For years, search engine optimisation (SEO) has been the bread and butter of digital marketing. Ranking high on Google was a golden ticket to traffic, leads, and visibility. But lately, there’s been a noticeable shift in how people discover and consume information online – and AI-powered search platforms are right at the center of it.
If you’ve caught yourself asking ChatGPT a quick question instead of Googling it, you’re not alone. The rise of AI search tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and others is quietly but dramatically changing the way we access content. And it’s starting to have ripple effects on traditional SEO strategies.
So, what’s actually happening and why does it matter for marketers?
AI Search Is Stealing the Spotlight
Let’s start with the obvious: AI-powered search platforms aren’t just novelty tools anymore. They’re becoming real alternatives to Google for everything from product recommendations to troubleshooting advice to travel planning.
Unlike traditional search engines, which return a list of links you need to sift through, AI search platforms generate direct, conversational answers. Increasingly, these AI tools are pulling from a wide range of sources and delivering information in a neat, summarised package — often without a click needed.
This shift isn’t just theoretical. Studies have shown that zero-click searches (searches where users don’t click on any results) now make up the majority of Google searches. AI platforms are accelerating this trend by giving people the exact information they need, instantly, without sending them to a website.
That means marketers are starting to lose out on one of their most reliable traffic drivers: organic search.
What This Means for SEO
The traditional SEO playbook was built for a world where search engines prioritized link-based results and keyword optimisation. But in an AI-first discovery environment, those old tactics are losing ground.
If AI platforms can answer a user’s question directly, whether it’s “best CRM for small business” or “how to reset an iPhone”, the need for that person to visit your website drops dramatically. Even worse, many AI tools don’t cite specific sources consistently, meaning your content might power an answer without your brand ever getting credited.
And this isn’t just a problem for blog posts and how-to guides. Product pages, service descriptions, and even branded content are starting to get bypassed in favour of AI-generated summaries. As a result, brands are seeing early signs of traffic dips, engagement plateaus, and reduced discoverability in key categories.
Why Marketers Should Pay Attention
This shift matters because it fundamentally changes where and how audiences find information – and by extension, how brands stay visible.
If your marketing strategy is heavily reliant on SEO-driven traffic, you could be vulnerable to the rising dominance of AI search. That doesn’t mean SEO is dead, but it does mean it can’t be your only strategy. AI tools are creating new rules for content visibility, authority, and discoverability and marketers need to adjust.
It’s also a wake-up call to start thinking about content differently. It’s no longer just about ranking well on Google; it’s about being relevant and authoritative enough to show up in AI-generated answers, or better yet, creating content ecosystems that don’t rely solely on search traffic.
What’s Next?
The good news is this isn’t the end of digital content marketing – it’s just a new chapter. In Part 2, we’ll dig into what marketers should do to stay ahead of the curve in this AI-powered discovery landscape. From optimising content for AI platforms to diversifying your distribution strategy, there are smart, practical ways to future-proof your marketing strategy.
Part 2: Rethinking Your Marketing Strategy in the Age of AI Search