AI search

AI search is when a search tool answers your question directly with a generated summary instead of just listing links — Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity, ChatGPT search. It changes the goal from ranking on a page to being part of the answer.

AI search is when a search experience answers your question directly with a generated summary — often citing a few sources — instead of handing back ten links to sort through yourself. Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT’s search mode are the mainstream examples. A large language model reads across sources and writes the answer for you.

This quietly rewrites the goal. For twenty years SEO meant ranking a page high enough to earn a click; in AI search, many questions get resolved on the results screen with no click at all. The prize shifts from being on the page to being in the answer — the source the summary is built from and points to.

Optimising for it is AEO (being quoted) and GEO (being described accurately). See the full shift in search is splitting into three.

Quick recall

What is AI search? Search that answers your question with a generated summary instead of just listing links.

What are examples? Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT search.

How does it change SEO? The goal moves from ranking on the page to being part of the answer itself.