Despite recent market turmoil, the AI revolution continues apace as new breakthroughs in models and architectures get applied across a growing number of industries.
While AI’s impact on advertising is widely debated, one area is moving so quickly—with implications so potentially far-reaching beyond its narrow format—that advertisers should start planning around it now: AI search.
A potential searchpocalpypse
Anecdotally, many of us rely on AI search and seek it out—even if we don’t know we’re doing it. While official numbers are spotty, independent studies suggest that over 11% of Google searches now feature AI-generated summaries. Newer AI answer engines like Perplexity—which tops 20 million queries daily for its paid enterprise product—as well as Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT search are also gaining ground, thanks in part to timely investments in brand advertising.
The consequences of this are not escaping notice. In carefully worded statements during Google’s most recentearnings call, its chief business officer touted …