Functionality powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now a fully integrated component of a wide range of Internet and information technology systems, and the world of online search is no exception. In addition to the availability of a range of standalone generative AI ('gen-AI') tools and applications (such as ChatGPT), many major search engines now also provide an 'AI overview' response produced by gen-AI (displayed above the main ('organic') search results, in the case of Google). This evolution is having major impacts on consumers' search and browsing behaviours, and consequently the patterns and volumes of traffic being driven to brand-owner or other trusted websites are changing.
The potential implications of the increasing degree of adoption of AI in online search technologies are, in some cases, relatively predictable. The most likely scenario is that users will increasingly obtain the information they need from the AI overviews alone, without clicking through to the sites from which the information is sourced, and thereby leading to a decrease in volumes of traffic to these sites. However, these patterns may vary depending on the nature of the searches being carried out. For example, general questions may be more likely to generate satisfactory AI responses, whereas explicit searches for content on specific trusted sites are likely to continue to generate a higher click-through rate to these sites, regardless of whether or not the response links are served up by gen-AI. Overall, the evolving trends are likely to drive a desire by brand owners to maximise their chances of being referenced or promoted in AI overviews (Figure 1). This has led to the new concept of 'Generative Engine Optimization' ('GEO'), analogous to the older concept of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) (referring to the process of ensuring, through suitable website configuration and/or the inclusion of appropriate content, that a website is findable, and highly ranked, by search engines).
Figure 1: Example of a search-engine response produced by generative AI (in this case, Google's 'AI Mode'), which references a number of specific brands
The consequences of many of these trends are already being observed; several studies[1,2,3,4] from early 2025 report huge decreases in 'classic'-search-generated click-through rates to websites, in response to the appearance of AI overviews which generally occupy the most prominent areas of the search engine results pages (SERPs). In one such study, the CEO of Expedia is quoted as stating that the company is "partnering with AI search companies to ensure our brands show up well across customer queries". This type of approach can be advantageous whether or not users click through to the promoted sites from the AI summaries, given the potential for a 'long-form' overview to provide a more detailed synopsis of a brand's 'value proposition' than a simple search abstract, and thereby result in a customer conversion rate which is likely to be higher[5].
In some respects, we might expect GEO - which, at a fundamental level, must involve brand owners actively ensuring that the underlying LLMs are trained on brand-favourable material - to work in similar ways to SEO. Indeed, one key element of successful GEO is a requirement for organisations to ensure that the brand is widely and favourably cited on the Internet, in locations which are popular and highly linked from other popular sites[6]. However, another part of this picture involves an understanding of the mix of sources from which AI tools primarily draw their data; a number of recent analyses[7,8] suggest that platforms heavily featuring user-generated content (such as Reddit, Wikipedia and YouTube) are highly favoured. Overall, an effective holistic programme of GEO can be a complex proposition - involving efforts to ensure that the right types of content are presented in the most appropriate formats, and in the right locations[9] - resulting in the emergence of a number of providers explicitly offering services to assist with the process (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Example of a website of a GEO service provider
The nature of GEO techniques also means there is potential for the system to be manipulated - as is also possible with SEO - such as via the practice of artificially 'seeding' the Internet with positive brand content. There are also suggestions that the current generations of AI tools have a low effectiveness for excluding low-quality sources, potentially making them more open to exploitation. One approach which could therefore correspondingly be employed by fraudsters might involve the creation of a network of false, but professional-looking sites, promoting an infringing brand. These types of attack have already been observed, having been employed for cryptocurrency, banking, and travel scams[10].
The trends described above are likely to necessitate a push towards brand-protection programmes being required to include a wider suite of mediating components, such as functionality to monitor LLMs explicitly. Growth in the extent of adoption of AI search may also drive a boost in the importance of other 'classic' brand-protection initiatives; one example might include a greater requirement to ensure that legacy official domains (which may still be cited by AI tools) are kept in brand owners' official portfolios, and there may also be stronger requirements to build a robust defensive domain portfolio and implement comprehensive proactive monitoring and enforcement measures[11].
The developing world of GEO - particularly when considered alongside the emergence of commercial advertisement placement offerings by AI search providers - might also result in a fundamental shift in the nature of search-related LLMs, towards a scenario where they are generating what are essentially 'paid results', rather than 'organic results'. Any evolution of trends along these lines may necessitate a push towards the implementation of new trade regulations, by which search tools may be required to explicitly distinguish between the different types of results, similar to the legislation which took place for 'classic' search results in the 1990s and 2000s. There is also a possibility that the commercialisation of AI search outputs might ultimately drive a general loss of trust by Internet users in these types of service.
As a final point, it is significant to note that industry commentators are also starting to suggest other possible implications of the growth of AI. For example, one recent study notes that product selection by consumers is increasingly being made on the basis of AI-generated personal recommendation, rather than being driven by brand recognition or specific brand searches. This trend is beginning to result in the emergence on marketplaces of products with unintelligible, nonsense brand names, which are purely optimised for algorithmic popularity based on user insights. The emergence of such 'brands' can fundamentally undermine the function of a trademark as a (memorable) indicator of origin, and may also require a restatement of concepts such as the roles of conceptual, phonetic and visual similarity. The study therefore concludes that AI assistants and algorithm-driven e-commerce marketplaces may lead to a fundamental change to the nature of brand recognition, and could have the potential to reshape trademark law as we know it[12,13].
References
[1] https://www.barrons.com/articles/ai-google-search-internet-economy-932092ef
[3] https://startups.co.uk/news/ai-search-hospitality/
[4] https://technologymagazine.com/articles/how-googles-new-ai-mode-could-devastate-web-traffic-seo
[5] https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-search-seo-traffic-study/
[6] https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overview-brand-correlation/
[7] https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-mode-comparison-study/
[8] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-most-cited-websites-by-ai-models/
[9] Additional detail on GEO techniques used in practice can be found in a set of notes published as a follow-up to this article, at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-web-search-part-2-optimising-world-david-barnett-g7eme/
[10] https://secureblitz.com/dark-side-of-llms/
[12] E. Bonadio and A. Rohatgi (2025). 'Trademarks and Artificial Intelligence: Some Preliminary Considerations', SSRN, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5364772. (Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5364772)
This article was first published on 18 December 2025 at:
https://www.iamstobbs.com/insights/ais-potential-impact-on-web-search-traffic-and-trademarks
No comments:
Post a Comment