Wondering when AI will fundamentally alter online research, discovery and search behavior? You are too late. Hot on the heels of social media's rise as a way to research and buy products, consumers are quickly defaulting to AI-powered search, through apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity and Claude, and through Google's AI Overviews, to guide their choices, evaluate brands and increasingly to discover new ones.
~50%
of consumers intentionally use AI-powered search
$750B
US revenue funneling through AI search by 2028
20-50%
potential decline in traditional search traffic
About 50 percent of Google searches already have AI summaries, a figure expected to rise above 75 percent by 2028. Half of consumers polled now intentionally seek out AI-powered search engines, with a majority saying it is the top digital source they use to make buying decisions. Adoption spans all ages, including a majority of older generations. The data behind these figures comes from McKinsey's AI Discovery Survey (August 2025, n = 1,927) and related McKinsey analysis.
The result of this tectonic shift is that unprepared brands may see traffic from traditional search channels fall anywhere from 20 to 50 percent. The clicks that remain will shift in importance, coming more from informed consumers further along the funnel, because decision-making now moves to AI platforms before the click happens.
The AI-powered consumer decision journey
While more than 70 percent of AI-powered search users ask questions at the top of the funnel, to learn about a category, brand, product or service, the technology is used across the entire decision journey. Consider someone shopping for cross-training shoes: with AI search they can quickly understand which factors matter (price, functionality, style), see what different brands excel at, and which models have strong reviews, and they can add their own goals or budget to fine-tune recommendations.
| Stage | What buyers ask AI search |
|---|---|
| Awareness | “What should I consider when choosing a credit card?” “What should I look for in a sunscreen?” |
| Consideration | “What’s the best laptop under $800 for a college student?” “Explain what 4K resolution means on a TV.” |
| Decision | “Compare iPhone 15 vs Galaxy S24 side by side.” “What do most people like or dislike about this mattress?” |
In a traditional search, reaching a conclusion means working through multiple review sites, product and category pages, scanning discussions and summarizing across sources. AI search collapses that work into one answer, which is why roughly 40 to 55 percent of consumers in top sectors, consumer electronics, grocery, travel, wellness, apparel, beauty and financial services, now use AI-based search to make purchasing decisions.
From SEO to GEO
The implications are clear. Already, 44 percent of AI-powered search users say it is their primary and preferred source of insight, topping traditional search (31 percent), retailer or brand websites (9 percent) and review sites (6 percent). So while search engine optimization (SEO) has been at the center of marketing strategy, gen AI engine optimization (GEO) must now become a key component of any holistic marketing and digital strategy to maintain coverage across the touchpoints consumers use to decide.
Why your brand might not show up
Even market leaders are not guaranteed visibility in AI-powered search. Where SEO focuses on your own-site content, a brand's own sites often comprise only 5 to 10 percent of the sources AI search references. Instead, AI search pulls from a broad and diverse array of sources, including affiliates, publishers and user-generated content. These sources vary by large language model, location, category and question type, and will keep evolving as LLMs evolve. That makes meeting consumers where they decide much harder.
| Source type | CPG | E-commerce | Financial services | Telecom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliate blogs & websites | ~10% | ~20% | ~10% | ~15% |
| User-generated content | ~10% | ~50% | ~50% | ~45% |
| Brand & retailer | ~50% | ~10% | ~10% | ~10% |
| News & media | ~15% | <5% | ~20% | ~10% |
| Academic & market research | ~10% | <5% | <5% | <5% |
To influence this myriad of sources, brands need to understand what questions consumers are asking and which sources shape the answers, and keep pace as models change. Few brands do this today. In major categories such as credit cards, hotels, electronics and apparel, top brands can be absent from some answers across leading AI platforms, including Google AI Overviews. As a result, a brand's share of voice in AI search can lag where its market share and traditional-search performance would predict.
“Traditional brand strength is no indicator that a brand is ready to compete in the new world of AI-powered search. Visibility is not guaranteed.”
— McKinsey, New front door to the internet, 2025
Investing in GEO: how to win
Just 16 percent of brands today systematically track AI-search performance. The good news: catching up is possible, but it requires rethinking how you structure, produce and amplify content. Four moves help.
- 1Undertake a robust diagnostic. Assess visibility and sentiment across AI platforms, identify the key sources driving results, benchmark performance across relevant LLMs and quantify value at risk. Even industry leaders' GEO can lag their SEO by 20-50 percent.
- 2Adjust content investment and strategy. Cover the full breadth of content types AI answers are built on: owned content, third-party content and communities. In categories like CPG and financial services, more than 65 percent of cited sources are publishers, user-generated content and affiliate sites.
- 3Optimize content to surface in AI engines. Strengthen credibility and relevance with new, unique information and topical coverage; improve structure with clear headings and precise language; and make sure both owned and third-party content is LLM-optimized.
- 4Invest in GEO as a core capability. Establish AI as a strategic priority, stand up a cross-functional team spanning marketing, SEO and customer experience, define GEO-specific KPIs and update your tech infrastructure to support LLM optimization.
