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Market Intelligence

How buyers find products
changed overnight.
Most brands are still running the old playbook.

AI assistants are now where many buyers start, before they visit a search engine, let alone a brand site. Traditional search traffic is falling. The window to claim your category in AI answers is getting narrower.

60%

of US adults use AI to search for products & services

Source: State of AI Search 2026

50%+

decline in traditional search referral traffic at leading retailers

Source: State of AI Search 2026

$144B

projected AI-driven ecommerce by 2029, up from near zero in 2023

Source: eMarketer 2026

How product discovery moved from links to answers

Buyers used to click links and choose. Now they ask AI and get a direct recommendation. Being in that recommendation is the new Share of Voice.

Yesterday: Link-based search

Query format"best running shoes"
Result type10 blue links
Brand surfaceTitle tag + meta description
Traffic typeClick → site visit
AttributionLast-click, cookie-based
AI involvementRanking algorithm only

Today: AI answer engines

Query format"What running shoe should I buy?"
Result typeSynthesised answer with citations
Brand surfaceCited entity in AI response
Traffic typeZero-click or direct intent link
AttributionPrompt-level, first-party
AI involvementFull synthesis + recommendation

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: State of AI Search 2026

reddit.comCommunity & reviews
30%
youtube.comVideo content
19%
amazon.comProduct & ratings
12%
brand sitesOfficial brand pages
24%
otherNews, blogs, forums
15%

The AI platforms your brand needs to be on

Four channels where AI now answers product queries, and where your brand can be cited.

ChatGPT

400M+ users

Integration: Answer citation + purchase intent

Opportunity: Product recommendation, brand authority

Perplexity

100M+ users

Integration: Product recommendation layer

Opportunity: Category-level SOV, direct citation

Google AI Overviews

1B+ users

Integration: Featured answer position

Opportunity: Zero-click brand visibility

Retail AI Engines

Multi-billion sessions users

Integration: Sponsored agentic placement

Opportunity: In-session product discovery

Find out where your brand sits in AI search right now

Start with an AI visibility diagnostic to understand your current citation rate and where your competitors stand.

View solutions