AI Search: A Goldmine for Fast Movers, A Major Loss for Late Adopters
Alistair Hague
Alistair leads Organic & AI SEO at Open Partners, with 27 years of web development and search optimisation experience.
For the first time in 15 years, Google’s search dominance fell below 90% in late 2024, driven by AI-powered search engines and LLMs.
By 2027, voice and conversational search will power 65% of queries. By 2028, organic search traffic is predicted to drop by 50% or more.
AI is reshaping how consumers find and engage with brands – those who fail to adapt will see declines in visibility and revenue. Here’s why taking action now is critical, and how Open Partners can help you stay ahead.
The need for action: This affects everyone – there’s no avoiding it
Traditional SEO strategies are failing; AI-driven strategies are leading
ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Google’s evolving AI solutions have significantly changed the search game across the board. Traditional approaches to SEO are quickly losing momentum and will eventually die out. Evidence of this includes:
Keyword-based SEO is no longer fulfilling search intent
AI delivers hyper-personalised, contextually rich responses that consider intent, location, and even emotional undertones to interpret and deliver the most relevant results to users. Traditional, keyword-based searches cannot fulfil search intent to this level, and users are looking elsewhere as a result.
Organic clicks/site visits are plummeting
AI answers a significant portion of informational queries directly within search results, reducing the need for users to click through to external sites.
Predictive content and semantic SEO is leading
Those employing AI-driven tactics like predictive analytics (accurately forecasting consumer interests and behaviours) and semantic SEO (structuring content around user intent and conversational language rather than keyword density) are already seeing benefits, and will be the ones to thrive in this new search environment.
No industry – and no industry leader – is safe
Regardless of vertical, or where a given business is currently performing online, everyone will need to overhaul their digital strategies, accounting for the above, to remain visible and competitive.
Industries already being significantly affected include retail, e-commerce, finance, legal, travel, and hospitality. However, this is an inevitability for every online business as the entire search landscape changes
Move now or miss out: Fast actors will reap rewards; slow adopters will risk it all
Early adoption = a significant growth opportunity
Is this the golden growth opportunity you’ve been looking for? Adopters of AI in their SEO and wider marketing are already reporting significant benefits, such as enhanced visibility, improved user engagement, higher conversion rates, and competitive advantages.
We are still in the early stages of this shift, and there is a significant opportunity to surpass competitors. Ultimately, this is an arms race, and today is as near to day dot as you’re ever going to be.
Inaction = a real threat to revenue, brand, and market position
Can your business afford to lose 50% of its organic traffic, tank its brand awareness, lose out to competitors, and suffer losses to market share and revenue? In just a few years, this will be the reality of slow adopters. This requires immediate, strategic action across all digital touchpoints.
Can you risk reputational damage too? Consumer use of AI has driven ethical considerations surrounding accuracy and reliability. Brands that proactively demonstrate their commitment to ethical AI practices experience higher consumer trust and loyalty, while those that ignore these principles risk reputational damage.
Our clients are already ahead (and you can be too)
What if we told you that we could:
✅ Seamlessly integrate your business into our agency
✅ Mitigate the burden and risk of overhauling your entire SEO strategy
✅ Fully future-proof your online performance to protect your brand and revenue streams
✅ Guarantee a return on your investment
Sounds too good to be true, right? Well it’s not. We’re already delivering this for our clients through our AIDE solution.
Navigating this challenge at speed and scale
This challenge is relevant to every business relying on online search to not only grow, but maintain the success they’re seeing now.
Given the speed at which organic traffic is declining, as well as how quickly AI is gaining share of search, the best way to protect your brand is to train AI algorithms as quickly as possible.
As experts in training the algorithm, we created AIDE: AI Discoverability and Engagement to do just that for our clients.
AIDE is Open Partners’ proprietary, next-generation framework built to dominate AI-powered search – far beyond what traditional SEO or generic AI playbooks offer.
Unlike anything else on the market, AIDE is engineered to be AI-first, focused on real business impact, and constantly evolving – so you don’t just keep up, you take the lead.
To discuss the challenges you’re facing, or to learn more about AIDE, get in touch below.
