The impact of AI search on brands
The explosion of AI in the last few years has completely transformed the digital landscape. This shift is far more dramatic than previous disruptors, such as Google’s rise 20 years ago, or the mobile revolution.
The latest public reports from mid-2025 show that Chat GPT alone was processing circa 2.5 billion prompts per day globally, and this number is climbing quickly.
While Chat GPT is the most widely used AI engine, there’s currently a race to be the default provider, with Gemini, Claude and Perplexity also taking strides to win consumer loyalty. It’s unclear yet who will come out on top, but there’s a lot at stake as eventually we’re likely to see paid advertising on these platforms as they begin to monetise their products.
What’s clear is that AI is here to stay, and if you want your brand to continue to be noticed, you need to act now. Embracing the new landscape and pivoting from traditional strategies is essential if you want to stay relevant and maintain a competitive edge.
Let’s deep dive into the impact of AI on search.
What is AI search?
AI search is the use of artificial intelligence to find information on user queries and deliver contextually relevant results. It goes beyond understanding simple keywords and delivering a list of links, by understanding user intent and context to provide direct and relevant answers.
How AI has changed search
AI search has flipped the rules. Brands aren’t just optimising to appear in the top 10 links returned by Google anymore. Instead, the goal is to be the recommended answer cited by AI.
With answers delivered in platform, this means that users often don’t visit websites to get what they need, in turn resulting in dramatically lower site traffic volumes and missed opportunities for brands which rely on traditional search visibility.
This trend of no site search has been coined the “Great Decoupling”. Search continues to grow, but clicks to websites are falling exponentially.
Research shows that “60% of Google searches now end without any click to a website” and mobile is higher still at 77%.
Source link: https://thedigitalbloom.com/learn/2025-organic-traffic-crisis-analysis-report
This “no site” search phenomenon means brands need to move quickly. And this is where Answer Engine Optimisation comes into play.
What is Answer Engine Optimisation?
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of optimising your brand and content so it is cited, referenced, summarised and recommended by AI-powered search engines. By being cited by AI engines, brands can ensure they are part of the conversation and at the very least considered by users when they progress in their journey.
Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on ranking in search results, AEO is about influencing how AI engines read, interpret, and cite your brand when responding to user prompts.
For marketers, AEO means adapting content, so AI engines see it as trustworthy, contextually accurate, and worth mentioning.
Brands have got to engineer this trust. Your brand story must be crystal clear and consistent everywhere. Any claims must be backed up with proof across multiple sources. All guesswork needs to be eliminated so there’s no ambiguity. The goal is to make it easy for a machine to pick your brand.
Key elements AI engines consider when synthesising information:
Well-structured content
References across multiple trusted sources
Appearances in authoritative contexts
Clear machine-readable information
At Rain, we’re keeping a close eye on this evolving landscape. With the use of AEO optimisation tools, we can monitor your brands visibility and performance across the major AI platforms and implement AEO strategies to increase citations.
That's a fundamental shift – and most brands haven't caught up yet.
