I’ve lost count of how many conversations I’ve had recently that start the same way. “Mel, are we screwed because of AI?” It’s usually followed by a stat someone’s heard on a podcast or LinkedIn. Sixty percent of searches never leave Google. Websites are dead. SEO is dead. Marketing is changing forever. Panic accordingly.

Here’s the straight talk version: AI is changing search, but not in the way most business owners are being told. I want to unpack what I’m actually seeing, where the bullshit creeps in, and what still matters if search drives revenue for your business.

Search has always been about keeping answers close

Before we even talk about AI, we need to get one thing straight. Google has spent the better part of a decade optimising how quickly people can get answers. When you search for a business, you’re shown a map, opening hours, directions, photos, reviews, and a phone number. In many cases, you already have what you need without clicking through to a website.

That behaviour isn’t new, and it isn’t driven by AI. It’s platform design. The stat doing the rounds that about 60 percent of searches not resulting in a website visit sounds alarming until you realise it was already sitting in the low 60s five or six years ago. Yes, it’s increased slightly. No, it hasn’t suddenly fallen off a cliff. AI overviews are simply the next evolution of that same goal: delivering answers faster.

What AI search actually is right now

Right now, we’re seeing a shift from traditional search behaviour to people asking questions directly inside large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot. In classic marketing fashion, this has triggered a rush to invent new terminology.

Here’s the honest version. Nobody truly knows what the final rulebook looks like yet. AI search is still being discovered in real time. Anyone telling you they have a guaranteed formula for ranking inside AI tools is either guessing or selling something. Often both. What we are seeing, however, are early patterns, and patterns are worth paying attention to.

What we do know is this: if your SEO fundamentals are strong and you are genuinely visible for what you specialise in, AI tools are far more likely to surface your business and send traffic your way.

Should you be worried if search drives your revenue

If your business relies heavily on people actively searching for what you sell, then yes, you should be paying attention. Not panicking, but paying attention. If search has never been a meaningful channel for your business, then you can relax. People don’t suddenly start searching for businesses they’ve never searched for before just because AI exists.

If Google search, local search, or intent-based queries are how work lands on your desk, AI search is now part of your reality. That means asking better questions of your agency or in-house team and being comfortable with the fact that some answers are still evolving.

What we’re seeing in real data

I’m far more interested in what shows up in the numbers than in theoretical arguments. Across our managed marketing clients, AI-driven traffic is real, but it’s still small. Roughly three percent at the moment. That’s a sliver, not a takeover.

Where it gets interesting is which industries are seeing it first. High-trust, comparison-based decisions tend to surface earlier. Law is a good example. When someone asks an AI tool who the best divorce lawyer in Perth is, the model has to make a judgement call. It looks for reviews, credibility signals, consistency, and evidence of genuine specialisation.

We’re already seeing conversions attributed to AI tools this year, and that number will grow. Attribution will get messier, which will frustrate people who love perfectly clean reporting. That’s not a disaster. It just means we need to adjust how we measure and think.

AI rewards clarity and specialisation

This is where the biggest shift is happening. AI search does not reward businesses trying to be everything to everyone. For years, SEO could be gamed through keyword stuffing, broad-match tactics, and content written for algorithms instead of humans. That era is over.

AI is very good at detecting surface-level claims without substance. If you say you do ten things but don’t demonstrate actual expertise in any of them, you will struggle. If you are genuinely excellent at one or two specific things, AI can work that out.

We see this clearly with specialists. A family lawyer who has consistently published content around small business divorce for years will naturally surface when that exact question is asked. Not because of a trick, but because the body of work exists.

The takeaway is simple:

• Know what you do best
• Say it clearly
• Prove it consistently

Websites still matter because ownership matters

Every few months someone asks me whether websites are dead. If they are, I’m out of a job. Jokes aside, AI still needs a source of truth. That information has to live somewhere, and ideally it should live somewhere you actually control.

Your website is an owned asset. Your domain name is protected by a proper legal framework in Australia. You can choose where it’s hosted and how it’s managed. Social platforms, on the other hand, are rented land. I’ve seen businesses lose years of reputation overnight because a Facebook account was hacked or a Google Business Profile was suspended. No warning. No real recourse.

AI tools pull information from websites, Google Business Profiles, reviews, and public content. If you don’t own where that information lives, you’re taking on unnecessary risk. Websites aren’t going anywhere. They’ll get easier to build and faster to deploy, but the idea that you don’t need one is, frankly, bullshit.

Intent now beats volume

The smartest shift business owners can make right now is thinking harder about intent. People no longer search like robots. They ask questions the way they would speak to another human. Longer phrases, more context, and more comparison-based queries.

If you understand the questions your customers ask when the problem actually matters, that’s where your content should live. Not generic blogs written for volume. Helpful, specific, problem-solving content that reflects expert decision-making.

So what should business owners actually do

Here’s the short version. Don’t panic, but don’t ignore it either. If search plays a meaningful role in how your business generates revenue, focus on the fundamentals.

Make sure your website is technically sound. Architecture, metadata, and content depth still matter. Be ruthlessly clear about what you want to be known for. Keep your Google Business Profile accurate, active, and aligned to your specialisation. Treat reviews as credibility signals, not just social proof.

For businesses that genuinely know their lane and stick to it, this is an opportunity. Marketing isn’t rocket science, but it does reward focus. And bullshit has always been easy to spot. AI just makes it faster.