How AI Answer Engines Will Transform the Future

The shift from traditional search to instant AI generated answers carries the promise of a “zero-click” future. Instead of sifting through endless blue links, users will simply ask a question - and get an answer.

And judging by the numbers, consumers are loving life with zero clicks: For example, Perplexity AI is seeing explosive growth, with 100 million weekly queries as of October 2024, compared to 500 million total throughout 2023. ChatGPT, now the 11th most visited site globally, is expected to launch “SearchGPT“ soon, an answer-focused product similar to Perplexity. And Google isn’t far behind: it’s aggressively rolling out AI Overviews, especially in sectors like healthcare, where AI Answers account for over 50% of results today. Google’s CEO recently referred to the new approach as “Let Google do the Googling for you.”

Here are some future shifts we foresee as AI Answers reshape the way humans discover information.

A Zero-Click Future Saves Time on a Global Scale

In a zero-click world, where information is served up without links, humanity could reclaim vast amounts of time. Today, the average Google searcher takes 14.6 seconds to click a link, with about 8 billion daily searches. In a future where AI Answer Engines replace traditional search, the potential time saved by not clicking could reach 32.4 million hours daily. To put it into perspective, that’s nearly the entire Swedish workforce of 5 million people working a full day.

Faster Adoption Than We Might Expect

History shows that platform shifts can happen almost overnight. In the early 2000s, Google surged from being half the size of Yahoo to the most-used search engine in two years. In today’s hyper-connected world, it would be dangerous to underestimate just how quickly mainstream adoption of AI Answers will take.

Websites Will Be for Bots, Not People

In an AI Answer-driven world, where fewer people click through to websites, why would companies continue publishing content in the same way? Future generations may struggle to grasp the idea of "websites" as we know them today. All information - including that from giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Expedia - will likely be absorbed directly into AI applications. This means users could browse, buy, and experience content without ever leaving the AI platform. It’s a vision of seamless, fully integrated browsing.

Brands Will Enter a Game of ‘Telephone’ with AI

In a zero-click world, LLMs will serve as gatekeepers, deciding how information is interpreted and presented to users. For marketers, this introduces a new challenge. Instead of influencing consumers through fancy websites, brands will need to optimize their messaging for AI retrieval, hoping the AI accurately relays the original message. AI Optimization tools like Profound will become essential for brands to gauge and refine how frequently - and favorably - they appear in AI Answers.

User-Generated Content Becomes the New Oil

In this new landscape, real “human made” content will become scarce. In a world filled with endless AI generated “slop”, authentic communities where users share firsthand experiences and insights may become primary information sources for AI retrieval. Investing in platforms like Reddit or X.com could prove strategic as AI Answer Engines increasingly lean on community-sourced knowledge.

A New Information Marketplace Emerges

Just as social media influencers earn through ad revenue today, the AI platforms of tomorrow may actively commission content from real humans to feed the machine. This shift would transform knowledge sharing into a viable income stream, allowing individuals to profit from producing writing, videos or valuable first-hand information. Maybe we enter a future where humans get paid to just… think!?

Generative Ads Will be Game-Changing

Advertising within AI Answers Engines will be a total game-changer… ultra-targeted, ultra-contextual. Generative Ads will be tailored to the users conversation history and seamlessly tacked alongside AI Answers, . Here’s an example of how things could look:

Ads will become contextual, generative appendages to AI Answers that offer useful complementary ideas that live neatly alongside the answer.

In Conclusion:

It seems that as humanity evolves, so does the way we gather information. Books became newspapers, which evolved into radio, TV, and eventually webpages on the internet. Now, AI Answers represent the next major platform shift in information technology.

For techno-optimists like us at Profound, we are excited for this future and are building AI Search Optimization technology that is already becoming mission critical for brands around the world as we enter a world driven by AI Answers.