For as long as many of us can remember – before generative AI (GenAI) began reshaping the search experience – scouring the Internet for information essentially came down to one word: Google.
You can Google it.
Now, the explosive growth of ChatGPT and other GenAI chatbots is rapidly changing search, with the powerful technology threatening Google’s dominance – and, potentially, providing a better customer search experience.
I became aware of this trend from my own experience – at home. I noticed that my 18-year-old son almost never uses Google. He goes straight to ChatGPT for everything.
He explained it this way: “I have almost completely abandoned the traditional Google search. Instead of sifting through articles trying to find what I’m looking for, in 10 seconds I can have the exact answer to even the most specific questions.”
His words speak to the changing landscape of search, much of it fueled by Gen Z. In addition to GenAI – algorithms that can create content such as text and videos – more younger consumers are turning to social media and searching for information on channels such as Instagram and TikTok.
Collectively, according to Retail Touchpoints, the developments pose “the biggest threat to (Google’s) dominance in search since it overtook Yahoo! as the world’s favorite information engine in the late ’90s.”
Google Has Dominated Search For Decades
Back in those days, Internet search was new and seemed almost revolutionary. Some initial search engines became popular, such as Yahoo! and AltaVista, but when Google exploded onto the scene the competition was all but over.
Google has dominated online search ever since, building a $175 billion business that controls about 90 percent of the global search market.
Experts attribute Google’s overwhelming success to the can-do spirit of Larry Page and Sergey Brin – who co-founded the company in 1998 – and its powerful algorithms that simplified information retrieval from the masses of Internet material.
ChatGPT Starts A GenAI Craze
Yet technology always marches on, and in late 2022 came another development that proved extraordinarily disruptive: A startup called OpenAI released ChatGPT, the chatbot that became a craze.
It reached 100 million active monthly users in just two months, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history – and triggering an epic battle among companies that are pouring billions into AI.
ChatGPT has become widely used for everything from content creation to drafting emails, writing computer code, and helping companies with customer experience.
But users also quickly realized that ChatGPT could be great for old-fashioned search because it provided direct answers to complex search queries – as opposed to sending people sifting through pages of links, Google-style.
With the rapid growth of other GenAI tools packing powerful search engines, such as Claude and Perplexity, Google now faces what some experts are calling “an existential threat from the rise of Gen AI.”
As one technology journalist wrote, in words I never would have envisioned until recently, “Googling things can honestly feel like a chore. Not only do we have to hop through numerous links to pinpoint what we’re searching for, but we also navigate a maze of ads, spam, and pop-ups. Even then, we often don’t find the answers we need.”
A Test Of Search Engines Shows GenAI On The Rise
The new AI Overview feature has indeed helped bring Google search into the AI era, as I learned when I tried several experiments to test what the experts are saying about how GenAI has reshaped the search experience.
But I also saw Google’s limitations – and the growing power of GenAI search.
For my first test, I wanted to know how Amazon’s return policy has changed over the years, a topic explored in my book, The Experience Maker. I asked a seemingly straightforward question to both Google and Claude, a GenAI tool: “How has Amazon’s returns process evolved over time?”
The Google search results came back … like a Google search. The AI Overview at the top was somewhat helpful. Next came a list of similar questions other people had asked – followed by a series of links to seemingly random website articles.
They mostly focused on recent changes to Amazon’s return policy. Fully answering my question would have required a time-intensive scroll down one page and possibly more.
Claude, in contrast, spit out a sequential response laying out the various stages and “transformations” in Amazon’s returns process, going back to 1995 and extending until this year – a much more precise answer to my question.
What a difference!
The results were similar when I turned to ChatGPT, asking it and Google an important question in my field: “What is the ROI (Return on Investment) of good customer experience?”
ChatGPT came back with a 753-word essay breaking down all of the specific ways customer experience delivers ROI, accentuated by references to several studies.
The traditional Google search portion of my results again revealed a series of mostly random articles (though the third one was written by one Dan Gingiss).
Google Fights Back – With GenAI Of Its Own
In typical fashion, Google has been fighting back – ironically, with some AI of its own. Beginning last year, the company introduced its Gemini AI model, customized for Google searches.
And it added a GenAI touch to traditional Google searches: A quick text synopsis of the topic atop search results, now called AI Overview. “We found that people who use AI Overviews actually use search more and are more satisfied with their results,” Google’s senior vice president and chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, said in May.
Indeed, Google’s AI Overview was more helpful than its own search results during my experiment. Which raises the question: If the best part of Google is sometimes AI, then why not go to AI from the start?
Clearly, my son is on to something.
The point of all of this is not to tell readers where to search. Google is still Google, and by all means, people should use the search engine that gives them the best customer experience for their particular needs.
Yet there is little doubt that AI could be on the verge of tearing down the established search order, just as Google did several decades before it.
“Generative AI is revolutionizing the search industry,” says Jim Yu, founder and executive chair of BrightEdge, an enterprise SEO and content platform. “The emergence of AI-driven search engines was the first step towards opening up the search landscape to new entrants with the potential to disrupt.”
Let me revise that section to remove those specific claims while maintaining the strategic insights:
What Companies Should Do Now
Just as businesses had to master SEO to succeed in the Google era, they now need to develop strategies for what we’ll call “AI Content Optimization” (AICO) in this new landscape. But here’s the fascinating part: While SEO often led to keyword-stuffed content that prioritized algorithms over humans, AICO actually pushes us toward better, more authentic content creation.
Here are the key strategies companies should embrace:
- Focus on creating comprehensive, authoritative content that answers specific questions. GenAI tools like Claude and ChatGPT are particularly good at synthesizing information from detailed, well-structured content. The more thoroughly a company addresses its customers’ key questions and pain points, the more likely their content will be surfaced in AI responses.
- Build digital authority through high-quality backlinks and citations, just as you would for traditional SEO. AI models are trained on web content, and they tend to favor sources that are frequently referenced by other reputable sites. Think of it as building your company’s “AI reputation.”
- Structure your content with clear headings, subheadings, and data points. AI models are particularly adept at pulling information from well-organized content. Companies that present their insights in a clear, logical structure are more likely to see their content referenced in AI responses.
- Focus on original research, unique insights, and proprietary data. AI platforms are particularly good at attributing unique statistics and original research to their sources. Organizations that invest in creating original, data-driven content have an opportunity to become authoritative sources in the AI era.
The Link To Customer Experience
This shift toward AI-optimized content actually aligns perfectly with what customers want. Instead of writing for search engines, we’re being pushed to create genuinely valuable, well-structured content that answers real questions and provides authentic value.
As we navigate this transition, remember that the fundamental goal remains unchanged: to create exceptional customer experiences. The only difference is that we’re now optimizing for AI assistants that are increasingly becoming our customers’ preferred gateway to information.
The companies that will thrive in this new era won’t be those that try to game the AI system, but those that consistently produce high-quality, authoritative content that both human readers and AI systems can easily understand, trust, and reference. In the end, that’s a win for everyone – especially our customers.
