Is AI search a massive opportunity for just businesses?
We’re in the middle of a seismic shift in how people find the products they buy, the firms they hire and the services they pay for.
That shift coincides with the arrival of AI as the dominant search tool. But to be honest, it’s about more than AI. It’s about how big tech has decided to do business.
The Internet’s become less open.
What I mean by that: Whatever website you’re on is far less likely to want you to click over to a different website than it used to be. LinkedIn tries to keep you on LinkedIn, Reddit tries to keep you on Reddit, and ChatGPT tries to keep you in ChatGPT.
Maybe most important: Google tries to keep you on Google.
All the large platforms would rather answer your client’s question on their own website than send your client to your site. Result: Most websites have a lot less traffic now than last year.
To me, this sounds like bad news for open competition and healthy, non-monopolistic capitalism.
But – I’m starting to think it could be good news for which kinds of businesses are able to get discovered. Especially if those businesses are doing something genuinely different.
Like pursuing justice.
THEY DECIDE BEFORE THEY MEET YOU
In the next few minutes, I want to show you why AI and “zero-click” search change the way clients make decisions, why that might be an advantage for certain companies, and what you need to do to leverage it.
First, we need to understand how Internet searches used to work – and what has changed.
If you’re looking for something online, you probably go through two steps:
➡️ Get a list of possible solutions
➡️ Compare those solutions and pick one
In an old-school Google search, the first step happened on Google. You’d type “all-natural deodorant” into the search engine, and you’d get a list of websites.
The second step happened on company websites. You’d click a few of Google’s suggestions and take the second step – comparison – for yourself.
Now both steps happen right on Google.
Search for “all-natural deodorant” and you don’t just get a list of websites – you get Google’s AI summaries of a few deodorant brands, along with information to help you compare them.
Then the AI will say something like “tell me about your daily routine so I can help you find the best deodorant for you.”
This is a dramatic re-ordering of the buying process.
Users don’t search, visit your website, then choose. They search, then choose, then visit your website.
Decisions happen right there on the search page.
With an AI guiding the buyer instead of you.
A ROBOT INTRODUCED US
Your deodorant’s still going on a human armpit, so your marketing still needs to convince a human.
The new part is that you must convince a machine first.
AI provides the list. AI decides who’s worth putting on the list. And AI summarizes how the companies on the list are different so the user can decide which one’s for them.
Without a click.
This is a literal game changer. In the game of search marketing, we tried to “rank” for certain searches so our websites would land high on Google’s list. Higher rank meant more clicks.
In the game of zero-click marketing, we try to get AI to put us on the right lists – and to argue effectively on our behalf to the human audience.
In this game, as the head of MECLABS put it on a webinar the other week, “clarity trumps persuasion.”
Persuading visitors with pretty graphics, an emotional video or exotic language won’t work until those visitors get to your website. But if your website’s not clear enough for AI to confidently recommend it, then they simply never will.
The big shift as I see it:
➡️ Search in the AI era isn’t about your keywords. It’s about your stance.
Let me explain what I mean by that.
A PAIR OF QUESTIONS AND A PAIR OF BRIEFS
To recommend your business, AI needs your answer to two questions:
➡️ what lists do you belong on?
and
➡️ what makes you different from the others on that list?
Take an example: Men’s Y-fronts. (I know, I choose the best examples.)
If you need man-panties and for some reason you ask AI’s help, it starts by noticing what you DON’T want: No boxers. No thongs. No blue jeans.
AI’s only going to suggest things that belong on the “men’s Y-fronts” list. It needs things that are the same.
But that’s a long list, so your robot pal must now decide which ones are worth a mention to you. It does that by figuring out what sets the items on the list apart. It needs ways they are different.
Mine split the skivvies up by budget: I was offered a $26 pair of Jockeys and some Ron Dorffs that cost twice that. (One AI even offered me a $120 dollar pair of underpants. Good gracious.)
An old-school search might have returned dozens of options, with no information about how they’re different. Today’s search gave me just a few, and it put them on a spectrum.
It asked, “Do you want affordable smallclothes, or the pricey kind?”
It told me how to choose.
BE THE SAME. BE DIFFERENT.
Marketers have sophisticated names for answers to the questions above.
“What list are you on?” is your market category.
“What makes you different?” is your market differentiator.
In an old-school search, your market category was what got you on the Google list. It might pull up a dozen or a million options in the “Y-fronts” category, then list them in order of popularity or some other inscrutable mystery rule.
With AI search, the category still matters – but so does the differentiator.
My search got two or three suggestions. Jockey made the cut, but “me too” companies that are similar to Jockey didn’t warrant mention.
I’d never heard of Ron Dorff, but I know them now – not because they make Y-fronts, but because their Y-fronts are an alternative to Jockey’s Y-fronts.
Ron Dorff has a view. A stance.
They make what Jockey makes. But Jockey thinks I need to gird my loins affordably, while Ron Dorff thinks I should swaddle them in luxury.
Gemini, the AI model that powers Google’s AI mode, finds that distinction interesting enough that it told me to frame my choice around it.
It didn’t ask if I want Jockey or Ron Dorff; it asked if I want cheap or pricey.
Jockey and Ron Dorff just made it clear that those spots are the spots in which they stand.
TAKE YOUR STAND
Here’s how the game is changing, then:
Businesses used to tell machines what made us the same as others — then tell customers how we were different from others. Now, we have to tell machines how we’re the same AND different.
That means being crystal-clear about our differntiators in a way that, frankly, most companies just haven’t done.
If someone asks what makes your company special and your answer is “great service” or “high-quality work,” that’s not enough for an AI to choose you over 1000 other companies who say the same things. Gemini or Claude or ChatGPT would never ask a user “do you want good service, or bad service?” It’s not a decision factor.
You are not listworthy.
If you want to get mentioned like Ron Dorff got mentioned, you need to believe something other reasonable people in your industry do not believe.
You need an opinion.
“Underwear should cost as much as personal electronics,” is an opinion.
“Work should be good,” is not.
We’re almost done.
THAT’S YOUR OPINION, MAN
Most business owners are too scared to let their business take a stance.
They’ve learned - not wrongly - that staying out of trouble is a good way to avoid risk and protect the things they’ve built. They want to be for everyone.
If you’re for everyone, you’re really for the status quo.
A justice-seeking business isn’t. If you’re trying to fix the system or make your community better, you’ve already owned that something needs to change.
You’re counter-cultural. You’ve made choices other reasonable companies might not.
Those choices might or might not add up to your value proposition. But they do suggest a stance. You’re willing to own both your sameness and your differentness. You’ve got opinions.
Your next step is figuring out how they make you listworthy.
➡️ When I start new strategy work, there’s one question I always ask to help a company find its stance. Curious? DM me with the word “question.” I’ll send it to you.
