Market Intelligence
The search landscape
has fundamentally changed.
Most brands haven't caught up.
AI assistants are now the primary interface for high-intent discovery queries. Traditional search is declining. The window to establish AI authority in your category is closing.
60%
of US adults use AI to search for products & services
Source: Athena State of AI Search 2026
50%+
decline in traditional search referral traffic at leading retailers
Source: Athena State of AI Search 2026
$144B
projected AI-driven ecommerce by 2029, up from near zero in 2023
Source: eMarketer 2026
The discovery shift
How product discovery is moving from links to answers — and what it means for your brand's Share of Voice.
Yesterday — Link-based search
Today — AI answer engines
Where AI models pull retail citations from
AI models don't crawl your site in real time. They rely on content patterns they've learned from high-signal sources. Your brand needs to be present where AI looks first.
Source: Athena State of AI Search 2026
The AI platform landscape
Where your brand needs presence in 2026.
ChatGPT
400M+ usersIntegration: Answer citation + purchase intent
Opportunity: Product recommendation, brand authority
Perplexity
100M+ usersIntegration: Product recommendation layer
Opportunity: Category-level SOV, direct citation
Google AI Overviews
1B+ usersIntegration: Featured answer position
Opportunity: Zero-click brand visibility
Retail AI Engines
Multi-billion sessions usersIntegration: Sponsored agentic placement
Opportunity: In-session product discovery
See how these trends apply to your brand
Start with an AI visibility diagnostic to understand your current citation rate and where your competitors stand.