What is AI-powered search and why does it change everything for SEO

For most of the internet's history, search worked in one familiar way: you typed a query into Google, and a ranked list of links appeared. You clicked, skimmed, maybe clicked again. Search was linear, link-driven, and predictable.

Now that model is being quietly replaced.

People are asking ChatGPT instead of Googling. They use AI assistants like Claude, Bard or Perplexity to get direct answers. And increasingly, they’re not clicking anything — because the AI already did the work for them.

If you’re running a business, building content, or growing a site, this shift matters. A lot. Here’s what’s changing, how these AI systems work, and what you need to do to stay visible in the era of AI-powered search.

From typing keywords to talking with assistants

AI tools like ChatGPT don’t search the web the same way you do. They don’t read blog posts for pleasure or scroll page two of Google. When someone asks, “What’s the best project management tool for small teams?”, the AI fetches relevant pages in the background, pulls out key facts, and crafts an answer — often citing a source, sometimes not.

This isn’t guesswork. As TechCrunch reported, ChatGPT’s “Browse with Bing” mode uses Bing’s API to conduct real-time searches behind the scenes. Similarly, Bard is directly connected to Google’s own search index, while Claude pulls its results from Brave Search. And as noted by SEO experts at Yoast, AI tools like these increasingly pull live data to generate trustworthy answers — sometimes even referencing breaking news.

These tools aren’t crawling the entire internet themselves — they’re piggybacking on search engines, using APIs or cached data. That means if your content ranks in Bing, Google, or Brave, it has a shot at being quoted by an AI. If it doesn’t, you’re invisible.

The SEO work you’ve already done still matters — but it’s not enough

Here’s the good news: the fundamentals of SEO still hold. Fast-loading pages, relevant keywords, and backlinks from trusted sources — these still push you up the rankings. And because AI tools draw from those same search results, better rankings increase your chance of being cited.

But there’s a new layer to think about now: whether your content is easy for an AI to extract and quote.

That means your writing style, formatting, and structure matter more than ever. Pages that answer specific questions clearly and succinctly — especially in plain HTML, not buried in pop-ups or JavaScript — are far more likely to be picked up.

You’re no longer just writing for humans or algorithms. You’re writing for AI readers who skim, extract, and summarise.

What AI likes (and what it skips)

AI systems are designed to give helpful, accurate answers fast. So they prefer pages that are structured like answers.

For example, if your blog post about “how to improve team communication” opens with a concise summary, followed by clear subheadings, and perhaps even a short FAQ, that’s gold. It means the AI can instantly recognise what the content is about and where to pull the quote from.

On the other hand, if your key insight is buried in paragraph eight of a meandering post, it might never get seen, even if it’s brilliant.

Another important shift: freshness matters. AI tools promise real-time answers, so they often favour recently updated pages. That doesn’t mean rewriting everything constantly, but it does mean keeping your top pages relevant and up to date.

AI visibility starts with traditional search

It’s tempting to think we need a whole new strategy for AI SEO. In reality, AI assistants still stand on the shoulders of search engines. That means your first job is still the same: rank well.

But once you’re ranking, there’s a second job — make sure your content is quotable.

That means writing in a way that’s clear, factual, and structured. Using schema markup helps machines understand what your page is about. Keeping your HTML clean and accessible. And thinking like a helpful teacher, not just a clever marketer.

Because when an AI is trying to answer a user’s question, it will choose the source that’s easiest to understand, not necessarily the one with the best brand or most backlinks.

The takeaway: optimise for humans, and the AI will follow

This isn’t a call to abandon your SEO strategy. It’s a call to refine it for a world where search results are increasingly filtered through an AI lens.

If your content is helpful, your site is crawlable, and your answers are clear, you’re already halfway there.

But don’t stop at keywords and page speed. Ask: Does this page answer a real question? Can an AI understand it at a glance? Would it quote it?

Because in this new search landscape, getting quoted by an AI assistant might be the highest-value click you never get.

Want to see how AI sees your site?

Join the Glafos beta and get a free AI-readability audit. We’ll show you exactly how your content stacks up in the eyes of ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude — and help you get ahead of the curve.

Frequently asked questions

What is AI-powered search? AI-powered search refers to tools like ChatGPT, Bard, and Claude that use large language models to answer user queries in real time. These tools rely on data from search engines (like Bing or Google) or their own web indexes to find and summarise relevant information.

How do LLMs like ChatGPT get their information? They issue live search queries (usually via APIs like Bing Search), pull content from top-ranking results, and use that text to generate answers. Some also maintain their own indexes, like Perplexity and Claude via Brave Search.

Why is SEO important for AI visibility? Because AI assistants use search engine rankings to decide what content to cite. If your site ranks well on Bing, Google, or Brave — and your content is easy to parse — it’s more likely to be surfaced in AI-generated answers.