The explosive growth of AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT has sparked a multi-billion dollar debate in the marketing world. Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) globally are now grappling with a critical question: must they completely overhaul their search strategies, or is AI search optimization merely an extension of traditional SEO? The stakes are enormous, with the global market for SEO and the emerging Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) services projected to swell to $171 billion by 2030, up from $81.4 billion last year.
Black Friday Reveals AI Search's Surging Potential
The recent Black Friday weekend offered a clear snapshot of AI search's rapid ascent. Data from marketing software firm Semrush revealed that 20 major retailers, from Best Buy to Etsy, averaged 183,000 daily visits referred by ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs). While this figure remains a fraction of traditional search traffic, it marks a staggering nearly eight-fold increase over the previous year's daily average. In 2023, such traffic was negligible, often ranging from zero to a few hundred visits per site. This trajectory confirms that AI search is poised to become a significant revenue driver, leaving companies to debate how best to prepare.
Anil Chakravarthy, President of Adobe's digital experience business, highlighted this shift last month, noting, "Every chief marketing officer today is thinking about how they’re showing up in ChatGPT." His comment came as Adobe announced a massive $1.9 billion deal to acquire Semrush, underscoring the strategic value placed on this new frontier.
The Great Divide: "Don't Touch That Dial" vs. "SEO is Dead"
The marketing community is split into opposing camps. On one side are skeptics like entrepreneur Benjamin Houy. He invested his own money to launch Lorelight, a tool designed to optimize brand presence in LLM results. However, after six months, he shut it down. The data, he found, didn't reveal new AI algorithm secrets but instead reinforced classic SEO principles: securing mentions in respected publications and creating expert-level content. "I just stopped believing in the core premise of the product," Houy admitted.
Conversely, a vocal school of thought, echoed in many business headlines, proclaims "SEO is dead" or at least vastly diminished. This belief has fueled a swarm of startups selling Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) or Generative Engine Optimization, claiming it requires entirely new tactics. Startups like Evertune and Profound, two of the largest in this space, raised $15 million and $35 million respectively in August 2024.
Brian Stempeck, Co-founder of Evertune, sees AI search's growth as a "one-way street" over the next five years. He points to a generational shift, citing a recent informal poll at the University of Virginia where no students claimed Google as their primary search platform, preferring AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or even TikTok.
Convergence, Content, and the Quality Conundrum
As the dust settles, a third, more nuanced view is gaining traction: a merger of disciplines. James Cadwallader, CEO of Profound, suggests the initial idea of AI optimization replacing SEO has evolved. He predicts the two will merge as both search types persist, with SEO firms adding AI services and vice-versa.
A key strategy emerging for AI search is the sheer volume of quality information. Cadwallader states that ensuring LLMs have ample material to ingest—like publishing more news releases—is crucial. "If you create lots of content, the models will suck it in," he said. Research from Profound adds that recency is paramount; material published or updated within the previous 13 weeks is 50% more likely to appear in chatbot responses.
However, this push for volume worries some marketers, resembling the old practice of "content farming." Jennifer Vianello, CMO at Cars Commerce, cautions against "cheap or easy" approaches that don't add user value. She notes that tweaks like bullet points and summaries, which help LLMs, are often just good SEO practice.
Success stories highlight depth and detail. Expedia Group's CMO, Jochen Koedijk, found that extremely detailed, internally-produced descriptions of hotel amenities (like complimentary parking or streaming services) boosted their prominence in AI chat responses.
Andrew Warden, CMO of Semrush, identifies a major distinction: AI search places greater emphasis on user-generated content from forums like Reddit, Quora, and YouTube comments. The winning strategy, he argues, is for brands to return to their core value proposition and ensure it's discussed authentically in these spaces.
Ultimately, as Tom Critchlow of Raptive suggests, the current AEO "gold rush" may mirror SEO's early days. Sustainable success will likely come from brand building rather than short-term tricks. Koedijk of Expedia advises marketers to focus on experimentation and be wary of definitive predictions. "If anybody tells you they know how that will be in two years, I don’t believe them," he concluded.
