The New Search Wars: AI Browsers Challenge Google’s Dominance

The threat isn’t coming from a faster browser; it’s coming from a fundamental shift in how users behave. We’re not seeing a repeat of the Chrome vs. Firefox wars. Instead, challengers have entered the arena that are competing on user intent instead of browser speed. Search and discovery have flipped on their heads, moving from “searching and clicking” to “asking and doing.”

The New Contenders: Agents Over Search Bars

Google faces its challenge from browsers designed to act on information rather than merely index it. In other words, these “agentic” tools change the user experience from information retrieval to task delegation.

• OpenAI’s Atlas: Launched in October 2025, this tool positions itself as a “super assistant” instead of a traditional browser. Its “Agent Mode” goes beyond queries to full workflows: comparing flights, opening pages, and compiling options into a shortlist to avoid the dreaded tab juggling. 
• Perplexity’s Comet: Comet is positioning itself to move users “From Answers to Action”. It’s built to delegate high-intent tasks—like “buy a high-quality office chair” or “book a meeting based on this email”. It already has 15 million monthly active users. 
• Arc: While Atlas and Comet fight for the consumer, Arc seems to be focused on the productivity power user. Its AI features focus on synthesis, like summarizing tabs and automating research workflows to eliminate annoying manual tedium.

While these challengers may initially treat Google’s search index as a backend utility, strategic moves—such as OpenAI’s development of an AI search engine, the launch of its own browser, and plans for integrated ads—indicate that these tools are fundamentally competing to become the user’s primary destination.

The B2B Cascade is Faster Than You Think

Here’s a critical wake-up call for US marketers: far from a consumer trend waiting to trickle down, this is a B2B-led reality.

Forrester reports that B2B buyers are adopting AI-powered search at three times the rate of consumers. In the US specifically, the acceleration is even more dramatic: 48% of US buyers now say they use GenAI for vendor discovery, compared to just 14% in other regions. Furthermore, 90% of organizations report using generative AI in some aspect of their purchasing process.

Navigating the “Rainy Day” of Search with David Fox

At 6sense Breakthrough, we had one of those rare conversations that stops you in your tracks. In a sea of opinions about AI search, David Fox, Bloomerang’s Search & AI Optimization Manager, stood out immediately. It’s not often we meet someone who can keep pace with how fast this space is moving — and how dramatically it’s reshaping B2B discovery.

His perspective aligned with what we’re seeing across our client base: disruption isn’t something to fear — it’s leverage for teams willing to adapt faster than their competitors.

Fox argues that while this shift may feel destabilizing for incumbents, it creates a once-in-a-decade opportunity for agile brands to outmaneuver category giants.

The “Indirect Relationship” Reality 

Marketers should accept that the direct line to the customer is fading. “For a long time, we had a really great thing going where we got to talk directly to the people that were looking for products and services,” explains Fox, “and we’re not going to have that anymore.” This means elements like your website speed matters less than your ability to feed accurate data to the agent representing the buyer.

And accuracy is key. Before optimizing for AI, ensure your product or solution reality matches your competitive claims. As Fox warns, “If the answer is no [we aren’t better than our competitors], that’s not really an SEO issue. You might have to do some soul searching.”

Our Head of Marketing, Gina Inks, reinforces this pivot away from traditional tactics: “We’re moving out of an era where search rewarded surface-level optimization like keywords, backlinks, and structural signals into an AI-driven era that prioritizes meaning.”

The Rainy Day Opportunity for Underdogs

Fox views the current volatility as a reset button. He uses a racing analogy: “If it’s great weather outside in a race… It’s going to be really hard to overtake three cars. But if it’s raining, you could overtake ten.” For B2B challenger brands, this is the rainy day. “Now is the time to try new things, especially if you’re an underdog,” Fox notes. “You can go up against these domains that are massive and you might win”.

However, the sheer volume of traditional search still matters. Our Senior Team Director of SEM, Aaron Woolway, provides the necessary context on Google’s current relevance:

“Google Search is still relied on massively, as there are over 5 Trillion+ searches annually.” He adds, “Chat GPT is for people seeking information and practical guidance/writing, but Google is still the source for looking for and discovering products and is present in half of the discovery for new brands, products, and research.”

The Future of Monetization

Where is the ad model going? Woolway thinks, “Early ideas on monetization will likely be ads on unpaid subscriptions, similar to how music apps like Pandora are set up.” Fox’s theory is that companies like OpenAI could monetize the second prompt in a conversation, rather than the first. While the first prompt delivers a “golden goose” answer, the second prompt implies specific intent and carries reliable user data from the first prompt for direction. “You could probably monetize the second prompt,” he offers, “without poisoning the well of why you’re valuable to general consumers right now.”

The New Playbook: Structured, Cited, and Trusted

As recent analysis from Artefact notes, AI agents are programmed to evaluate products based on “logic, rules, and signals” rather than clever copywriting or brand sentiment. A claim on your own website is marketing; a claim cited by a third party is a fact. Inks notes, “This shift should feel both comforting and exciting. When you speak directly to your audience’s needs with expertise and authenticity, AI search systems can actually understand it, and reward it.”

We’re helping enterprise teams implement a three-part framework to secure their place in the answer:

1. Be Structured (The Prompt Graph): You need to “model the graph” of user intent. Use structured data (like schema markup) and break content into liftable chunks (tables, clear H2s) that answer specific sub-tasks so AI agents can easily ingest them.
2. Be Cited (Digital PR): Marketing claims on your own site hold less weight. Seed your facts and leverage press releases to get on third-party platforms that the AI treats as sources of truth, such as peer review sites (G2, TrustRadius, Capterra) and community forums like Reddit.
3. Be Trusted (Experience): Google’s own guidance confirms that “structured data” and a “great page experience” are the keys to appearing in AI overviews.

This focus on experience validates what we discussed last month on UX as a differentiator. With AI, a great page experience proves your credibility and usability to the machines that inform buying decisions. UX is where personalization becomes tangible.

The Next Era of Visibility

Solutions like our AI Results Blueprint and ROI·DNA Spark frameworks work emerged from this exact shift.

We focus on answerability—how machines read, interpret, and decide whether your brand deserves to be surfaced. These frameworks help enterprise teams strengthen the signals that matter most in an AI-led discovery landscape.

The search wars have evolved beyond who has the best list of links; the winner will be the one who earns the trust of the agent. The brands that prepare their data for this “asking and doing” reality will own the next era of visibility.