cannot fix in an afternoon, or you don’t have the afternoon. Typical signs: the assistants name competitors but not you, the free check shows a near-empty page, or nobody in the firm knows who controls the security settings.

It is not worth it if the assistants already name you for the questions your clients ask, and the free check comes back clean. Then keep your log, keep publishing and spend the money elsewhere.

I will update this article when the federal definition appears, or when the task force publishes anything that affects businesses. Each change goes in the log below.