A number of the important questions which can be high of thoughts for each SEOs and CMOs as we head right into a multi-search world are: The place is search going to develop? Is ChatGPT a menace or a possibility? Is optimizing for big language fashions (LLMs) the identical as optimizing for engines like google?
On this two-part interview sequence, I attempt to reply these questions to supply some clear path and focus to assist navigate appreciable change.
What you’ll study:
- Ecosystem Evolution: Whereas it’s nonetheless a Google-first world, study the place native AI search platforms are rising and what this implies.
- Alternative vs. Menace: Why AI platforms create unprecedented model visibility alternatives whereas demanding new return on funding (ROI) pondering.
- LLM Optimization Technique: Why website positioning has turn out to be extra very important than ever, whatever the AI and Search platform, and the place particular nuances to optimize for lie.
- CMO Priorities: Why authority and belief indicators matter greater than ever in AI-driven search.
- Organizational Alignment: Why CMOs must combine advertising, PR, and technical groups for cohesive AI-first search methods.
The place Do You Suppose The Present Search Ecosystem Would possibly Develop In The Subsequent 6 Months?
To reply the primary query, I believe we’re witnessing one thing actually fascinating proper now. The search panorama is present process a basic transformation that may speed up considerably over the subsequent six months.
Whereas Google nonetheless dominates with about 90% market share, AI-powered search platforms are experiencing explosive progress that’s unattainable to disregard.
Let me put this in perspective. ChatGPT is displaying 21% month-over-month progress and is on observe to hit 700 million weekly lively customers.
Claude and Perplexity are posting related numbers at 21% and 19% progress, respectively. However here’s what has caught my consideration: Grok has seen over 1,000% month-over-month progress. Supply BrightEdge Generative Parser and DataCube evaluation, July 2025.
Positive, it’s ranging from a tiny base, however that trajectory makes it the darkish horse to observe. In the meantime, DeepSeek continues its gradual decline following its January surge, which highlights the volatility on this rising market. I’ll share extra on that later.
In A Google First World, Consumer Habits Is Additionally Evolving On A number of AI Platforms
What is especially fascinating is how person habits is evolving. Individuals are not simply switching from Google to AI search — they’re beginning to combine and match platforms based mostly on their particular wants. I’m seeing customers flip to:
- ChatGPT for deep analysis.
- Perplexity for fast details.
- Claude, after they want dependable data.
- Google when they need complete breadth.
The CMO AI And website positioning Mindset Shift
From a advertising perspective, this creates a large change in pondering. website positioning is not only about Google anymore – although that’s nonetheless the place many of the focus must be.
Entrepreneurs might want to contemplate optimizing for a number of AI engines, every with its personal distinct knowledge ingestion pipelines. For ChatGPT and Claude, you want clear, structured, cited content material that AI fashions can safely reuse. For Perplexity, timeliness, credibility, and brevity matter greater than conventional key phrase density.
It’s now not about optimizing only for clicks; it’s about optimizing for affect and citations and ensuring you seem within the correct context on the proper second inside all these distinct sorts of AI experiences.
The Search Bot To AI Consumer Agent Revolution
ChatGPT and its ChatGPT-Consumer agent are main the cost.
In July, BrightEdge’s evaluation revealed that ChatGPT’s Consumer Agent real-time web page requests almost doubled its exercise. In different phrases, it exhibits that customers counting on real-time net searches to reply questions virtually doubled inside only one month.
For instance, suppose you wish to examine “Apple Watch vs. Fitbit” from present opinions. In that case, the ChatGPT person agent is appearing as your looking assistant and working in your behalf, which is basically totally different from conventional engines like google and crawlers.
Picture from BrightEdge, August 2025In abstract, I imagine the subsequent six months will set up what I time period a “multi-AI search world.” Customers will turn out to be more and more snug switching between platforms fluidly based mostly on what they want in that second. The chance right here is very large for early adopters who determine cross-platform optimization.
Is The Rise Of AI Platforms Like ChatGPT An Alternative Or A Menace That CMOs Want To Be Conscious Of?
It’s all alternative.
Every AI platform is carving out its personal distinct identification. Google is doubling down on AI Overviews and AI Mode. ChatGPT is making this fascinating transition from conversational Q&A into full net search integration.
Perplexity is cementing itself because the premier “reply engine” with its citation-first, mobile-focused method, and they’re planning deeper integrations with information suppliers and real-time knowledge.
Claude is increasing past dialog into contextual search with superior fact-checking capabilities, whereas Microsoft’s Bing Copilot is positioning itself as this search-plus-productivity hybrid that seamlessly blends doc era with net search.
The rise of AI platforms represents each a transformative alternative and a strategic problem that CMOs should navigate with sophistication and strategic foresight.
Be taught Extra: How Enterprise Search And AI Intelligence Reveal Market Pulse
CMOs And The Shift From Rating To Referencing And Citations
And that brings me to an enormous mindset shift: We’re transferring from “rating” to “referencing.” AI summaries don’t simply show the highest 10 hyperlinks; they reference and attribute websites inside the reply itself.
Being cited inside an AI abstract could be extra impactful than simply rating excessive in conventional blue hyperlinks. So, CMOs want to start out monitoring not simply the place they rank, however the place and the way their content material will get referenced and cited by AI all over the place.
Technical Infrastructure Necessities And CMOs Leaning Into website positioning Groups
On the technical aspect, structured knowledge and clear data structure are now not nice-to-haves – they’re foundational. AI depends on this construction to floor correct data, so schema.org markup, clear technical website positioning, and machine-readable content material codecs are important.
Picture from BrightEdge, August 2025Manufacturers, The CMO, And The Authority And Belief Premium
Right here is one thing that’s changing into important: Authority and model belief matter greater than ever. AI tends to drag from websites it considers authoritative, reliable, and regularly cited. This places a premium on long-term brand-building, thought management, and popularity administration throughout all digital channels.
You have to concentrate on these E-E-A-T indicators (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) for each people and AI algorithms.
The CMOs’ website positioning And AI Aggressive Benefit
The CMOs who’re proactively adapting to those shifts – rethinking measurement, technical website positioning, model belief, and cross-team integration – are those positioning their enterprises for continued visibility and affect.
The transfer to AI-driven search is speedy, however savvy enterprise entrepreneurs are seeing this as a possibility to deepen model engagement and turn out to be a trusted supply for each human customers and AI engines.
It’s difficult, however the potential upside for manufacturers that get this proper is gigantic.
It’s a complete new mind-set about ROI.
Be taught Extra: How AI Search Ought to Be Shaping Your CEO’s & CMO’s Technique
Do You Suppose Optimizing For LLMs Is The Similar As Search Engines, As Google Suggests?
Following Google Search Central Stay in Thailand, and Gary’s recommendation that SEOs don’t must optimize for GEO, I believe that Gary’s completely proper, and placing any acronym debates behind us, foundational website positioning stays the identical, notably with Google search.
website positioning has by no means been extra very important, and AI is accelerating the necessity for specialists on this space. Your web site nonetheless must be quick, mobile-friendly, and technically sound. Search engines like google and yahoo and AI programs alike must crawl and index your content material effectively. Technical optimizations like correct URL buildings, XML sitemaps, clear code, and quick loading instances are nonetheless paying dividends.
The CMO, website positioning, And LLM Optimization Fundamentals
Now, once we discuss optimizing for all LLMs, there’s a similarity within the actuality that success nonetheless lies in core website positioning – primarily technical website positioning – and content material fundamentals.
Sturdy inner linking helps AI crawlers perceive how your pages join. Be sure that all pages are simply crawlable. Reply associated questions all through your content material utilizing clear headings, schema markup, and FAQ sections, and determine what individuals are attempting to perform to provide them the reply and be the cited supply in AI outcomes.
LLM Platform-Particular Differentiation
Nonetheless, as extra manufacturers are being found and interpreted throughout a number of AI platforms, additionally it is very important to know that every has its personal interface, logic, and method of shaping model perceptions.
Every platform has developed distinct strengths: ChatGPT Search gives a complete narrative context. Perplexity shines with visible integration and associated content material. Google AI Overview excels at structured, hierarchical data.
Here’s a nuanced instance. When customers ask comparability questions like “what’s the perfect?,” ChatGPT and Google’s approaches are related. However when customers ask action-oriented questions like “how do I?,” they half methods dramatically. ChatGPT acts like a trusted coach for decision-making, whereas Google AI stays the analysis assistant.
Picture from BrightEdge, August 2025Belief Sign Variations
Completely different platforms additionally present distinct belief sign patterns. Google AI Overviews tends to quote evaluate websites and neighborhood sources like Reddit, asking “what does the neighborhood assume?”.
ChatGPT seems to favor retail sources extra regularly, asking, “the place can you purchase it?”. This means these platforms are creating totally different approaches to belief and authority validation.
Three-Part AI Optimization Framework For The CMO And Advertising and marketing Groups
Here’s a framework for organizations to observe.
- Begin by monitoring your AI and model presence throughout a number of AI engines. Monitor how your visibility evolves over time by citations and mentions throughout AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and past.
- Subsequent, concentrate on understanding variations in model mentions throughout key prompts. Shortly determine which prompts from ChatGPT, AI Overviews, and different AI engines like google generate model mentions so you may optimize your content material effectively.
- Lastly, dive deeper into particular prompts to know why AI programs advocate manufacturers. Using sentiment evaluation gives exact insights into which model attributes every AI engine favors.
Be taught Extra: The Triple-P Framework: AI & Search Model Presence, Notion & Efficiency
The CMO: AI, Search, And Cross-Crew Integration Pondering
One factor I’m seeing work nicely is tighter integration throughout advertising and communications groups. Paid and natural methods should align greater than ever as a result of advertisements and natural AI overviews usually get introduced collectively – your messaging, branding, and focused intent have to be solely constant.
Plus, your PR and content material groups want higher coordination as a result of off-site mentions in media, opinions, and authoritative websites instantly affect who will get cited in AI summaries.
Conclusion: Embracing The Multi-AI Search Transformation
The CMOs who’re proactively adapting to the shifts are positioning their organizations for sustained aggressive benefit on this evolving panorama.
Huge Image, to place this all in perspective.
The three Huge Questions From CMOs On AI And Search
- AI would kill Google: No, it has turbocharged it.
- website positioning is useless: No, it’s truly extra vital than ever. AI is reshaping search, which implies we have to perceive what this transformation entails. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) builds upon core website positioning foundations and requires extra built-in, higher-quality technical approaches.
- All the pieces adjustments? The extra issues change, the extra they keep the identical.
In Half 2 of this sequence, subjects coated will embody the way forward for conventional SERP search and the way agentic website positioning may change the search funnel. Find out how these adjustments impression the position of website positioning and all groups that fall underneath the CMO remit.
Extra Assets:
Featured Picture: jd8/Shutterstock
