How AI has changed search algorithms and the need for authentic content

Innovation has long been the cornerstone of societal change and upheaval which disrupts the norm. AI is shaping as one of these drastic innovations that moulds history. The interpersonal impacts and broader implications for sectors such as the environment, the economy and so forth are a matter of tenuous debate. In this article however, I will explore the more focused area of AI search, what it is and its implementation, the impact on businesses and the general populace, as well as how it challenges our instantiated understanding of discovering information. In turn this discussion will broach the the various reasons for people favouring this new technology over other, more traditional, alternatives. Ultimately, I will then derive a conclusion as to the viability of certain types of content in this new age of search, as well as interrogating the importance of authentic content amidst swathes of generated or “artificial” content. With the bones of this piece established, let us explore what AI is and its current use cases.

Defining AI

So what is AI? Despite the use of the term as an amorphous conception for a type of technology, AI is typically defined under an umbrella of different technologies. There are various types of AI which fall under this categorisation, with the main 5 being Machine Learning, Generative AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computer Vision, and Robotics. The current rise in public consciousness around AI is largely attributable to Generative AI, which is most commonly seen through the advent of ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Claude by Anthropic. For the sake of this article when I mention AI it will be referring to Generative AI, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

AI functions by “training” the model on a large set of data using advanced machine learning. The AI is then able to generate responses which mimic the construction of the dataset it was trained on. In the case of ChatGPT for instance, the dataset includes a vast, diverse dataset consisting of publicly available web pages, books, articles, Wikipedia, and code repositories. It therefore informs its responses using this large dataset. Just as these sources of information have their flaws and inaccuracies, ChatGPT embodies the fallibility meaning it can have errors in its responses, something that will be touched on later. This is of course a simplified account of the mechanisms behind AI, which are more complex. However, your understanding of this article is not contingent on knowing the intricacies of generative AI, I assure you that a generalised comprehension is enough. This begs the question; what are the uses for this technology, and why has it now become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon?

AI Usage and Its Characteristics

Many people have turned to AI for assistance across a variety of topics and industries. Students have for better or worse adopted AI as a means of subverting established learning standards, companies have reduced human work output in favour of the speed and affordability offered by AI, whilst usage in a recreational sense has skyrocketed. Whether it is text generation, general enquiries, media creation or something else entirely, AI offers a shortcut. For many people this technology helps save time and mental resources which they perceive to be wasted on the previously unavoidable process of research and creation. In terms of content search, AI has been adopted in favour of standard search engines for many people. The conversational manner and content simplification has proved to be a convenient and welcomed alternative to traditional offerings such as Google and Bing.

Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that the people using these products outside of a workplace environment have the propensity to attribute human qualities to these machines, making their conversational responses all the more enticing when compared to regular search engine results. Many people don’t just see this new technology as being an advanced chatbot, instead they are of the belief that ChatGPT and similar AI are more conscious, and able to interface with them on a deeper level. One need only look to the mounting cases of AI addiction and psychosis, as well as the phenomenon of romantic interest in these machines to understand just how rife this behaviour is. This predilection for anthropomorphising a generative machine has allowed AI to ingratiate itself into the daily lives of regular people, and carve out a place in the economic framework of the global economy. Specific to content search functionality, AI synthesises the information from a variety of sources into a digestible response which users seem to appreciate more than having to scour through Google search results to find their answer. From a time-saving perspective there is certainly merit to favouring AI search instead of search engines. Traditional search engines can be thought of as a librarian, helping to locate where information is stored, whilst AI chatbots embody the characteristics of a research assistant, synthesising information and supplying it directly. Essentially, people are seeing more utility in not having to exert the effort needed to disseminate useful information from the not so useful.

There are issues with this however, which despite their pertinence are not especially relevant for the purposes of this article. Problems with AI hallucinating references, providing inaccurate or outdated information, as well as being overly agreeable to user input, all conflict directly with the goal of providing accurate, digestible information. This raises broader questions around what the actual goal of these AI companies are, but alas this is not the time for a deeper exploration of AI companies and their tendency for obfuscation. From a marketing and advertising perspective there has been a marked pivot in how users are searching which directly correlates with the rise of chatbots, and most prominently the implementation of said chatbot(s) into a large percentage of Google search results. If the user is being funnelled into an AI chat, irrespective of what they are searching, this will impact established means of digital marketing through search engine optimisation (SEO). The favouring of conversational and synthesised responses rather than sources in the form of website search results means that the structure of websites, their content, and the aim of the webpages themselves has to be assessed.

Search Evolution in The Age of AI

Feedback from the industry and general observations of user behaviour seem to indicate that many of the elements important for success in standard search engines such as Google are also crucial for inclusion in AI responses. Establishing your business as the trustworthy provider of a good or service is paramount. However, if the content does not reflect your expertise and credentials then you may as well be invisible. In this way businesses must give thought to what kind of terminology they employ to indicate their level of knowledge and professionalism in their respective industry. To account for AI’s emphasis on conversational response, websites with FAQ pages and sections are more likely to be used as a reference in an answer. Content is also required to be unique, with websites punished for cloning information that mirrors pre existing website content. This all seems rather straightforward and achievable, however it must be stated that there are tangible limitations which can impact web traffic tremendously. One simply needs to think about completing a query with ChatGPT or a similar AI entity. How often would you click on the small source links provided by the AI after it has generated its response? For many the answer is never. Users do not really care about where the information originated, they simply want an answer. This is where new metrics are being experimented with which track the amount of times your business or website is referenced by AI in a response. The thinking is that typical statistics used by digital marketing agencies and businesses will not reflect this new approach to web search. The important point to emphasise is that despite traditional numbers such as web traffic and click through rate potentially plummeting, your business may be just as successful as it previously was. Implementing new age AI statistics for tracking can help alleviate this stress, but ultimately the best way to ensure your business is not suffering on account of AI adoption is to compare sales and enquiries from month to month. These numbers are concrete, and when used in conjunction with website specific stats a more complete picture can be painted.

On the importance of original website content, many of the same rules for traditional SEO apply. The content needs to be unique, informative, and digestible. This last point seems to be of supreme significance for AI. They favour content which answers specific questions rather than being related to a nebulous topic. For example, a Google search in its standard conception could be as simple as “cake recipe”, to which the user would be greeted with an assortment of different results from a multitude of websites. With AI, that query is much more focused, with something like “what is a good recipe for a cake?” being a common phrasing construction. The user is also much more likely to have increasingly specific follow up questions which further narrows the scope of viable information. This slight distinction has more implications than might be assumed as far as web content is concerned. Your website now needs to have information relevant to the particular query that AI can scrape when responding to the user. This is why FAQs have become the cornerstone of AI searchability. That format lends itself to AI picking up the content due to a question, or a version of it, being easily accessible for the AI. So whilst trustworthiness, uniqueness, and brand stature are important, specific formatting and accounting for common questions are vital.

Moral issues and detrimental environmental impact aside, AI has a clear use case within the modern digital landscape. Its increasing prevalence necessitates learning about how it works, its uses, and above all how it impacts society from an economic and human perspective. Whilst this article only details a small component of the broader AI picture, I hope it helped to provide an overview of AI searchability and how it differs from the displaced functionality of search engines as they were just a couple of years ago.