It’s safe to say we’re way past wondering if AI is influencing the way people search. Think Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity, and ChatGPT. Your client’s nephew searches TikTok before even thinking of Chrome. 

He’s not alone, and we’ve got the data to prove it. A 2025 Statista report found that one in ten U.S. internet users already turns to generative AI as their first stop for online search. That was 13 million people in 2023, and it’s expected to grow to 90 million by 2027. 

It’s not a surprise to us marketers. When was the last time YOU tabbed away from ChatGPT to ask a search engine something? Same. 

We’re here to break it all down: what’s changing, why it matters, and what you need to do right now to stay visible.

Search Used to Be Linear. Not Anymore.

Remember when SEO was just about keywords, metadata, and a technically sound site? Same. But now, the “top of the funnel” often starts inside a chat box and ends with zero clicks. Your audience is asking questions, getting AI-powered answers, and sometimes not even seeing your beautifully optimized landing page.

Keyword-and-tech specs are still crucial. But AI is changing how your content gets surfaced.

• Search engines are pushing AI-generated answers to questions ahead of traditional results and paid ads.

Search engines—especially Google—are flooding the top of the page with AI-generated answers. A 2025 report from Authoritas discovered these “AI overviews” are appearing in 30% of searches and nearly 75% of problem-solving queries. Your potential buyer asks a question, and boom! An AI box delivers the answer. No scroll, no click, and almost no chance to gain some sweet brand recognition unless you’re in that box. 

• Users are asking more conversational, complex questions.

Thanks to voice-to-text and NLP interfaces, people are more comfortable asking long, layered questions (“What’s the best CRM for mid-sized B2B teams that already use HubSpot?” compared to yesteryear’s “best b2b CRM”). It’s basically a step back to when search engines first rolled onto the scene (“Where can I buy Phish tickets?”).

• Generative models are citing sources (sometimes) and influencing what gets visibility.

Models like Gemini, Perplexity, and even ChatGPT (via Bing or plug-ins) are starting to call the shots on who makes it into the AI spotlight. But how do you earn a spot? Structure, authority, and intent. These tools reward content that’s technically clean, semantically aligned, and genuinely helpful. Educational, research-driven, and high-E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) content rises to the top. Thin, brand-first fluff gets filtered out (yay!). 

How SEO Pros Are Navigating the AI Complexity

Let’s be real: AI didn’t toss the old SEO playbook. But it did scribble in the margins and rip out a few chapters. What’s left requires sharper thinking and a new set of tools.

So how are the best SEO teams stepping up? They’re using AI as an SEO accelerator (vroom vroom).

✅ Identifying semantic relationships between keywords.

Keyword matching is table stakes. Real SEO power is in knowing what your audience means. Semantic analysis helps AI understand the context and intent behind search queries, grouping terms like “customer onboarding software,” “user activation tools,” and “time-to-value metrics” into one clear use case. 

This makes it easier to build content that ranks for clusters of related queries, not just one term. It’s how you capture traffic and guide users toward fewer dead ends.

✅ Spotting new intent patterns before they trend.

Traditional SEO waits for data to show up in search volume reports. AI doesn’t. It can help uncover emerging queries and intent signals before they spike in volume, giving you a head start on content the rest of the market hasn’t even thought about yet. 

For example, if AI tools surface a growing search pattern around “AI tools for revenue teams,” you can create value-first content that stakes your claim before the competition catches on. Cool, right?

✅ Generating outlines, summaries, and ideas at scale.

AI can handle the heavy lifting so your team focuses on the big swings. It can spin up briefs, titles, and content calendars in minutes. Clear H1s and H2s, bullet lists, straight-to-the-point intros, and author bios that signal real expertise are crucial.

If you show it your content library, AI can also spot content gaps, help you repurpose what’s working, and move faster from idea to publication.

✅ Automating site audits and backend fixes.

Tedious but essential SEO tasks—crawling for broken links, janky redirects, and slow load times—are essential for performance and rankings. AI tools can flag issues fast, but they’re also helping SEOs get ahead by automating structured data implementation.

Want to show up in AI Overviews or snag a featured snippet? You’ll need clean markup. FAQ, how-to, article, and breadcrumb schema using JSON-LD are your new best friends.

What AI Still Fumbles (and Why Strategy Still Wins)

For all its speed and scale, AI isn’t a magic wand. It can supercharge your SEO, but only if you know when to hit the gas and when to take the wheel. 

AI can hallucinate facts, misalign with your brand voice, or churn out generic content. It’s great at summarizing, but not at storytelling. It mimics your tone, but doesn’t understand your POV. It knows what’s trending, but not what your ICP needs at the decision-making stage.

That’s why strategy still wins. Google knows it, too: they’re doubling down on E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust. In a sea of AI sludge, E-E-A-T is the credibility check that decides who floats to the top. It’s the difference between being “just another result” and the trusted voice AI pulls from.

What Actually Works for SEO in 2025?

So no, AI isn’t the enemy. But it’s not autopilot either. To actually win in this new era of search, you need a strategy that knows when to lean in and when to push back.

Here’s what you should consider doing differently in 2025:

🔍 Optimize for “Share of Model.”

SEO teams can boost Share of Model by publishing authoritative, well-structured content and building topical depth. We rely on clear headlines, structured data, schema markup, and plainspoken, fact-based language. 

Educational content (like frameworks, how-tos, and explainer pieces) often wins here. If the model sees your content as the most useful, you’ll be the brand it pulls into the spotlight. 

But there’s a path for commercial keywords to show up, too. Especially through product comparisons and competitive breakdowns that help buyers evaluate their options in the consideration phase.

🧠 Think in topics, not just keywords.

Keyword-stuffing has been long dead, and good riddance! In 2025, winning SEO is about building intent-driven content that mirrors how people naturally search. That means moving past robotic keyword repetition and leaning into thoughtful topic clusters, internal linking, and structured content that solves problems. 

Build around how users think, not just what they type. The payoff? Stronger engagement, better rankings, and a site that earns trust from readers.

✍️ Speak to people. Signal to search.

If it reads like a bot wrote it, no one’s sticking around. SEO content today needs to do more than check boxes. That means building pages that answer real questions with clarity and confidence. Think: frameworks, visuals, POVs, and practical advice tailored to decision-makers. 

A page on “B2B SaaS onboarding” shouldn’t just define the term. It should speak directly to the SaaS leader evaluating new tools. It should outline the onboarding journey, highlight friction points, and help readers understand what success looks like.

The more specific and helpful your content is, the more likely buyers are to fill out a demo form, click a CTA, or bring your brand into the consideration set.

Fuel for Thought 🚀

AI won’t kill SEO. But it will kill lazy SEO. If your strategy hasn’t changed since SGE launched (or worse, since ChatGPT launched) you’ve fallen way behind.

2025 is about building content that’s discoverable, trustworthy, and aligned with how real people (and machines) search. It’s not about more content. It’s about the right content, built for humans and optimized for discovery.