18/08/2026
🔍 37% of consumers now start their search with AI, not Google.
If you're only optimising for Google, you're already invisible to over a third of your audience.
These days, people are tired of scrolling through ads and lengthy articles just to find a straight answer. So they're going straight to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini etc instead.
That means the old rules of SEO aren't enough anymore. AI crawlers don't rank pages the way Google does. They summarise, synthesise, and cite. If your content isn't structured, clear, and quotable, you won't get picked up.
What this means for your business:
→ Clear, direct answers matter more than keyword density
→ Structured content (headings, FAQs, clear facts) gets cited more
→ Being mentioned in credible third-party content matters as much as your own site
→ "Ranking #1 on Google" is no longer the whole game
It's now become vital to optimise your site and conteng for AI search, alongside the regular SEO optimisation.
Source: Eight Oh He study, 2026 AI and Search Behavior Study