When ChatGPT recommends a smartphone, a hotel or even a holiday destination, most people rarely stop to wonder where the answer came from. They simply take the recommendation and move on. That behaviour may seem insignificant, but it signals a much bigger shift in how consumers discover brands and make decisions online. For years, search engines were the starting point of that journey, giving users a list of links to explore and compare. Today, AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity are increasingly doing the comparison work themselves, presenting consumers with direct answers instead of endless options.
According to a 2025 survey by consulting firm Capgemini, nearly 58 per cent of consumers have replaced traditional search engines with generative AI tools for product and service recommendations, while 68 per cent have used AI to assist with purchase decisions. As consumers increasingly ask questions instead of scrolling through pages of search results, the next battle for attention may not happen on Google at all. For brands, the challenge is becoming part of the answers AI tools generate rather than simply appearing among a list of links.
From search to answers
The fundamental difference between traditional search and AI-powered discovery lies in how information is presented. “Google gives you ten options. AI gives you one opinion,” says Prashanth Challapalli, Founder of Gravity Communications. “SEO reacts to the question. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) shapes the outcome. The model is not just answering, it is already reasoning through the decision on your behalf, walking you toward a pick before you have finished deciding what you want.”
For years, SEO was about helping brands appear among the top search results. AI systems, however, are increasingly summarising information and recommending a shortlist of options. The comparison process that consumers once carried out themselves is now being handled by the AI.
Why SEO alone may not be enough
Industry experts believe AI discovery is not replacing SEO entirely, but it is forcing marketers to broaden their approach. “The transition from search to answer is the most significant disruption in the digital world,” says Kimmy Babbar, Chief Communications Officer at JCBL Group. “We are moving from a world of blue links to a world of synthesis. If we aren’t positioned as a trusted, cited expert within these AI ecosystems, we aren’t just losing clicks; we are losing the conversation entirely.”
Unlike traditional search engines that primarily evaluate websites, AI systems pull information from a much wider range of sources. Reviews, news articles, discussion forums, expert commentary, YouTube videos and customer experiences all contribute to the answers AI generates.
“Traditional SEO helped brands become discoverable. AI is forcing brands to become defensible,” says Chetna Israni, Co-founder and Director at Morning Star BrandCom. “If an AI model is recommending a product, it is looking for signals that can be corroborated across multiple sources. Reviews, expert opinions, editorial coverage and customer experiences all become part of the equation.” In other words, brands are no longer competing only for rankings. They are competing for trust.
The rise of brand authority
As AI systems become more influential in consumer decision-making, experts say authority and credibility will become more important than keywords alone.
Angela Toppo, CMO and Co-founder of Be Wellness, believes brands must focus on building a trustworthy digital footprint. “Traditional SEO focused on keywords and rankings. AI optimisation will focus on authority, context and trust,” she says. “The brands that win won’t necessarily be the loudest. They’ll be the ones creating the most trustworthy digital footprint.” This is particularly relevant in categories such as wellness, healthcare and finance, where consumers rely heavily on credible information before making decisions.
Similarly, Satish Subramaniam, CEO of Bandhan Technologies, argues that brands must rethink how they structure and publish information. “The brands that will win are those that treat their internal knowledge as a strategic asset,” he says. “Structured data, cited evidence, real customer outcomes, policy documents and product specifications all become discovery infrastructure, not just content marketing.”
For AI systems, accessible and well-structured information is easier to understand, evaluate and recommend.
The new optimisation playbook
The emerging discipline is often referred to as Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), though many experts believe it extends beyond any single tactic.
“The next phase of optimisation will be less about ranking and more about validation,” says Israni. “The brands that win won’t necessarily be the ones producing the most content. They’ll be the ones creating enough evidence for the algorithm to trust them.” That means marketers may need to rethink organisational silos. SEO teams, PR teams, content marketers and reputation managers can no longer operate independently if AI evaluates all of those signals together.
Bala Kumaran, Founder & CEO of BrandStory Digital, argues that media coverage, industry recognition, reviews and thought leadership will become increasingly important signals in an AI-driven discovery landscape. “The brands should focus on creating informative, audience-centric content that genuinely addresses consumer needs and questions. Building digital authority, investing in thought leadership and maintaining consistency across platforms will help organisations remain visible and trusted in an evolving search landscape,” he says.
Jag Chima, Co-founder of IPLIX Media, sees the future as a trust-based ecosystem. “We are moving from a world where brands are optimised for clicks to one where they need to optimise for trust,” he says. “The more signals a brand sends across the internet that it is knowledgeable, reliable and relevant, the more likely AI platforms are to surface it in their responses.”
This could include expert-led content, customer reviews, media coverage, thought leadership, structured data and consistent messaging across platforms.
Opportunity or threat?
The rise of AI-powered discovery also raises concerns about whether visibility could become concentrated among a smaller group of brands.
AI-generated answers typically highlight only a handful of recommendations, reducing the opportunities for consumers to discover alternative options. However, experts argue that smaller brands still have an opportunity if they focus on depth rather than scale.
“AI does not inherently favour large incumbents. It favours accuracy and specificity,” says Subramaniam. “A mid-market firm with genuinely deep expertise in a narrow domain, and the discipline to make that expertise accessible in formats AI can reason over, can out-surface a much larger generalist competitor.”
That may prove encouraging for challenger brands willing to invest in expertise and credibility rather than simply chasing search rankings.
Beyond visibility
The growing adoption of AI search signals a deeper shift in how consumers make decisions online. Search engines helped people find information. AI tools increasingly help them interpret it. As Challapalli puts it, “Google was a tool to find stuff. AI is a tool to decide stuff.” For marketers, that distinction matters. Success may no longer depend solely on appearing in search results but on becoming a trusted source that AI systems repeatedly choose to cite and recommend.
The next battle for visibility may not be fought on Google’s results pages at all. It may be fought inside the answers themselves. And for brands, winning that battle will require far more than SEO. It will require authority, credibility and trust at every digital touchpoint.
