AI has changed the SEO playbook: What’s next for marketers?

Two years ago, if you were in the market for a smartphone and had a set budget, the first thing you would do after consulting with your tech-savvy friends was Google it. For decades, searching for anything online has been almost synonymous with Google. The tech giant has dominated the search landscape, processing an estimated 8.5 billion searches daily. Brands built digital strategies around its algorithms, optimising for keywords and backlinks to rank higher. Until a new era ushered in.

Enter ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Gemini, Perplexity and more — AI-driven platforms that don’t just retrieve information but are slowly reducing users’ reliance on traditional search engines. A recent study found that 63% of websites receive traffic from AI-generated sources, with 98% coming from just three chatbots.

Now, users ask AI chatbots like ChatGPT questions like “What are the key differences between a Samsung Galaxy S23 and an iPhone 14 Pro?” or “What are the best times to visit Japan?”

Consumers are increasingly using AI for answers, avoiding Google entirely. A survey suggests that about half of Indian internet users are already using AI platforms, wherein 28% of those surveyed use ChatGPT, 9% use Perplexity, 6% use Co-Pilot directly or via Bing, and 3% use Gemini through Google and Llama. 

This shift poses the question: Is traditional SEO still relevant?

During GroupM’s recent unveiling of its TYNY report, Priti Murthy, President, GroupM Nexus emphasised that SEO is evolving into ‘GEO’ — Gen AI-driven Optimisation, a shift where AI platforms will dictate online visibility. 

Murthy told us, “Performance now hinges on relevance, personalisation, and intent. With Gen AI delivering real-time content, to ensure a competitive edge, marketers must create authentic, high-value content that aligns with AI-driven discovery and conversational search—because, in this new era, AI is the enabler in your search journey.”

Ashutosh Sharma, Head of SEO at Madison Media Loop notes that generic SEO strategies are becoming less effective, pushing brands to focus on hyper-relevant content.

According to him, “AI is transforming search by prioritising intent and context to deliver personalised answers that reference web pages rather than just ranking them.” 

With this, users look for information directly on the search results page without clicking on individual links, making it more challenging for SEO experts to drive organic traffic.

A shift towards search intent

Srikant Rajasekharuni, Director, Redmatter Integrated Marketing says that SEO is no longer a lone ranger, but now it’s a team player in a brand’s bigger digital game plan. He believes that the old model of outsourcing SEO to agencies that build backlinks and tweak metadata for rankings is no longer practical.

“Understanding your audience and not just their searches but their thoughts, needs, and behaviours is now a brand’s core responsibility. The brands that thrive will be the ones who take control, craft meaningful content, and foster real engagement.”

Rajasekharuni notes that smaller brands have the opportunity to compete by creating content that truly resonates with their audience.

To keep up with the changes in consumer behaviour, brands are rethinking their strategies. Sharma notes a shift toward semantic SEO, focusing on search intent rather than static keywords. “For example, instead of targeting a broad keyword like ‘cheap laptops,’ you could create intent-driven content such as: ‘Best Budget Laptops for Students (2025 Guide)’ (Informational Intent) or ‘Where to Buy Affordable Laptops Near Me?’ (Transactional Intent).”

Neha Bawa, Director of Brand Marketing at Techmagnate, adds that topic clusters, entity-based SEO, and knowledge graph optimisation are now essential components of a modern content strategy. “A robust SEO strategy in 2025 will have to go beyond keywords and encompass multimedia and multi-modal content and trust signals.”

Moreover, interactive experiences like personalised chatbots, recommendation engines, and AI-driven tools are keeping audiences engaged. Sharma offers an example noting that a travel website could use AI to suggest personalised itineraries based on user history, weather conditions and trending destinations, while a fitness brand might create customised workout plans based on past activity.

As AI-driven experiences shape how users interact with content, search engines are also evolving to prioritise relevance and engagement over traditional ranking factors. This shift has led to new rules for content visibility, where search is no longer just about keywords and backlinks but about delivering value through intent.

New rules of content ranking

Traditional SEO relied on backlinks and keyword density, but AI is rewriting the playbook. Search engines like Google have been focusing on differentiating AI-generated content from in-depth, human-authored work, with the ‘Helpful Content’ update being a significant step in that direction. 

Ashutosh Sharma notes that optimising AI-driven search results has been more effective with frameworks such as the Pillar-Cluster model for establishing topical authority, Entity-based SEO, Multi-Modal SEO, and Search Experience Optimisation (SXO).

Neha Bawa also comments that brands can focus on keyword strategy, structured data and on-page SEO, content optimisation, authority and credibility, enhancing user experience, addressing E-E-A-T factors (expertise, authority and trust), technical optimisation, and strategically leveraging YouTube. 

Moreover, Prashant Puri, CEO & Co-Founder of AdLift, highlights the importance of conversational and natural language optimisation. He mentions that keyword-to-intent mapping is now critical as AI prioritises understanding the why behind searches. 

“To thrive, brands must create content that answers as many questions as possible within their category while aligning with how users—and AI—seek information,” as per Puri. 

“Engagement metrics like time on page and repeat visits are becoming key ranking factors, emphasising the need for interactive, valuable content that fosters sustained interaction.” 

However, while AI-driven search prioritises relevance and engagement, it also introduces new challenges for brands. These shifts are making it harder for brands to predict and maintain visibility.

Challenges of AI-driven search

One of the biggest challenges brands face is declining website traffic due to AI-powered zero-click searches, making website rankings less predictable, and users no longer need to visit brand sites. Sharma explains, “To stay visible, brands must prioritise entity-based SEO, establish topical authority, and implement structured data markup. Optimising content across multiple formats—videos, images, and voice responses—is essential.” 

Neha Bawa of Techmagnate agrees, adding that the search landscape has grown increasingly complex. “The search landscape has expanded significantly to now include AI overviews, Featured Snippets, People Also Ask (PAA), News Searches, Vernacular queries, and Google Merchant listings, to name a few. Discussion forums are also being featured in results, creating a more crowded and complex environment,” she shares.

In fact, a new analysis finds that Google AI Overviews are more volatile than organic rankings. The report reveals that 60% of the time, pages ranking in Google’s top 10 also appear in AI Overviews, while 40% of the time, AI Overviews feature webpages that do not rank in the top 10 of organic search. 

However, these AI models have significantly reduced website traffic, which has led to a wave of lawsuits against AI companies, with publishers accusing them of using proprietary content without consent. Bawa believes this changing search landscape is a sign for brands to strategise and gain visibility on AI platforms. 

“The future of search is multi-platform, and to maintain visibility and dominate search results, brands must adopt a strategic and comprehensive approach to target the entire search landscape. Their content strategy needs to be more expansive and diversified.”

With AI shaping the future of content discovery, brands must adapt or risk losing visibility. This includes:

• Prioritising entity-based SEO and structured data to enhance discovery.

• Developing content strategies beyond traditional search, targeting AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

• Optimising for engagement metrics, not just rankings.

• Leveraging multi-modal content formats (video, voice, interactive tools) to cater to AI-driven search.

As experts aptly put it, search isn’t disappearing; it’s evolving. The future of SEO belongs to those who can connect, engage and provide real value by understanding and serving the audience better than anyone else.

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