The AI Economy: How AI Is Disrupting SEO and Search

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IN THIS ISSUE: Dive into the changing world of search to better understand how artificial intelligence is disrupting where websites get their traffic from. Google’s dominance isn’t at risk…yet. But apps like Perplexity and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are a threat at its doorstep. BrightEdge CEO Jim Yu joins “The AI Economy” to share his observations and what marketers must do to adapt to this so-called “year of inevitability.”

The Prompt

Ever since Microsoft announced that Bing would be powered by OpenAI in 2023, there has been growing concern about how artificial intelligence will disrupt search engine optimization (SEO). Marketers have invested heavily in getting their organization’s website into the famed Ten Blue Links for years. However, generative AI is forcing them to rethink their content strategy.

This week, a new report from Adobe highlights AI’s impact on search. The company discovered that between July 2024 and February 2025, Gen AI sources generated a 1,200 percent spike in traffic to U.S. retail sites. That’s the same percentage with personal banking. But, when it came to travel, those sources led to a 1,700 percent increase in referrals. Those surveyed indicated they turned to Gen AI for help with general research, recommendations, finding deals, getting inspiration, and more. The one area where the technology wasn’t as strong as traditional online marketing was converting consumers to buyers.

The findings reminded me of a conversation I had with Jim Yu, the chief executive of enterprise SEO firm BrightEdge, in which he believed what happened in 2023 and 2024 was a “searchquake”—a phenomenon where AI-powered search is “shaking up everyone’s SEO and content strategy. This was because of the momentous shift in the space thanks to Google’s Search Generative Experience and AI Overviews, Perplexity gaining traction, and OpenAI adding search to ChatGPT.

“The report findings are in line with what we’re seeing in terms of broader trends on the BrightEdge platform,” he told me over email this week. “Overall, there is a substantial increase in traffic to retail websites originating from generative AI. I expect that to continue and that we’ll see more consumers get comfortable using generative AI for online shopping.”

Yu encouraged companies to recognize this moment as an opportunity to “refine how they engage with AI-driven audiences,” meaning they would be wise to optimize for conversational SEO, structured data, and personalization. “In this new world, brands that stay proactive and adapt their strategies will be in the best spot to turn AI-driven traffic into real customer engagement.”

The Ripple Effect of the Searchquake

But what about the “searchquake?” It’s still happening, but he offered new insight, calling 2025 the year of inevitability. It’s the year when “everyone is going to be using AI for search and discovery,” Yu explained. “I see new AI-native engines like DeepSeek and intelligent agents like OpenAI’s Operator rising up. At the same time, I see Google doubling down on the presence of AI Overviews and aggressively fighting for their position in this new arms race. There’s no doubt that competition is fierce and the stakes are high.”

Dealing With AI Agents and Search

He also shared thoughts about how agents will influence the future of online marketing. One benefit Yu sees is improved productivity. Chatbots can provide organizations with the resources to tackle tasks that don’t require human involvement. Agents can also help optimize how brands appear within the AI experience. “Agents are going to use two sources of data: LLMs, which are trained on data collected to the point of training, and real-time data sources from the traditional search index,” he remarked. “For your brand to ensure it’s showing up the right way, you need to make sure it’s part of the conversation, which means meaningful representation in both sources of data. That doesn’t just happen by owning certain keywords anymore; it’s about understanding what topics and related topics your brand has a right to win in, and areas you are experts on and have authority over.”

“Net-net,” Yu opined, “AIO—meaning AI Optimization—is the new SEO.”

AI agents have fundamentally shifted how people interact with the digital world. Companies must understand how these bots “think,” how to cater content to their needs, and how they process information. Nevertheless, even with the proliferation of agents, Yu doesn’t believe it sounds like the death knell for SEO. Instead, he thinks it’s a sign the practice needs to evolve and produce new optimization methods.

Google Isn’t Going Anywhere

The search landscape has drastically transformed within the past year thanks to AI. Adobe’s report underscores the belief that companies must readjust their strategies to avoid being left behind. However, panic at this stage isn’t necessary. Yu pointed out that Google isn’t going anywhere since it remains a leader with more than 92 percent of the search market share and is doubling its AI investments. Still, there has been a noticeable shift with Google “prioritizing expert and technical content like never before. In November 2024, B2B tech saw a 32 percent jump in AIO presence, with security (+55 percent), data (+40 percent), and DevOps (+42 percent) leading the way. Healthcare content also got a 15 percent boost thanks to trusted sources like medical clinics and research institutions.”

He said that with the surge of traffic that AI sources like OpenAI’s search engine and Perplexity deliver, it shouldn’t be surprising to see people lean more into the AI-powered search experience. Lastly, he cast a spotlight on DeepSeek, saying this rapidly growing chatbot that launched in January is already delivering referral traffic on par with OpenAI’s SearchGPT: “What makes it different is that DeepSeek takes a ‘Think First’ approach,’ deciding how to find the best answer before searching.”

Ultimately, Yu remarked that brands aren’t surprised by this “seismic shift” in search. On the other hand, they’re wringing their hands, trying to find out how they’re showing up online. This is a blind spot, he told me. To counter this, BrightEdge’s CEO suggests marketers “need to better understand how to harness the power of the [large language model’ and use it to their advantage.”

The model is now the gateway to the internet, not Google.

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This Week’s AI News

💰 Funding and Investments

☁️ Enterprise AI Solutions

Inside Zoom’s AI evolution: From basic meeting tools to agentic productivity platform powered by LLMs and SLMs (VentureBeat)
Salesforce bets big on Agentblazers: Training one million builders for the AI era (My Two Cents)
Intercom expands Fin agent with multimodal AI, adding voice, image support, and third-party integrations (My Two Cents)

⚙️ Hardware, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems

Hail Waymo: Inside the company leading the robotaxi revolution (Fast Company)
GM and Nvidia collaborate on AI for self-driving cars and vehicle manufacturing (VentureBeat)
Nvidia says “the age of generalist robotics is here” (The Verge)
Nvidia’s Cosmos-Transfer1 makes robot training freakishly realistic—and that changes everything (VentureBeat)
Nvidia launches Blackwell Ultra, Dynamo, outlines roadmap through 2027 (Constellation Research)
How AI is changing the way the world builds computers (The New York Times)
ChatGPT can help write an essay. Scientists want it to start folding laundry (NPR)

🔬 Science and Breakthroughs

As AI nurses reshape hospital care, human nurses are pushing back (Associated Press)
Aardvark is an AI weather prediction system that claims to use less computing power and is faster than current systems (The Guardian)
Digital therapists get stressed too, study finds (The New York Times)
Y Combinator-backed ReactWise is applying AI to speed up drug manufacturing (TechCrunch)
Palmetto wants software developers to electrify America using its AI building models (TechCrunch)

💼 Business, Marketing, Media, and Consumer Applications

Jensen Huang: Nvidia is “an AI factory company now” (PCMag)
Nvidia acquires synthetic data startup Gretel to bolster AI training data from customers and developers (Wired)
Nvidia’s cute “Digits” AI desktop is coming this summer with a new name and a big brother (The Verge)
Elon Musk’s xAI acquires generative AI video startup Hotshot (TechCrunch)
OpenAI’s “agents” pose risk to DoorDash, other consumer apps (The Information)
Nvidia, xAI join $30 billion AI investment consortium backed by Microsoft (Silicon Angle)

⚖️ Legal, Regulatory, and Ethical Issues

💥 Disruption, Misinformation, and Risks

FTC: AI scammers on Amazon duped investors out of millions with ‘passive income’ scheme (CNBC)
The unbelievable scale of AI’s pirated-books problem (The Atlantic)
AI slop is a brute force attack on the algorithms that control reality (404 Media)
Study finds AI-generated meme captions funnier than human ones on average (Ars Technica)
Academics accuse AI startups like Sakana, Ontology, and Autoscience, of co-opting peer review for publicity (TechCrunch)

🔎 Opinions, Analysis, and Editorials

Book Excerpt: An AI startup couldn’t beat Microsoft. So it joined them (Bloomberg)
Majority of AI researchers say tech industry is pouring billions into a dead end (Futurism)
AI agents aren’t just assistants: How they’re changing the future of work today (ZDNET)
Free and open access in the age of generative AI (Citation Needed)
CoreWave is a time bomb (Where’s Your Ed At?)

🎧 Podcasts

Yann LeCun: Why can’t AI make its own discoveries (Big Technology Podcast)
AI’s energy crisis and the future of education with Dr. Chris Mattmann (The AI Download)
Why every nation needs its own AI strategy, feat. Jensen Huang and Arthur Mensch (A16z)

End Output

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