Quick Read:
- New research reveals that over a third of consumers now turn to AI tools before Google when starting a search, posing serious questions about the future of traditional search dominance
- Expert outlines why AI-first discovery behavior is changing how brands need to approach digital visibility, and what the shift means for SEO-dependent strategies
- Search evolution strategist warns that brands failing to optimise for AI platforms risk becoming effectively invisible in the emerging search economy
For decades, typing a query into Google was second nature, the automatic first step for anyone looking for a product, service, or answer. That default is now being challenged.
Research indicates that over a third of consumers now begin their search journey with an AI tool rather than a traditional search engine, with younger demographics leading the way.
Among 18 to 34-year-olds, AI-first discovery behaviour is even more pronounced.
For businesses and marketers, the implications go well beyond a change in consumer habits. The entire framework of digital discoverability, built around Google’s dominance for the better part of two decades, is now being tested.
Aaron Conway, a search evolution strategist at Ronin Management, a Singapore-based consultancy specialising in AI search optimisation, has been tracking this closely. Below, Conway breaks down what’s driving the shift and what brands need to do about it.
Why Consumers Are Choosing AI First
The appeal of AI search tools is not complicated. When someone types a question into ChatGPT or Perplexity, they get a direct, summarised answer. That convenience is proving difficult to compete with.
“People aren’t abandoning Google because it’s broken,” says Conway. “They’re choosing AI tools because the experience is faster and feels more tailored. You ask a question in plain language and get a coherent answer back. That reduces the mental effort involved in searching, and once people experience that, it’s hard to go back.”
This concept, reduced cognitive load, is central to understanding the appeal. Traditional search requires users to evaluate multiple results, judge source credibility, and synthesise information themselves.
AI tools do much of that work upfront. For straightforward queries in particular, the difference in experience is stark.
The conversational interface plays a role too. AI tools respond in a way that mirrors natural dialogue, which makes the interaction feel more intuitive, especially for users who are less comfortable wading through search results pages. For younger audiences who have grown up with voice assistants and chat interfaces, this format feels entirely natural.
“There’s also a trust element that’s worth acknowledging,” Conway adds. “When an AI platform gives you a curated answer, it carries an implied authority. Whether that trust is always warranted is a separate question, but perceptually, users feel like the heavy lifting has been done for them. That perception is powerful.”
The Implications for Google-Centric Strategies
For brands that have invested heavily in traditional SEO, the growing adoption of AI search tools introduces a visibility problem that keyword rankings alone cannot solve.
When a user finds their answer through an AI platform, they may never visit a website at all. There is no click, no session, no conversion pathway, just an answer, drawn from sources the AI has deemed authoritative. If a brand is not among those sources, it simply does not appear. Unlike a position-four ranking on Google, there is no fallback.
“The risk for brands that are purely Google-focused is that their visibility is becoming fragmented,” says Conway. “They might be ranking well on traditional search and still be completely absent from AI-generated answers. Those are now two very different audiences, and the AI audience is growing.”
Attribution models are also under pressure. When discovery happens through an AI interface, the journey to purchase or enquiry becomes harder to trace. Traditional analytics built around organic search traffic, click-through rates, and referral sources are increasingly incomplete pictures of how customers are actually finding brands.
Conway argues that the solution lies in what he describes as multi-surface optimisation, ensuring a brand is not only findable on Google, but positioned as a trusted, referenced entity across AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude.
“Brand entity strengthening is going to become one of the most important investments a business can make over the next two years,” he says. “AI platforms pull from structured data, knowledge graphs, high-authority content, and signals of credibility. If those foundations aren’t in place, a brand isn’t going to show up where it needs to.”
The New Discovery Ecosystem
What is emerging is not a clean replacement of Google but something more layered. Consumers are not abandoning traditional search entirely, but they are moving between AI tools, social search platforms, and conventional search engines depending on the task at hand.
A user might ask ChatGPT for a general recommendation, search Instagram or TikTok for visual inspiration, and then turn to Google to compare specific options. Discovery is no longer linear.
“The brands that will be most resilient are the ones that stop thinking about search as a single channel,” Conway explains. “Discoverability now means being present and credible across multiple surfaces, and that requires a fundamentally different approach to how you build and structure your content and your brand presence online.”
“This is where disciplines like Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), and Large Language Model Optimisation (LLMO) move from niche services into mainstream strategic necessity,” adds Conway. “Brands that act now, while AI search behaviour is still forming, are better placed to become the default answers that AI platforms return, a position that, once established, is significantly harder for competitors to displace.”
Aaron Conway, director & CEO of Ronin Management, comments:
“The question everyone is asking is whether Google is losing its dominance. The honest answer is that it’s too early to call it a collapse, but the cracks are real, and they’re widening. What we’re seeing is a redistribution of the first moment of discovery, and that moment is everything in digital marketing.
“For 2026 and 2027, my advice to brands is to stop treating AI search optimisation as a future consideration and start treating it as a present-day priority. The businesses that will struggle are those waiting for the trend to fully mature before acting. By that point, competitor brands will already be embedded in the answers AI platforms are serving.
“If your brand isn’t appearing where AI answers questions, you have an existence problem.”
