AI-Powered Search is Coming! Here’s What Web Users and Businesses Can Expect
The transition from hunting and gathering to farming and animal domestication marked a turning point in human history, enabling the rise of permanent settlements and the growth of complex civilizations.
Centuries later, the invention of the printing press revolutionized communication, making books widely available and sparking a surge in literacy, learning, and the exchange of ideas. This newfound access to knowledge expanded the human mind and set the stage for the Scientific Revolution.
Building on the intellectual momentum of the printing age, the Scientific Revolution introduced the scientific method and fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the natural world, laying the groundwork for future innovation.
This expansion of human knowledge and technical skills paved the way for the Industrial Revolution, which brought a dramatic shift from agrarian economies and manual labor to machine-powered manufacturing and urban development.
Then, at the end of the 20th century, technology took another leap forward with the rise of computers, the internet, smartphones, and digital communication. The digital revolution has reshaped nearly every aspect of daily life, and its influence continues to grow.
Today, we stand at the threshold of yet another transformative era: the age of AI automation. As artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics advance at a staggering pace, the way humans work, communicate and interact is being redefined once again. It’s a seismic shift and one that challenges us to adapt, evolve, and embrace the future with curiosity and resilience.
All this to say, we’ve reached the emergence of a new revolution powered by AI. As we try to adapt to the changes, challenges, and discoveries that artificial intelligence has begun to bring, so have big tech companies like Microsoft and Google, which lead the charge in AI development.
In fact, Google recently announced a slew of changes coming to its search engine at its annual Google I/O convention. But what exactly are those changes? Hint: it’s all about AI!
Let’s Break It Down
Of the announcements made by Google in May, there are a few that stand out as having the most potential impact on the ways their search engine will function. Here’s what you need to know:
- AI Overviews Expansion – You’ve likely already seen the AI Overviews that have been popping up at the top of some of your search engine results pages (SERPs). Because these summaries have led to a 10% increase in usage for queries where they appear, Google plans to expand its AI Overviews to over 200 countries and territories, supporting more than 40 languages.
- AI Mode Introduction – Google’s new “AI Mode” is being rolled out to online users across the United States. This unique search experience will enable users to engage in a conversational, chat-like interface for help with answering questions, gathering information, and finding products or services. The mode is powered by Google’s latest Gemini 2.5 model, enabling more accurate and engaging responses.
- Agentic Search Capabilities – In addition to AI Mode, Google unveiled “Agentic Search” for its search engine. Rather than a unique feature, agentic search will be a capability eventually implemented in Google’s search engine, allowing users to ask AI to perform tasks on their behalf. Examples of some of the tasks you’ll be able to ask Google to do include booking appointments, scheduling travel plans, ordering tickets, and more.
- Live Search (Project Astra) – Lastly, Google is refining the way users can search for information, making it multimodal and real-time. This includes allowing users to utilize voice inputs, bridging the gap between Google Lens and voice search. Users will be able to have conversations with Google or search by pointing their phones at objects, creating a more dynamic search experience.
What Does This All Mean?
All the recent AI announcements are an incredible boon to consumers using Google’s search engine. In the coming months, users can expect Google Search to become more personalized, offer answers to complex questions, and even handle simple tasks. It’s the ultimate user experience and an exciting change for those who primarily use Google’s search engine.
However, the implications of these changes become prickly for those of us in the digital marketing world or businesses seeking to utilize digital marketing. Here’s what it all means:
- AI answers will continue reducing traditional clicks: AI Overviews stop users from clicking on results by providing a direct answer to their query, as we’ve already seen massive evidence of. Soon, Google’s AI will be able to handle more complex queries and expand to a greater market, leading to the prevalence of “no-click” search results.
- Users will and ARE searching differently: Instead of keyword strings, users have begun using conversational AI to answer complex, multi-step questions. As a result, high-quality niche content has the potential to be seen more because AI is looking for deeper answers.
- Trust and authority are more paramount than ever: Because Google’s AI is under pressure to provide reliable answers, Google is doubling down on E-E-A-T. This means it will pull recommendations or scrape information from web pages that show greater experience, expertise, authority, and trust among users.
- New search behavior expectations: With the introduction of a more personalized search engine, it’s expected that users will engage with search in more interactive ways (voice, images, real-time context). As users become more comfortable with these modes, content not optimized for them will fall behind.
What Can You Do?
As a consumer, all you need to do is sit back, let Google AI come to you, and reap the benefits. It’s an admittedly innovative direction that Google is taking, one that values the ease and convenience offered by artificial intelligence.
For businesses wishing to leverage organic search for greater exposure and increased leads, there’s little for you to do, either. These changes are happening, and they are happening FAST. It’s just a matter of “buckling up” and enjoying the ride.
However, there are some things that digital marketing professionals, such as 309 Marketing Group, can do to ride the AI wave and ensure that our clients can still benefit from Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It all comes down to making a few adjustments to the ways we approach web design and content creation:
- Create Websites to be AI-Friendly: Enabling AI bots to navigate websites easily ensures that Google’s bots can quickly and easily find and utilize your website, recommending it to users.
- Correctly Organize Content: Once again, you not only want to make your website easy for users to use, but also for bots. In doing so, your web pages must have schema markup and a proper heading structure to best inform bots what they can find on a page.
- Target Long-Tail Keywords and Conversational Queries: As more people type longer, more complex questions into Google, we need to create content that caters to those precise queries. This means targeting more than just simple keywords, such as “attorneys” or “plumbers.”
- Diversify Content Created: In addition to making content richer and more meaningful, it must be available in more places than ever. Rather than just blogs and articles, content needs to be created for and placed on platforms such as Instagram, YouTube Shorts, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others.
- Make Sure SEO is Fully Optimized: Thankfully, this is something we already do for our websites! It’s a matter of ensuring webpages can load quickly, are easy to navigate, have plenty to engage and interact with, and are conversion-friendly.
The Future Ahead with 309 Marketing Group
Artificial intelligence isn’t just coming; it’s here, and it’s here to stay. As a result, it’s time for companies to adapt to an ever-evolving world powered by AI. Thankfully, 309 Marketing is already hard at work to ensure we can leverage and utilize AI to our advantage rather than letting it hinder us. If you’re interested to learn more about changes being made by Google, the progression of AI, and how we are using it for our own marketing processes, call 309 Marketing Group today at 309-213-9398. We can review your marketing strategy or discuss the construction or update of your business website.