For the last two decades, one company has decided how the internet is organised: Google.
Google didn't just create the world's most used search engine; it built a system that influenced how websites are built, products are found, and businesses communicate online. It became the invisible (and iconically visible) layer between every question and every answer.
That control is now starting to be challenged, not by another traditional search engine but by a fundamentally different kind of technology—artificial intelligence. OpenAI's ChatGPT isn't just a chat functionality. It's a new way of searching the web built around query-based, intent-led search, and it's set to create the most serious challenge to Google's dominance in two decades.
This new way of searching has major implications for brands and marketers. It's changing who gets seen, what content surfaces, and how people discover information.
Google has long operated with minimal real competition in search. Even Bing, despite years of investment, has rarely reached beyond 3–4% market share in key regions.
ChatGPT, by contrast, holds a tiny fraction of that market today, estimated between 0.25% and 0.5%. Google remains at least 100 to 373 times larger in search volume, depending on the source (Search Engine Land, 2024).
But this isn't just about market share — it's about disruption.
OpenAI isn't trying to beat Google at its own game. It's redefining the game entirely.
ChatGPT's new browsing and search capabilities don't deliver a list of ranked links. They deliver answers. When a user types in a question, ChatGPT:
This new model doesn't require users to click through ten search results. In many cases, the answer is already there, which undermines Google's core product and business model.
In early 2024, Google released Gemini, its next-generation AI model. Since then, it has started embedding Gemini across its entire ecosystem — from Android smartphones and smartwatches to the Chrome browser and search itself.
But the real story goes beyond the technology — it’s about control.
In April 2025, Google had considered exclusive Gemini AI deals with Android device manufacturers — an attempt to lock ChatGPT out of the world's most widely used mobile ecosystem. The internal discussions, now public through regulatory scrutiny, show just how seriously Google views OpenAI as a threat.
During a U.S. antitrust trial, a Google executive testified that OpenAI “would buy Chrome if it could.” The point? OpenAI, like Google, knows that whoever controls the platform — the browser, the device, the default assistant — controls how users search, find, and trust information.
In fact, in May 2025, Google took a significant step to defend its position by launching “AI Mode” in Search — a feature that lets users ask complex, multi-part questions and receive direct, AI-generated answers. Powered by its Gemini 2.0 model and currently available to select users through Search Labs, AI Mode signals a shift in how Google itself sees the future of search: less about blue links, more about complete, conversational responses. In other words, even Google is now adapting to a search experience that looks a lot more like ChatGPT (The New York Times).
This isn't just a competition between AI models. It's a battle for distribution, defaults, and user behaviour — and it’s happening in public, under regulatory spotlight, in ways that directly affect how your content gets surfaced.
For 20 years, SEO has meant optimising to rank on Google. That's how visibility worked. Whether you sold products, published content, or ran a service-based business, you fought for a position on page one.
But AI search engines don't rank pages. They generate answers.
Here's what that means in practice:
This turns the traditional SEO model on its head. Visibility is no longer about keyword placement or backlinks. It's about whether your content is good enough and clear enough to be used by an AI assistant.
Because the way content is surfaced is changing, so must the way it’s created and optimised.
You're Optimising for Inclusion, Not Ranking
In AI search:
That means your content needs to be:
AI models are still learning how to interpret web pages. Structured data (schema) gives them clarity.
For example, for e-commerce brands, this means:
AI engines rely on these cues more heavily than Google does today.
Experience. Expertise. Authoritativeness. Trustworthiness.
These are no longer “nice to have” they are the core signals AI search uses to determine whether your content is credible.
That means:
Generic, anonymous content is at a significant disadvantage.
AI search isn’t about keywords. It’s about intent. People aren’t searching for “tent reviews”; they search for: “Which family tent is best for a two-week UK camping trip with a toddler?”
Your content must reflect and answer that kind of real-world query. That’s where much of the current web content, including thousands of SEO-optimised blog posts falls short.
You're no longer fighting for just rank on a search results page. You're also trying to be trusted enough to be included in the answer generated by an AI.
The implications are clear:
This is no longer just about gaming Google’s algorithm. It’s also about being legible and reliable to an entirely different kind of search engine.
OpenAI hasn’t overtaken Google’s market share — yet. Google still dominates, and traditional SEO strategies continue to work for now. But the way people search is already changing, and with it, how content gets discovered.
The reality is this: you need to optimise for both. Continue focusing on Google’s algorithm, but start adapting your content to meet the demands of AI-native search, where clarity, structure, and authority determine whether your content gets used in AI-generated answers.
This isn’t a distant future. It’s a rapidly evolving present. Brands that prepare now will stay visible and relevant on both the current platforms and those shaping the next twenty years of online discovery.
At Fingo, we’ve been tracking this shift for a while. We understood the impact of generative AI before it reached the mainstream, and we’ve already been helping brands prepare for a world where AI is increasingly deciding what’s seen.
Here’s what sets us apart:
If your SEO strategy is still only focused on page-one rankings, it’s time to rethink your approach.
AI search is already here. If you want your brand to stay visible, trusted, and chosen, not just ranked, let’s talk. Let’s build a strategy that works now and in the future.
Get in touch today, email us at hello@fingo.co.uk