AI SEARCH: BEYOND THE HYPE – DRIVING REAL BUSINESS OUTCOMES AND GROWTH 

AI-powered search is reshaping how customers discover and interact with brands. Learn how to leverage AI visibility and digital intelligence to drive meaningful growth and deliver the outcomes that matter most.

Executive summary

• AI search is the new front door for search — shaping visibility, credibility, and discovery across B2B markets. If you’re not cited, you’re not seen. 
• Quality drives visibility — only authoritative, relevant, and well-structured content earns a place in AI results. 
• Integration fuels growth — when tied to marketing and sales, AI search insights turn visibility into measurable business outcomes. 
  

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AI search is quickly becoming unavoidable for B2B businesses, emerging as the first step in searches for RFPs, competitive analysis, and research. This shift presents a critical challenge: if you’re not cited, you’re not seen. 

That makes AI search more than just another digital tool. It’s a vital driver of visibility, ensuring your company and services are discoverable. Applied strategically, it becomes a powerful lever for engagement, growth, and customer insight. 

For brands navigating today’s digital landscape, the question isn’t “Should we use AI search?”—it’s “How do we use it to create real, measurable value for our customers and business?” 

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THE RISE OF AI SEARCH: REAL CHANGE, REAL OPPORTUNITY

AI search is reshaping how people find, evaluate, and act on information. Instead of simply providing a list of links, AI-driven search engines and conversational tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity now deliver context-aware answers, personalised insights, and actionable recommendations.

• Weekly average users of ChatGPT reached 700 million in July 2025, up from 100 million just 20 months earlier (OpenAI, 2025) 
• Globally, 78% of organisations now use AI in at least one business function (McKinsey, 2025). 
• Generative AI is becoming the go-to for research: 68% of users say they rely on it to research, gather, or summarize information (Bain, 2025). 
• Users click less when an AI summary is present. In a US-wide study, Google users were less likely to click links on results pages with AI summaries; they rarely clicked cited sources (Pew Research Center, 2025). 

Organizations’ use of AI has accelerated markedly in the past year, after years of little meaningful change.

Organizations that use AI in at least 1 business function,¹ % of respondents

Actively managing AI visibility does more than boost exposure: it provides sharper insight into customer expectations and builds stronger engagement, higher conversion, and long-term loyalty. 

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THE VALUE OF AI SEARCH FOR CLIENTS AND COMPANIES

AI has made clients more discerning. They no longer seek just answers-they want solutions, clarity, and guidance. This shift carries major implications for marketing communications: 

• Immediate relevance: Customers expect fast, accurate responses.
• Quality content: To appear in AI search results, firms must deliver content that is authoritative, credible, and well-structured.
• Personalised guidance: Clients want insights tailored to their specific context. 

AI search is valuable not only for clients but also for firms. By actively managing their presence in AI results, companies gain a unique window into customer intent-revealing exactly what prospects are asking. This creates an opportunity to present expertise at the right moment, shape the conversation with potential clients, and build smarter, more targeted marketing strategies.

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THE SITUATION — AI SEARCH & BUSINESS IMPACT

• AI leaders outperform financially. Over the past 3 years, companies leading in AI saw 1.5× faster revenue growth and 1.6× higher total shareholder returns than peers. (BCG, Where’s the Value in AI?)
• AI answers affect visibility: When Google’s AI Overviews appear, clicks on the #1 organic result drop by ~34%. (Ahrefs / DCN, 2025)
• AI Share of Voice (SoV) is emerging: “AI Share of Voice” — how often your brand is cited in AI answers vs competitors — is becoming a new benchmark for visibility. (Exposure Ninja, 2025)  

These numbers illustrate that AI search can do more than influence clicks – it can directly drive business outcomes embedded within a strategic growth framework. 

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HOW AI SEARCH FITS INTO A GROWTH STRATEGY

AI search delivers the greatest impact when embedded in a broader, outcomes-focused growth framework. On its own, it can improve visibility and insights. Integrated with wider marketing, sales and PR strategies, it becomes a catalyst for sustainable growth. 

• From signals to strategy: AI queries reveal precise customer intent and pain points. When fed into campaign design, product positioning, and sales strategies, they become actionable drivers of growth.
• From content to connection: To win in AI search, brands must publish authoritative, trustworthy content. Linked with earned media and customer experience, that content builds credibility and strengthens client relationships across the full journey.
• From insights to outcomes: Success should be measured by tangible business results—share of voice, conversions, revenue, or retention—not by rankings alone. Efforts that don’t contribute to these outcomes are deprioritised.

The future of marketing is data-driven, insight-led, and outcome-focused. AI search is one of the most powerful levers in that evolution—but only when used as part of a wider, integrated growth strategy.