Search is shifting in ways that go beyond traditional rankings.
Answer engines like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are becoming part of everyday search journeys, changing how people search and what they trust.
Up to 38% of users now read AI-generated summaries, while 36% skip them for traditional results, per YouGov.
It’s still early days, and not everyone has shifted behavior – but usage is already high.
We may not be in full disruption mode, but we’re well past the novelty phase. And just as Blockbuster underestimated Netflix, many brands risk underestimating this shift.
The danger? Becoming invisible in the customer journey – and invisible in the moments that shape decisions.
Here’s what’s changing, why human behavior is driving it, and what your brand must do to stay visible.
The rise of answer engines: A shift in discovery
Traditional search engines show you results.
You would ask a question, and get 10 blue links, maybe a featured snippet, and then it would be on you to go find the answer.
Answer engines work differently.
They scan the web, synthesize information, and give you the answer, all in one go.
As users, we’re not just finding content anymore. We’re being told the answer.
UK users increasingly view these tools as “like having a knowledgeable friend” or “quicker than trawling pages of blog posts,” according to our Q2 2025 SearchPulse report.
The implications are huge:
- Fewer pages, fewer clicks: That old SEO joke about Page 2 being the best place to hide a dead body has never been truer. With AI answers improving in quality and trust, users rarely need to look beyond the first results.
- Consolidated sources: A query that used to send traffic to five sites now results in a single response, pulling from multiple sources, and you’re either cited or you’re not.
Dig deeper: How to evolve your organic approach for the rise of answer engines
The behavioral science view: Why people search differently now
This isn’t just a tech story. This is a human behavior story.
When interfaces change, behavior shifts. And right now, we’re seeing three major behavioral nudges reshape search.
Cognitive ease
When an answer appears directly, humans take the path of least resistance.
The effort to explore and evaluate multiple options drops dramatically, especially if the first answer feels credible.
Trust shortcuts
We’re anchored to the first plausible answer we see.
Known as the primacy effect, this bias means brands that are first in an AI-generated answer have a disproportionate share of influence, regardless of whether they ranked first in traditional search.
Audience trust is still fragile, though, and is something we will see develop over time.
Query shaping
We’re learning to be better “prompt engineers.”
Generative tools reward more detailed, nuanced questions, prompting users to type…
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