Brands are racing to game AI chatbots like they gamed Google
According to a recent Financial Times article, brands are targeting AI chatbots as users increasingly switch from traditional Google search, prompting advertising groups and tech start-ups to develop new strategies for “search engine optimisation”. Companies such as Profound and Brandtech have created software to monitor brand visibility in AI-powered services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s AI Overviews feature.
Brands including fintech company Ramp, job search site Indeed, and Chivas Brothers, the Scottish whisky maker owned by Pernod Ricard, have adopted this software to reach millions of users relying on generative AI for online information. “This is about recognising large language models as the ultimate influencer,” said Jack Smyth, partner at Brandtech.
The new tools analyse AI models’ sentiment towards companies by feeding text prompts to chatbots and ranking brands accordingly. This technology allows agencies to advise brands on optimising their visibility. The shift is driven by advertisers’ need to adapt to AI-driven marketing, with Meta and Google developing self-serve ad campaign tools that potentially threaten agency work.
Research from Bain found that 80% of consumers now rely on AI-written results for at least 40% of their searches, reducing organic web traffic by up to 25%. About 60% of searches end without users clicking through to another website. Despite this, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported a 10% growth in its core search and advertising business to $50.7bn in the first quarter.
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Agencies are capitalising on the trend by offering new services. Brandtech’s ‘Share of Model’ product charges brands for analysis and guidance on adjusting their online presence. Profound’s data analytics platform tracks industry queries and AI search performance. “Traditional search has been one of the biggest monopolies in internet history,” said James Cadwallader, co-founder of Profound. “For the first time, it feels like the castle walls are cracking.”
AI models like ChatGPT use traditional web search and evaluate sources for relevance and credibility. Adam Fry, OpenAI’s ChatGPT search lead, noted that users are asking more nuanced questions. Perplexity, an AI-driven search engine, is piloting sponsored “questions” as follow-ups to user queries. Denis Yarats, Perplexity‘s co-founder, said LLMs provide a more thorough process than reviewing links, making it harder to be a target of SEO.