[Part 1] Google Search Is NOT Dying. But LOW INTENT DISCOVERY is.

AI is stripping out low‑value clicks, not killing search. What remains is higher‑value, brand‑led demand shaped by omnichannel marketing.

AI-generated answers, platform feeds and marketplace search are stripping away generic discovery and weak intent. What remains is fewer clicks, stronger signals and search queries shaped by everything that happened before them.

For more than two decades, Google Search has been the backbone of digital marketing. If you wanted demand, you waited for someone to type a query. Budgets followed that logic, and search was rewarded for being closest to the moment of conversion.

Today, that logic is being tested.

The more useful question for CMOs is not whether search is declining, but which search is declining.

Photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash

Why “search is declining” feels true

There are good reasons this moment feels unsettling. Three shifts are happening at once, and together they distort how marketers interpret what we’re seeing.

First, discovery is moving upstream. People are increasingly encountering brands, products and recommendations before they ever open a search box. Social platforms and content feeds are doing more of the early work — shaping preferences and narrowing choices ahead of any explicit query.

Search still happens. It just arrives later, carrying more bias and clearer intent.

Second, AI is changing the search experience itself. AI-powered answers reduce the need to click through to websites, particularly for informational and exploratory queries. Users often get what they need without leaving the results page.

The behaviour hasn’t disappeared. The visible click has.

Third, paid search efficiency is under pressure. Rising competition, automation and broader match types have pushed costs up while incremental returns flatten. Analytic Partners ROI Genome data shows paid search ROI declining over time in many categories as budgets scale.

Taken together, these shifts make it easy to conclude that search itself is losing relevance.

But that conclusion skips an important step.

To understand what’s really happening, you have to look at where discovery now lives — and how that activity feeds back into search.

Where discovery actually happens now

If people are not starting with Google, where are they starting? The answer isn’t a single replacement for search, but a set of environments that increasingly create demand upstream and shape the searches that happen later.

1. Social and creator‑led discovery

Platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram have become engines of inspiration, recommendation and informal research. On TikTok alone, 57 percent of users use the platform’s search functionality, and 23 percent search for something within 30 seconds of opening the app.

In Southeast Asia, this effect is amplified. Social video now accounts for around 20 percent of e‑commerce GMV in the region, up from less than 5 percent in 2022, according to Google, Temasek and Bain. Much of that growth is driven by creator content that blends entertainment, recommendation and transaction.

Melissa Laurie, Founder and CEO of Oysterly Media, explains:

“Feed Engine Optimisation (FEO) is emerging as the new way brands stop the scroll and create demand inside feeds, not Google Search results. How often has something caught your eye while scrolling that you were not actively looking for? An engaging short‑form video can spark awareness and become the trigger for a purchase. FEO focuses on creating videos that stop the scroll and drive action. It competes with Google Search by influencing decisions before intent even exists, turning passive scrolling into active demand.”

Crucially, that demand doesn’t disappear. It often reappears later as branded search.

Social doesn’t replace search. It loads the dice in advance.

2. Retail and marketplace search

Search is also migrating closer to the point of purchase. Amazon, Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop are now some of the most commercially valuable search environments in APAC.

In these spaces, intent is explicit and conversion rates are high. The risk is that brands treat retail media as a performance‑only line item, optimised in isolation. That repeats the same mistakes seen in paid search, where short‑term metrics crowd out long‑term brand effects.

3. AI‑assisted answers and earned visibility

AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude are also becoming part of the discovery journey. People are getting used to answers, not links.

Mid‑way through 2025, PR platform Muck Rack published new research, What Is AI Reading?, analysing over one million links cited by AI tools. The findings were telling:

• 95% of AI citations come from non‑paid media

• 89% come from earned media

• 49% of citations for recent queries originate from journalistic content

Brands that are visible, credible and well represented across the ecosystem are more likely to surface everywhere, including in search.

As Greg Heilers, Co‑Captain at Jolly SEO, notes:

“We see brands increasing their share of voice by engaging in long‑tail content across the Internet, from Reddit to directory sites to niche industry publications. Most importantly, now is the time to take your brand reputation seriously, trading in old, quick hacks, for real brand marketing.”

Visibility is no longer just about ranking. It’s about being present wherever decisions are being shaped.

As Kristopher Casey, Head of SEO at Resolution Digital, puts it:

“Search isn’t dying, it’s fragmenting. As AI and zero-click experiences grow, brands that win will be those with strong authority, recognisable signals and content designed to influence decisions before the click ever happens.”

What all of this reveals about search

When you step back, a clear pattern emerges.

For years, search was doing two very different jobs at the same time:

• Low-intent discovery — generic, exploratory, easily substituted

• High-intent decision-making — branded, shortlisted, commercially meaningful

AI and platform shifts are now separating those roles.

Low-intent discovery is being answered, absorbed or redirected upstream — into feeds, creators, marketplaces and AI interfaces.

What remains in search is higher-intent behaviour. Fewer clicks, but stronger signals. Less volume, more meaning.

AI isn’t killing search. It’s filtering it.

AI-driven search experiences disproportionately reduce low-value clicks — the kind that were never strong drivers of incremental growth in the first place.

What remains are clicks that convert better, retain longer and are harder for competitors to intercept.

In effect, AI is doing what marketers have always claimed to want:
removing noise and leaving signal behind.

Search is no longer the billboard on the highway. It’s the turn-by-turn instruction once you already know where you’re going.

Not all search clicks are equal

Treating all search clicks as equal has always been a measurement shortcut. It is now a strategic liability.

Low-value search is generic, price-led and easily substituted.
High-value search is branded, category-qualified and reflects everything that happened before the query.

The mistake marketers make is assuming search creates demand.
In reality, search mostly reveals it.

When discovery moves upstream and AI removes low-intent noise, what remains is search as a signal of effective marketing — not a substitute for it.

Search isn’t dying. It’s becoming honest.

In Part 2, we explore why AI-driven search will break attribution before it breaks search — and why that matters more than clicks ever did.

Need help understanding which search clicks actually drive growth? Meet our modellers and see how Marketing Mix Modelling reveals the true value of search within a fully integrated marketing strategy.