What Happens When AI Mode Becomes Default?
Sooner or later, it may happen. Are you ready?
This week, we had two alarming updates in the search/AI community:
Google Chrome remains Google’s (+ the screenshots from the court showing how the URL/search bar will likely be replaced with “Ask a question” powered by Gemini. In other words, Chrome will likely answer questions instead of searching.
AI Mode will become the default “soon,” according to a Google Product Manager
(Both of these discussions can be found in my subreddit)
What happens when either of those becomes reality?
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Quite obviously, we will see another drop in clicks from organic search.
I’ve also shared Malte Landwehr’s predictions on which industries will be most impacted by AI search and loss of traffic:
How soon is “soon”?
I have a suspicion that this won’t happen until the AI Mode is properly monetized.
Regardless of how much Google wants advertisers to believe AI Answers are driving as many clicks as organic search, we all know they are not clicked much.
AI Answers are not designed for clicking.
We know that Google is already actively pitching AI Mode ads to bigger advertisers and it will be interesting to see.
AI ads are going to "shorten" the buying journeys even further, leaving non-paying brands behind. Not that it doesn't exist now (If you search for an informational query, like "how to build a site", you will immediately see ads from Wix or Squarespace).
But AI ads will be contextual. Step after step, leading into relevant brands, solving a problem, with no organic options apparently being part of that journey.
"Be part of user exploration" = be the solution before they have time to explore all the options
"Predict the intent", etc.
So we have some time before another AI search Armageddon. What should we do?
Depending on your reliance on organic search traffic, there are many things you can do:
Try many more discoverability channels until you find some that work best (Reddit marketing, collaborations with top voices in your niche, partnerships, etc. etc.)
In most cases, Reddit presence is very important: Your customers are already discussing you on Reddit! You need your official voice there!
Start measuring your share of voice (rather than rankings and clicks). I’ve created a subreddit that is solely dedicated to AI visibility analytics: Please join!
Work on your site to make sure it gives all the answers and positions your brand effectively. I’ve written a lot about that before:
Get listed next to your competitors everywhere
The web and discoverability are going to change. There’s nothing to be done about that. Organic search will remain fundamental (AI agents search!) to LLM visibility, but there won’t be as many clicks, and many buying journeys will end with no clicks at all!
To remain findable, evolve!