AI-Assisted Search: How ChatGPT and Intelligent Agents Are Changing the Rules of the Game for Brands

“I want a couch like the one in the Friends series.” This is how customer needs sound today, translated into queries directed at AI agents such as ChatGPT. Google Search cannot process such a query: it will either give you results related to the Friends TV show or search for living room furniture, sometimes even displaying irrelevant results if a brand has bid on a certain family of keywords.

by Claudia Chirilescu, Owner Spoon

Traditional search engines do not understand nuance, but ChatGPT does. From just a few questions that build a search-like conversation, it can find a solution tailored to you.

As a result, agencies have work to do in the near future: supporting their clients and brands in adapting to the way consumers relate to the information available on the internet—especially when it comes to choices and purchases. With this article, I wanted to take a constructive and optimistic approach toward the future of the communications industry. My hope is that both Spoon clients and others interested will find in our team expertise and support.

Consumers find dialogue with an AI agent, most often ChatGPT (between 0.9 and 1.8 million Romanians use ChatGPT monthly), more convenient and personalized than Google. The reason is that AI agents such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini can guide you in a conversation toward an answer that takes into account multiple search criteria and more specific consumer needs. It’s easy to see why we also turn to them—to save time and structure the overwhelming volume of information available online.

Let me take myself as an example: when I look for a hotel, I often start with the Booking.com search engine. I always look for a location that offers me a quiet room with a firm mattress, within a specific budget. To make a good choice, I usually spend hours reading reviews, searching for mentions of room quietness and mattress firmness. If I make the same query with ChatGPT, my selection criteria are taken into account and in just a few minutes I arrive at a shortlist of hotels suited to my needs.

Experts recommend that we, as advertising agencies, adopt automation quickly—even when designing ads—so that they are adapted to the AI-driven model. In Google’s case, this means using automated advertising solutions like Performance Max and AI Max for Search. Keywords will remain relevant, but their role will not be as dominant as in traditional search. Brands will need to experiment with more flexible, complex keywords to reach overlooked audiences.

This, I believe, is one of the most valuable benefits of AI-powered search: reaching interested audiences that we used to ignore because we couldn’t generate relevant results for complex and niche queries.

Google’s AI functions, now available in Romania, provide an AI-powered overview of active searches. This is followed by relevant links that help people find the information they seek quickly and reliably, as well as explore content they might not have discovered otherwise. Practically, AI agents change how we receive answers to a specific search: from a list of links to a multi-step conversation that you guide in relation with the AI agent.

What Changed

In the classic search model (Google Search), the user typed in a keyword, received a list of links, and chose which one to visit. Brands focused on SEO, PPC campaigns, and optimizing pages to climb to the top of results.

In the new search model with AI agents, the user asks a complex question, and AI delivers a summarized answer—often without visible sources. The interaction resembles a discussion more than a “search.”

The major effect for brands and agencies is that links are no longer the “main stage.” Brand content can be taken, reinterpreted, or synthesized without the user interacting directly with the site.

How to Optimize to Appear in Results

For advertising agencies and brands, the paradigm shifts: we must rewrite site content to be “friendly” with the way AI agents search for information. In the first phase—because this cannot happen overnight—brands will notice a decline in direct organic traffic and traffic coming from Google Search, both organic and paid.

This phenomenon is due to AI responding from a mix of sources and its own databases, reducing the user’s need to visit the site.

It becomes crucial for a brand to be perceived by AI as a “reference brand.” If the brand is not recognized as an authority by AI, it will be ignored in answers. AI tends to mention trusted, already validated sources. Thus, mentions and affiliated links with credible traffic sources populated by consumer opinions regain importance.

At this point, we do not know exactly what criteria an AI uses to cite sources—unlike Google Search where SEO guidelines are clear. This process is also influenced by the fact that companies owning AI agents are still negotiating protocols with large content producers to regulate intellectual property rights. Negotiations are also underway regarding the distribution of media revenues, dependence on paid traffic, and advertising. Optimization is moving from “search engine optimization” to “AI engine optimization” (AEO).

Brands must also pass through another filter, currently unclear, regarding how AI agents curate available information and transform it into recommendations for the client. The AI agent has the power to summarize, reinterpret, or even omit key elements.

What Can We Do to Support Brands?

• Create on brand websites, but also on forums and marketplaces, trustworthy content that is easy for AI to read. The content must be well-structured, factual, and with clear sources, as this is how AI reads and operates: through bullet points and categorized information.
• Content should be published in formats AI can easily interpret (articles, studies, structured data).
• To build “authority” value, brands need collaborations with recognized media and appearances in relevant publications, strengthening online reputation. Mentions in independent contexts or events, product testing IRL, and meetings with consumer communities also help.
• It also helps if a brand has its own chatbot/AI agent or partnerships with platforms that feed AI assistants, as this language is easily recognized by AI agents.
• Large international brands have higher chances of being recommended because they frequently appear in sources considered “trustworthy” by AI (publications, lists, reviews).

Conclusion

AI-assisted search is not just a technological shift, but a paradigm shift: from “optimizing for a list of results” to “optimizing for a conversational answer.”

Brands that succeed in becoming the “first source in AI’s mind” will gain visibility and relevance in a landscape where the user no longer necessarily sees the source, only the answer. You no longer optimize to be seen—you optimize to be mentioned. You no longer compete for the first page of Google, but for a place in the “mind” of an artificial intelligence.

If your online presence is not optimized and clear, AI will not “see” you—even if you are available locally.

We would love to hear your perspective: what do you consider the main challenges for a local brand in this new landscape? And if we can help, let’s start a conversation.

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