The New Frontier of Discovery: How AI-Powered Search is Reshaping Consumer Behaviour

The New Frontier of Discovery: How AI-Powered Search is Reshaping Consumer Behaviour

Imagine this: A marketing manager sits down at her desk, opens her laptop, and instead of typing a query into Google, she asks ChatGPT, "What are the most effective content strategies for B2B SaaS companies in 2025?" In seconds, she receives a comprehensive answer. No clicking through search results, no scanning multiple websites. Just a direct, tailored response.

This scenario is happening right now, thousands of times per day, across industries and demographics. You’ve probably found yourself using AI chatbots more often—our team is now using them daily! It represents one of the most significant shifts in consumer behaviour since the rise of Google itself. Even Google is evolving its search results to infuse AI-powered answers with the introduction of AI Overviews.

For revenue leaders, this transformation means the traditional focus on generating website traffic is evolving, and businesses must adapt to maintain their online visibility. At Innovation Visual, we're helping organisations navigate this changing landscape. Let's explore the emerging trends and how forward-thinking businesses can stay competitive.

The Evolution of Search: From Keywords to Conversations

Key Shifts in Search Behaviour

SEMrush's groundbreaking analysis of 80 million clickstream data points reveals three fundamental changes in how people search:

The Rise of Conversational Search

SEMrush’s research uncovered that when using ChatGPT without web search enabled, users submit substantially longer prompts—averaging 23 words compared to just 4.2 words when web search is active. This stark contrast highlights a fundamental change in search behaviour: consumers are moving from keyword-based inquiries to detailed, conversational interactions.

Source: SEMrush

Even more tellingly, SEMrush found that 54% of ChatGPT queries were handled without utilising the web search feature at all—relying instead on the AI's internal knowledge base. This means that for many queries, users aren't seeing traditional website results whatsoever.

Users increasingly seem to value the ease of getting comprehensive answers without navigating through multiple websites. While this means potential decreases in direct website traffic, businesses can maintain visibility by ensuring AI tools cite their brand and content in order to maintain revenue from online sources.

Read this excellent article from Sparktoro highlighting a new trend: Traffic is down; revenue is… up

New Search Behaviours Emerging

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of SEMrush's research is that a substantial 70% of ChatGPT prompts represent entirely new user intents that extend beyond traditional search categories. While we've long categorised searches as navigational, informational, commercial, or transactional, AI tools are enabling completely new types of search behaviour:

• Problem-solving queries: "How can I optimise my marketing budget across channels when my audience is primarily Gen Z professionals?"

• Brainstorming requests: "Give me 10 creative campaign ideas for launching an eco-friendly product line"

• Exploratory thinking: "What might be the potential impacts of quantum computing on digital marketing over the next decade?"

• Synthesised analysis: "Compare and contrast content marketing strategies across financial services, healthcare, and retail sectors"

Source: SEMrush

These represent a significant shift in consumer intent—moving beyond finding information to actively processing, synthesising, and applying it.

At Innovation Visual, we've adapted our content strategy processes to uncover these new intents for clients. We combine AI tools that analyse audience sentiment with traditional SEO tools like ScreamingFrog, Ahrefs, and AlsoAsked to identify content gaps and create material that addresses these emerging search behaviours.

The Changing Traffic Landscape: What the Data Tells Us

Divergent Predictions

Industry analysts offer different perspectives on how AI search will impact website traffic:

• Traffic reduction predictions:

• Gartner suggests brands might experience a 50% reduction in organic site traffic by 2028

• Forrester reports 37% of consumers use conversational search features to discover, compare, and commit to purchases without visiting retailer websites

• Sparktoro's research found 60% of EU Google searches and 58% of American Google searches resulted in zero clicks

• Ahrefs’ research found AI Overviews reduced clicks to websites by 34.5% on average.

• Counterpoints:

• Datos.live found "almost no indication that traditional search is on a path to a 25% decline"

• Research by Terakeet suggests webpages benefit from increased traffic when included in AI Overviews, though they suffer when excluded

Shifting Referral Patterns

SEMrush identified specific websites already seeing changes in traffic sources:

• Technology domains (especially those associated with OpenAI) are experiencing more traffic from ChatGPT relative to Google

• Academic websites receive more traffic from ChatGPT than from Bing

• Research institutions and learning platforms see significant ChatGPT-referred traffic

Source: SEMrush

These patterns align with demographic differences between platforms. ChatGPT's user base skews younger, more male, and has a higher concentration of students, explaining the increased traffic to education-related sites.

In our experience at Innovation Visual, traffic patterns vary significantly by industry. Some clients maintain strong organic traffic while others, particularly in ecommerce, have seen declines. This underscores the importance of monitoring your specific industry trends rather than relying on general predictions.

Platform Diversification: Meeting Your Audience Where They Are

The days of Google's monopoly on search are fading. Gartner has observed that consumers increasingly use Amazon, Instagram, TikTok, and ChatGPT as alternatives to Google for various queries.

This diversification reflects the evolving ways users seek information and the unique strengths of different AI-integrated platforms. For revenue leaders, this means a multi-channel approach is now essential.

Our strategy at Innovation Visual is clear: meet your audience where they are and avoid placing all your efforts on a single platform. We advocate for multi-channel presence because consumer behaviours and platform rules constantly change. Derisking your business requires visibility across various platforms, including offline options.

Read more: Search is no longer just typing into Google

Strategic Imperatives for Revenue Leaders

Based on these emerging search patterns, here are five distinct strategies to maintain and grow your digital visibility:

1. Master Conversational Search Optimisation

As users shift to natural language queries, adapt your content approach:

• Research the specific questions your audience asks in conversational formats

• Develop content that addresses the intent behind questions rather than simply targeting keywords

• Capture questions from customer service and sales teams to identify natural language patterns

To do this, we work with clients on capturing questions from their customer service and sales teams, as well as scraping information from the internet using AI and automation to analyse the results faster.

2. Prioritise E-E-A-T in All Content

AI tools increasingly evaluate content based on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness:

• Invest in subject matter experts for content creation

• Include credentials, company information, and trust signals

• Create comprehensive resources that thoroughly address specific topics

• Regularly update content to maintain relevance and accuracy

We know experts are busy and it can be hard to get them to write content for the business. We’ve refined our process by interviewing our clients’ experts and then using AI to create content fast that still demonstrates their unique opinions and expertise.

3. Structure Information for AI Comprehension

Help AI tools understand and extract value from your content:

• Implement clear headings, subheadings, and logical information hierarchy

• Use structured data markup (schema.org) to provide explicit context

• Create FAQ sections with proper markup to enhance visibility in direct answers

• Present comparative information using tables and structured formats

4. Address Emerging Search Intents

Develop content formats that cater to the new search behaviours identified by SEMrush:

• Create problem-solving guides and frameworks for complex challenges

• Provide tools and templates that support brainstorming and ideation

• Develop comparative analyses that synthesise information across multiple dimensions

• Include exploratory content addressing future scenarios and emerging trends

We’ve reviewed our content planning process to go beyond SEO-focused keyword research and include new intents. By combining query analysis from more places on the internet with questions identified by our clients’ conversations with customers and prospects, we can quickly identify content gaps and beat the competition by pushing relevant content that answers new intents.

5. Implement Multi-Platform Visibility

Diversify your digital presence across the expanding search ecosystem:

• Ensure visibility across multiple AI-powered search tools

• Tailor content approaches to each platform's unique audience and algorithms

• Monitor traffic sources to identify emerging platforms

We’re using various tools to optimise and measure our clients’ visibility in AI bots and results. For example, HubSpot’s AI Search Grader provides a report on your brand’s visibility in OpenAI, Perplexity, and Gemini. We also use Deep Research tools to identify the brands AI chats cite and understand how to optimise our content to ensure our clients get featured.

A Balanced Perspective: Evolution, Not Revolution

Source: Sparktoro

While AI-powered search represents a significant shift in consumer behaviour, context is important. Google remains the dominant player in search, and traditional search behaviours still comprise the majority of information-seeking activities online. According to Sparktoro, Google received 373x more searches than ChatGPT in 2024.

What we're witnessing isn't a wholesale replacement of traditional search but a diversification of search behaviours. Consumers increasingly incorporate AI tools into their information discovery journeys, particularly for specific types of queries and within certain demographic groups.

As Datos.live's research suggests, traditional search isn't disappearing anytime soon. Rather, we're seeing the development of a more complex search ecosystem where different tools serve different purposes and user needs.

Embracing the Future of Discovery

For revenue leaders, the rise of AI-powered search represents an opportunity to connect with audiences in new and more meaningful ways. By understanding these emerging patterns and strategically adapting your content and discovery strategies, you can ensure your business remains visible regardless of how people choose to search.

The organisations that proactively embrace these changes—optimising for both traditional search and AI-powered discovery—will be best positioned to maintain and grow their digital presence as consumer behaviour continues to evolve.

The fundamental principles remain unchanged: know your audience, provide genuine value, demonstrate true expertise, and address customer needs comprehensively. The methods of delivery may be shifting, but the core mission of connecting the right information with the right people at the right time endures.

Ready to Navigate the New Search Landscape?

Our team at Innovation Visual specialises in helping businesses adapt to the changing search ecosystem. From crafting AI-optimised content strategies that work across platforms to building tailored automated processes for your brand, we can help ensure your organisation stays visible no matter how your customers choose to search.

Contact our team today for a personalised consultation on how to position your business for success in the age of AI-powered discovery.