Highlights
- LLMs are absorbing top-of-funnel traffic – optimise for citations, not just clicks
- “Answerable” content is now more valuable than keyword-stuffed copy
- Ethical AI use and disclosure are quickly becoming brand reputation issues
- Training, governance and footprint tracking are essential next steps
AI is disrupting traditional search
Over the past 18 months, LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have begun changing how people discover information online. The shift is subtle but significant: users ask longer, more conversational queries and receive direct, summarised responses. Clicks are declining, but search volumes aren’t. The result is a new kind of challenge for marketers – optimising for visibility in a world where users may never land on your site.
At Magenta Associates, we’ve been tracking this evolution closely. Our generative text AI research focused on how PR and marketing professionals are engaging with AI. While it didn’t explore SEO directly, it revealed that the infrastructure of digital marketing – training, ethics, measurement and strategy – isn’t keeping up with the speed of AI adoption. That gap becomes even more visible when applied to the mechanics of search.
If you’re a digital marketer or comms lead today, you’re not just competing in Google search – you’re competing for citation inside the AI’s answer box. And that changes everything.
Magenta has begun a Search Forward Q&A series, in which we’re hearing from experts on the different ways AI is impacting and reshaping digital marketing. Contributors include Oluwatobi Balogun, Kevin Indig, Mary Kemp and Andrew Bruce Smith, whose insights make it clear that the ground is shifting.
From cheat sheets to cheat codes
Generative AI has moved beyond experimentation. For marketers, it’s now a working layer across brainstorming, clustering, copywriting and optimisation. One of the most exciting shifts is the ability to analyse search intent across thousands of queries instantly – a task that used to take entire teams.
As growth advisor Kevin Indig told me: “Depending on the size of your team, AI can save the equivalent of one or two people.” But while the productivity gains are real, they come with a risk: faster does not always mean better. There’s a temptation to use AI to generate more content, more quickly. But quantity doesn’t guarantee impact, especially in a world where the first interaction may come via an AI model rather than your website.
Mary Kemp, founder at AI Potential, captured this succinctly: “Gen AI isn’t here to help you crank out more content. It’s here to help you think better, work smarter and put humans back at the centre of your marketing.”
The new zero-click economy
We are in the early stages of a new search experience, one where zero-click answers become the norm. Users type multi-part questions into tools like ChatGPT and receive composite answers pulled from multiple sources – without ever seeing your meta description, let alone your homepage.
For brands, that creates a frustrating scenario. You may still rank, but fewer users are clicking through. As Kevin Indig notes: “Clients are experiencing drops in top-of-funnel organic traffic, especially in industries where users do research via ChatGPT or Gemini.”
Yet this doesn’t mean SEO is dead. Search engine usage continues to grow, as Escherman founder and MD Andrew Bruce Smith points out, with Google’s own traffic climbing. What’s changed is that users are now engaging with summaries, not snippets. They want context, not just links. This demands a fundamental rethink: content must now be structured, scannable and authoritative enough to be cited directly by machines.
More content isn’t better content
We advise our clients to audit their content for ‘answerability’. That means looking beyond keywords and asking a crucial question – does this piece actually explain something with clarity and authority? Would an LLM choose it as a trustworthy source? If not, it may be time to update it – or unpublish it altogether.
AI also demands a shift in metrics. Traffic isn’t the only signal of success, especially following the rise of AI Overviews, as Mail Online can attest to. In a world of AI summaries, we need to track brand mentions, citations and assisted conversions. These are harder to measure, but more aligned with the way users now consume information.
Trust, transparency and the AI footprint
One of the most urgent issues our generative AI research exposed was the lack of AI governance. Many organisations are using generative tools in live client work without disclosure or oversight. That might be a problem, both ethically and reputationally. As AI content floods the web, transparency about what was human-written and what wasn’t will be critical.
There’s also the issue of sustainability. According to the International Energy Agency, electricity demand from data centres, AI and cryptocurrency could more than double to over 1,000 terawatt-hours by 2026 – roughly the annual energy consumption of Japan. These environmental costs aren’t abstract. They’re fast becoming part of procurement checklists, stakeholder reports and consumer decisions.
Co-founder and CEO of SustainWyse Tobi Balogun believes that “sustainability-focused digital marketing” is the next frontier. That means measuring the carbon impact of your tech stack, migrating to greener cloud infrastructure, and resisting the urge to generate content just for the sake of it.
A roadmap for the SEO-AI era
Adapting to this new era of SEO can seem overwhelming. Here are the steps I’d prioritise now:
- Audit for answerability – Identify which pages are likely to be cited by AI and optimise them accordingly.
- Structure your content – Use schema, FAQs, and clear headings to make your information machine-readable.
- Upskill your team – Provide prompt training, bias mitigation, and fact-checking workflows.
- Update your metrics – Track impressions in AI summaries and brand citations, not just sessions.
- Disclose and govern – Publish your AI use policy and train staff to follow it.
- Report your impact – Include AI-related energy and emissions data in sustainability reporting.
Search is no longer just a function – it’s an experience. Generative AI has raised the bar for what makes content discoverable, trustworthy and sustainable. Those who adapt early won’t just survive, they’ll define what credible digital marketing looks like in the AI age.
