How Does AI Search Work? And Why Your Business Needs to Adapt

When you want quick answers online, you probably turn to Google. It’s fast, familiar, and delivers pages of search results in seconds.

But the way people search is changing, fast!

AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot are now answering questions without sending people to your website at all.

For business owners and marketers, this shift raises an important question:Is your business visible in AI-driven search results?

Google Search: Still the Leader in Website Links

Google remains the most powerful tool for indexing and ranking websites.

When someone searches, Google scans billions of web pages and shows the most relevant results, what we call the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Google has recently started rolling out AI-generated summaries (like Google’s Search Generative Experience, SGE), but its foundation is still based on web indexing.

If you want traffic to your website, Google still matters.

AI Search: Direct Answers Without the Click

AI Search tools work differently. They use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand your question, interpret the meaning behind it, and generate a direct answer—without showing you a list of websites.

AI tools don’t crawl and index the web like Google.Instead, they rely on:

• Trained datasets

• Limited live web access (for some tools)

• Public-facing online content from businesses like yours

AI looks for clear, structured, and authoritative content to feed into its answers. If your business doesn’t present that online, AI may choose to reference your competitors instead.

Does AI Pull Data from All Marketing Platforms?

Not directly.

AI tools don’t log into your Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or email campaigns. But they do reference public-facing content across:

• Your website

• Google Business Profile

• Social media pages (if public)

• Blog articles

• Online directories

• Public customer reviews

  
  

This is why consistent, optimised messaging across all your digital platforms matters. Your brand signals from your website to your Google Profile to your LinkedIn page all influence how AI tools understand and represent your business.

Why This Matters for Your Business

Here’s the risk: Even if you rank well on Google today, AI tools might skip over you entirely when generating answers unless your content is structured and optimised for AI search parsing.

You could be losing visibility at the exact moment customers are making decisions.

What is AEO? (Answer Engine Optimisation)

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) is the process of making your website and digital content easily discoverable and usable by AI tools.

This includes:

• Clear headings and structured content

• FAQ and Q&A sections

• Schema markup

• Consistent messaging across your website, Google Profile, and social channels

• Content that matches how people naturally ask questions

What Should You Do Next?

If your website and digital marketing platforms were built with only traditional SEO in mind, you’re already falling behind in the new AI search landscape.

Want to know how AI currently sees your business?

We run an AEO/SEO Audit, which includes:

• A review of your website structure and content

• An analysis of your Google Business Profile and key digital platforms

• Practical recommendations to help your business appear in both Google Search and AI-generated answers

Contact us today to find out how you can improve your search visibility in this changing landscape.

See what service level might suit you.