The Rise of Search + Discovery: How AI is reshaping the customer journey | The AI Journal
The Rise of Search + Discovery: How AI is reshaping the customer journey | The AI Journal
摘要: For years, search engines sat at the centre of how consumers discovered brands online.
Previously, success largely came down to page position or bein
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For years, search engines sat at the centre of how consumers discovered brands online.
Previously, success largely came down to page position or being the best answer in Google. Brands that understood what their audiences were searching for, created genuinely useful content and built visibility in search had the best opportunity to capture attention.
However, the way people discover brands is evolving.
Consumers are no longer relying on traditional search engines alone or following neat marketing funnels. They are finding answers, products and recommendations through AI tools, which draw on information and data from social platforms, online communities, reviews, publishers or video content.
The customer journey is becoming less predictable and more fragmented, with decisions shaped across multiple touchpoints, often before someone even visits a brand’s website.
This means businesses now need to think beyond rankings and also focus on visibility, credibility and discoverability across a wider digital ecosystem if they want to be featured prominently in AI search engines and summaries.
Moving beyond traditional search
The biggest shift I’m seeing is behavioural. People are becoming more and more comfortable outsourcing their discovery to AI – and trusting it to work.
While many brands are still debating what the future of search might look like, their customers are already testing it. They are asking AI tools for recommendations, using them to research products and services, and allowing them to influence the decisions they make.
Some sectors are already feeling the impact in their site traffic. The extent of this shift still depends heavily on the category, how a website is set up and whether a brand has invested in SEO and search strategy over the years.
It’s still early, and the impact will not be the same for every business. But the direction of travel is clear: Discovery is no longer confined to search engines, and brands need to understand where and h