AI Search

Traditional search returns a list of links ranked by relevance signals. AI search reads and analyzes the sources, then generates a synthesized answer directly for the user — often without the user clicking through to a website at all.

AI search combines two technologies: large language models (for text generation and understanding) and retrieval systems (for finding current, fresh sources to ground the answer in). Perplexity is a pure-play example; Google AI Overviews is a hybrid between traditional search and AI synthesis.

The consequences for marketers are significant: click-through rates from traditional search are declining, while AI visibility — being cited as a source in the AI answer — is becoming the primary value-creating position.