AI is changing search and the buying journey completely. I can sum up the big shift with what CEOs now tell me: “I enjoy having conversations with my search now. I never use Google anymore.”
AI technology is changing rapidly; so is the way that people buy.
Google rakes in billions in revenue from their ads. When ChatGPT usage became common, my first thought was: Google is toast. We will see how that all works out for Google, but I want to focus on what buyers are doing right now.
Here are the five top ways AI is changing search and the buying journey:
1. AI is the most helpful and intuitive search engine.
Why get all hung up trying to string together “Google speak” phrase (or “search engine phraseology”) when you can simply ask AI your question, including statements such as: “I’m only interested in seeing information about stanchions on sailboats, not any other type of stanchion.”
And, you can drill down. “Thanks, that was helpful. But now I want to look only at stanchions made of stainless steel, and what the common heights are for sailboats over 40 feet.”
When you’re shopping, you can ask, “Give me the top 5 manufacturers of foul weather gear for sailing.” (Obvious what my chosen pastime is . . .)
You will see what brands you should be looking at, and, again, you can ask more specific questions as you go.
2. The results are more than a list.
When you use AI to find something, you don’t just get a list to sift through. You get a summary, sources, analysis, and conclusions. Your friendly AI assistant will say, “If X is your highest priority, this is the manufacturer you might prefer.”
You can’t do this with what are now the “old” search engines.
Search will never be the same, and until AI companies learn how to weave advertising into their results, that billion dollars’ worth of ad revenue is just floating in cyberspace waiting for others to take advantage of it.
Personal AI Agents who shop for their “humans” will force all sellers to provide very specific information about products and services, and to answer the key question: “What’s going to happen to me after I buy?”
3. AI is changing advertising itself.
Advertisers are already benefitting from programmatic platforms that use AI to manage ads. “AI dictates how your ad spend gets used, who sees your ads, and how effective your overall campaigns are,” says the Marketing Institute.
Conducting A/B testing using AI or getting recommendations about your advertising copy is now standard practice.
We are getting closer to the day where we are sitting and thinking, “I need a new outfit for that date I’m going on next week.” We tell our AI Agent, who knows all of our preferences, and that afternoon the perfect solution shows up at our doorstep.
4. Customers will assume they WILL find what they’re searching for
One of the most significant shifts in buyer behavior came about years ago when Google and Amazon started to dominate shopping search activity.
Buyers could spend hours trying to find the perfect solution, even if the product only costs $12. They didn’t give up until they found it.
And when they did find it, they were so excited they would have gladly paid more for it.
5. AI takes the place of “asking around.”
For years, when interviewing executives buying high-scrutiny, expensive products or services, they would tell me that the first step in the buyer journey was “asking around.”
But CEOs I’ve talked to recently have started to say they don’t do that anymore: “When I want something, I’m looking for it right now. Reaching out to someone isn’t fast enough for me.”
What hasn’t changed
Relevant, helpful, frequent content is more important than ever. If you type “What is the strength of concrete” into Perplexity.ai, our client Cor-Tuf is the first reference, and drives thousands of interested buyers to their site each month.
Perplexity.ai:
It’s also the first item in the AI overview in the search sidebar in Chrome:
We are still selling to humans who aren’t satisfied with homogenized, anyone-could-say-this content. Humans are also getting good at recognizing AI-written content.
The best way to produce marketing content now is to still have a professional writer write it, with the help of a brain dump from a subject-matter expert, and then run it through an AI marketing platform that will come back with recommendations.
Whatever you do, don’t ignore this Big Shift. Your company’s success depends on getting this right.
