Source: Beet
The shift from search queries to conversational AI moves consumer decision-making into private conversations with third-party platforms rather than brand-owned or search-visible spaces. Brands are losing direct access to purchase intent and now depend on chatbot platforms—OpenAI, Google, Anthropic—to surface insights they once owned through search data. Brands must now compete for recommendations from AI assistants that have no inherent loyalty to them, rather than for query rankings.