AI Is Reshaping Search: What Marketers Need to Know

Search is no longer what it used to be. The rise of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini is transforming how people look for answers online and interact with content.

The once straightforward process — optimizing keywords, building authority, rinse and repeat — has evolved into an intent-driven, cross-platform experience.

Why Discovery Is Moving from Search Engines to AI Tools

The era of Google’s complete dominance is over. Generative AI has become a major driver of content discovery. Research shows that ChatGPT is now one of the most-used search tools in the U.S., second only to Google and YouTube.

People are not only changing how they search, but also where they search. They might start their journey on Reddit, TikTok, or ChatGPT just as often as on Google. This fragmentation is reshaping how brands must show up.

When consumers use AI tools, they’re seeking direct, useful answers — not casual browsing. To appear in these results, brands must create content that AI finds easy to understand and quote. That requires well-structured, machine-readable, and human-helpful content.

Ranking in AI Search: It’s About Being Selected, Not Just Ranked

Google’s AI Overviews now appear in nearly half of searches, often taking up most of the visible space and summarizing answers directly in the results page. This reduces the likelihood of users clicking through to a website.

For brands, this means clarity and structure are more important than ever. Content should be optimized for both human readability and machine interpretation, with strong internal linking, clear metadata, and logical page structure.

Bing has also become more relevant — nearly 70% of ChatGPT’s live search results come from Bing’s index. Strong Bing visibility can directly improve a brand’s chances of being included in AI-generated results.

How AI Learns from Your Online Presence

Large Language Models (LLMs) learn not only from your website but also from how your brand appears across the internet. Reddit is a particularly important source — both Google and OpenAI have partnerships to use Reddit data for AI training. If your brand is absent from these conversations, you’re letting others define your story.

Monitoring and engaging in relevant discussions helps you correct misinformation, address outdated perceptions, and guide how AI perceives your brand.

Video content is another key asset for AI visibility. Platforms like YouTube are used in AI training, but without transcripts or structured metadata, AI can’t fully understand your videos.

The Foundation: Useful, Structured Content

Success in AI search doesn’t come from chasing trends — it’s built on a foundation of clarity, structure, and usefulness.

To improve cross-platform visibility:

• Audit existing content for clarity and structure, especially on informational pages

• Ensure your content is crawlable by Bing, Perplexity, and other AI-focused bots; enable IndexNow where possible

• Provide transcripts and structured data for video and multimedia content

• Monitor and participate in brand-related conversations on Reddit and other key platforms

Generative AI is rewriting how people discover and trust brands. Acting now will give your content a better chance of being surfaced by AI tools in the future.