How to Compete in the AI-Powered Search Era

Last quarter, one of my clients watched their organic traffic drop 35% while their qualified leads increased 28%. Another saw their blog visits cut in half, but closed their largest enterprise deal from a prospect who found them through an AI search summary.

This paradox is playing out across thousands of businesses right now, and most founders are drawing the wrong conclusion.

Organic traffic isn’t dying, but user behavior is changing so dramatically that the old playbook is no longer enough. Google’s shift into AI-driven search is rewriting how people discover brands, evaluate solutions and build trust. Entrepreneurs who adapt now will win the next decade of visibility.

For years, business owners have relied on a familiar formula: Publish helpful content, optimize for keywords, and let Google do the rest. But today’s search landscape looks nothing like it did even 18 months ago.

AI-powered search, new ranking patterns and massive shifts in consumer behavior are reshaping how people decide what to click and whether they click at all.

As a growth partner working across healthcare, government, ecommerce and emerging technology, I see a consistent pattern: Traffic is not disappearing, but how users seek and interpret information is fundamentally different. And businesses that don’t adjust will continue to see their website analytics decline and assume it’s “AI killing SEO.”

The reality is more nuanced and more hopeful.

Below is what entrepreneurs need to understand about the new era of search, and how to build a strategy that thrives in it.

Related: Is Your SEO Strategy Ready for the AI Search Engine Takeover? Act Now — or Risk Getting Left Behind.

1. AI overviews are changing search behavior, not replacing it

Many founders fear that AI summaries will eliminate clicks. But what’s actually happening is more interesting:

People still search. They just do it more efficiently.

According to early data from search platforms, commercial intent queries (e.g., buying products or services) continue to drive clicks at similar rates. Meanwhile, quick-fact queries produce fewer page visits, but those searches rarely converted anyway.

AI reduces friction in the discovery process. Lower friction typically leads to higher search volume overall. The pie isn’t shrinking; it’s being redistributed.

What this means for you: Your traffic mix will change, but your customer intent remains. Focus on the queries that drive revenue, not vanity traffic.

2. The real reason your traffic is down has nothing to do with AI

The biggest shift is behavioral, not algorithmic.

Users, especially those under 40, are abandoning traditional long-form blogs for:

• Short-form video (YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels)

• Community-driven threads (Reddit, Quora, niche forums)

• Podcasts and audio content

• YouTube walkthroughs and tutorials

• User-generated content platforms

Research from Pew and various social platforms shows that Gen Z is three times more likely to start a product search on TikTok or YouTube than on Google. This shift is happening regardless of AI.

Google’s algorithm updates are following the audience. If users prefer a Reddit thread over a polished article, Google surfaces the thread. That’s not AI; that’s Google responding to user behavior signals.

What this means for you: You’re not competing with AI. You’re competing with how humans prefer to consume information in 2025.

3. Search rankings now favor voices, not websites

Google is increasingly asking: “Who do users actually trust?”

This means ranking signals are evolving to favor:

• Authentic human perspective and lived experience

• Demonstrated expertise (not just credentials)

• Deep insights that go beyond surface-level information

• Content that users engage with rather than bounce from

AI is commoditizing surface-level content. If a user can get the same answer from an AI summary, Google will devalue the page that provides it.

What this means for you: Your lived experience, results, failures, processes and opinions matter more than they ever have. Templated content is officially obsolete.

4. Depth, craft and perspective are becoming the only defensible SEO advantage

In an AI-summarized world, the content that will survive must offer:

• Detailed frameworks you’ve built through experience

• Case studies with real numbers and outcomes

• Contrarian insights backed by evidence

• Data-driven recommendations from proprietary research

• Real stories and personal narrative

• Your actual processes and methodologies

AI is exceptional at summarizing existing information. It cannot replicate original thought, hard-won expertise or proprietary methodology.

What this means for you: Stop writing content designed to rank. Start producing content designed to be remembered, referenced and impossible to replicate.

Related: Want to Be Discovered in AI Search? These Are the Sources That Matter

5. The rise of Generative Engine Optimization: Being in the answer, not just the results

Google is testing a more prominent citation model inside AI Overviews. But the shift is bigger than just Google. AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Claude are rapidly becoming primary discovery tools for professionals and consumers.

This emergence of AI-driven discovery has given rise to what’s being called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), the practice of ensuring your brand is not just ranked by traditional search engines, but cited, recommended and accurately represented across the entire AI ecosystem.

Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on ranking positions, GEO focuses on becoming the authoritative source that AI engines trust and reference when answering user queries. This means your brand can appear:

• Inside AI summaries as a cited expert

• As a trusted source across multiple platforms

• In recommendations without requiring a traditional click

• With inline links that build recognition and authority

This is fundamentally a brand authority engine, not just a traffic engine — and it’s incredibly powerful for establishing market leadership.

What this means for you: Your goal is no longer just ranking. Your goal is earning citations and recommendations that position your brand as the definitive source in your category. This requires rethinking how you build authority signals, structure content and establish expertise across your entire digital footprint.

Organizations looking to understand this shift more deeply can explore frameworks for AI-era visibility strategy that address how brands are adapting to discovery across AI platforms.

6. Google is actively fighting the “dead internet” problem

Google has explicitly stated it’s prioritizing what it calls “content with real human perspective.” That includes:

• Expert practitioners sharing real experience

• Operators documenting their processes

• Creators demonstrating craft

• Niche specialists going deep on their domain

• People willing to attach their name and reputation to insights

AI-generated content farms are being systematically filtered out. Human-driven expertise is being elevated in response.

What this means for you: Your edge is not writing more. Your edge is writing what only you can write — content grounded in your actual experience.

7. AI search is actually a win for niche businesses

AI encourages more specific, multi-layered queries:

Old query: “Best dress for a wedding”

New query: “Short red dress from an ethical local merchant under $200 for outdoor wedding photos in humid weather”

This specificity helps AI match users with businesses that would have never ranked for broad terms in traditional search. If you serve a specific niche with deep expertise, AI search dramatically increases your discoverability.

What this means for you: If you serve a specific audience exceptionally well, AI search is the biggest visibility opportunity you’ve had in years. Niche depth beats broad mediocrity.

The entrepreneur’s action plan for the AI search era

To stay visible, founders must re-architect their approach. Here’s your roadmap:

If you do nothing else, do this:

1. Create content deeper than AI can summarize

If AI can write it, Google can summarize it, and users won’t need your website. Your content must contain proprietary insight, specific methodologies or lived experience that can’t be replicated.

Next-level moves:

2. Infuse your human expertise everywhere

Your process, failures, opinions, case studies and the “why” behind your decisions — AI can’t replicate that. Make your perspective the product.

3. Build presence where your audience actually consumes content

If your customer prefers YouTube or TikTok, start speaking that language: Articles → Short clips → Carousels → Reddit answers → Podcast snippets → Tools → Frameworks. Your brand should exist across the modern discovery path.

4. Become the definitive source on a narrow set of topics

Topic specialization is the new keyword strategy. Own a vertical completely rather than being mediocre across many.

Advanced competitive play:

5. Optimize for brand authority, not just traffic

Citation-based visibility, podcast appearances, speaking engagements and community-led content are now integral to search strategy. Focus on being mentioned, not just visited.

6. Audit and modernize your digital authority signals

How does your brand appear when AI synthesizes information about your space? Are you cited? Recommended? Accurately described? This requires examining your entire digital footprint: structured data, consistent messaging, credible backlinks, expert positioning and thought leadership presence.

Search is evolving from a list of blue links into an ecosystem of answers, perspectives and trusted sources.

Related: Why AI Search Will Soon Decide If Customers Ever Find Your Brand

Entrepreneurs who cling to the old SEO models will lose traction steadily over the next 18 months. Those who embrace the new reality — human-led expertise amplified by strategic positioning in AI discovery — will build brands that outlast the algorithmic noise.

The future of search belongs to creators, operators and founders who bring real depth to the table.

Make your content impossible for AI to replace because it’s built on your lived experience, proprietary methods and hard-won insights — not generic information anyone can Google.

That’s the new competitive advantage.

The window to establish yourself as a trusted source in the AI era is now. The brands that move first will compound that advantage for years.