AI Search Engines and Their Marketing Relevance
There are 5.56 billion active users on the internet right now. Each of them is actively looking for something using search engines. Artificial intelligence has changed how we receive and process information.
We have evolved from displaying ten blue links to AI-powered search engines that can understand natural language queries and give direct answers or summaries. For marketers, B2B business owners, and SEO professionals, this evolution comes with both opportunities and challenges. On one hand, AI-driven search promises richer insights and faster answers, on the other, it changes how content is discovered and consumed.
By understanding the capabilities of AI search engines and how they present information, experts can better optimize their content and capitalize on these tools to stay ahead of the competition.
This module provides an overview of major AI search engines and a detailed comparison of their features, benefits, and use cases.
Overview of Major AI-Powered Search Engines
Search engines come in all shapes and sizes such as familiar giants like Google integrating AI, as well as emerging players built entirely around AI. As not all LLMs and AI tools perform the same, neither do the search engines powered by those tools. Some search engines might be better at answering questions, while others are better suited for research. Here is a breakdown of how each AI search engine works.
Google (Search Generative Experience)
The dominant search engine with almost 90% market share now integrates AI Overviews powered by Gemini, delivering quick context-driven summaries alongside traditional links. Gemini’s advanced capabilities caninterpret user intent, clarify complex queries, and display concise generative answers at the top of the results page.
The prime feature is AI Overview, a boxed summary at the top of results that answers the query in a few sentences, with links to supporting sources. Often delivering zero-click solutions.
Gemini can help Google populate and organize users’ search results based on relevance to the user. It also allows for voice search via Google Assistant to handle conversational queries.
Microsoft Bing (with AI Copilot)
Despite just shy of 4% of the market share, Bing is recognized as Google’s main competitor. Its AI tool, called copilot is powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4. It offers chat-based answers and rich features like visual search and image generation by delivering results according to query intent.
Users can search by text or even images (visual search), and then refine queries through chat. Bing’s AI answers are often rich and visual and produce charts and images via an integrated DALL-E image generator.
It provides citations for the information it presents, usually with footnote numbers linking to sources. Bing also connects with the user’s Microsoft account and other Microsoft products like Office 365 and Windows.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT (with Search)
What originally started as an AI-powered chatbot, OpenAI’s ChatGPT now comes with a search mode called “ChatGPT Search”.ChatGPT’s search mode uses OpenAI’s latest models coupled with third-party search services, including Bing, to retrieve information relevant to the prompt. It then synthesizes an answer in natural language and provides links to the sources of information it uses. ChatGPT Search is accessible via the web interface, mobile apps, or browser extensions, and users can converse further to refine the query or ask follow-ups.
ChatGPT offers a conversational search experience. Instead of delivering one final answer, it allows users to ask complex, multi-part questions to get answers from a variety of articles.
You.com (YouChat)
A customizable AI search engine that combines an LLM-powered assistant with live web data. Users can toggle between modes for web search, content creation, coding help, and even an incognito-like private search mode.
You.com markets itself as the first search engine to integrate a consumer-facing AI assistant with real-time web access. It offers a unified search and chat experience called YouChat, which can answer questions with up-to-date information and also perform tasks like writing code or generating images. A standout feature of You.com is its multiple modes: for example, “Search” mode gives a more traditional search results page, “Ask” provides an instant answer with citations, “Create” generates images or text, and “Apps” mode lets users choose specific sources or verticals (like StackOverflow, Wikipedia, news sites) to prioritize.
Perplexity AI
A conversational search engine providing detailed answers with cited sources, plus follow-up question suggestions. It allows narrowing searches to specific domains and offers both free (GPT) and paid (GPT-4o, Claude) tiers.
Perplexity is a conversational search engine that emphasizes answer depth and source transparency. Every query returns a response using a combination of traditional search and an LLM, along with footnoted citations linking to the sources used. The interface also suggests follow-up questions at the bottom, akin to Google’s “People also ask”.
Perplexity allows users to narrow the search context to specific categories: for example, an Academic focus will deliver scholarly papers, while a Social focus searches through discussions on social platforms like Reddit. The free version runs on OpenAI’s GPT coupled with Perplexity’s own model. The paid version uses advanced GPT as well as Claude, as well as longer conversations and file uploads.
Claude AI
Claude is AI chatbot developed by Anthropic that specializes in natural language processing and can help with writing, answering questions, and generating content.
Named after Claude Shannon, Claude is designed to process and generate human-like text, answer questions, assist with writing, and even engage in reasoning-based tasks.
Claude operates using a large language model (LLM) and follows a principle called Constitutional AI, which ensures its responses are more ethical and aligned with human values.
Brave Search (with AI Summarizer)
A privacy-focused search engine with an index that offers AI-powered result summaries without relying on Google or Bing. Brave’s approach to search is built on uncluttered, ad-free experience and user anonymity.
Brave Search is an independent search engine, from the makers of the Brave browser that has incorporated an AI Summarizer into its results. When you search on Brave, you have the option to see a concise AI-generated overview at the top of the page, similar to Google’s SGE.
What sets Brave apart is that it uses its index of the web and open-source LLMs, Meta’s Llama 2 and Mistral which are self-hosted by Brave.
This prevents Brave from relying on Google and Bing to generate answers from the pages in its independent index, which the company claims reduces “big tech” bias or SEO spam. Users can also easily toggle the AI summaries on or off if they prefer traditional results.
Notably, Brave blocks user-identifying information from being sent to its AI infrastructure. IPs and any personal data are kept private, aligning with its privacy-first mission.
DuckDuckGo (DuckAssist)
The popular privacy search engine has introduced DuckAssist, which uses generative AI to answer queries with brief, sourced summaries. Owing to DuckDuckGo’s no-tracking ethos, it is fully anonymous and entirely optional.
DuckDuckGo has long been the go-to search engine for privacy, and in 2023 it introduced DuckAssist, an AI-powered instant answer feature. DuckAssist uses generative AI to provide more direct answers than the traditional snippets, by drawing from high-value sources. DuckDuckGo initially focused on summarizing Wikipedia content in response to queries, but since mid-2024, DuckAssist has expanded to use reliable sources beyond Wikipedia.
It offers AI-generated summaries at the top of the results page for certain queries with prominent citation links so users can click through to read more.
DuckAssist is completely optional. It is available in DuckDuckGo’s apps and browser extensions, and users can disable it. As with all of DuckDuckGo, queries remain anonymous, as it does not track users nor store their profiles.
Andi
A newer AI search engine that acts like a chatbot. Andi is a novel AI search engine that blends a chat interface with a visual representation of results. It’s noted for delivering accurate answers and features a user-friendly, ad-free interface with a focus on transparency.
Rather than a page of ranked links, Andi tries to directly answer your question by fetching content from across the web and summarizing it, often alongside relevant images or graphics for context. It was purposely designed to avoid the typical pitfalls of AI hallucinations, as every snippet of its answer comes from real web sources that you can access.
Andi is currently free and does not show ads. It also blocks third-party trackers (even Google’s tracking scripts) from its site. While it collects some usage data to improve the service, it doesn’t share that data with anyone and claims no employee can access individual search information either.
Phind
An “answer engine” made for developers to answer technical questions. Phind provides in-depth explanations with code examples and links to authoritative sources, using advanced LLMs to help devs solve problems. It’s also useful for any complex research.
For technical queries, Phind will provide an explanation, a step-by-step approach, example code blocks, and cite sources (e.g., links to MDN, Stack Overflow, or official docs) that you can reference for more detail.
It also offers different modes: a default search mode with AI answers, and a specialized “Code” interface where you can upload your codebase, where Phind can answer questions specific to your code, generate unit tests, or debug issues.
Grok (xAI)
An xAI Elon Musk venture, the chatbot-style search pulls real-time info from both the web and X posts, citing up to 25 sources for its answers. Its clean interface with no ads and rich web citations makes it attractive for publishers and SEOs seeking traffic from AI answers.
Grok gives you an AI-crafted answer and a mini search engine results page if you want to dig deeper. The interface is very clean without ads or sponsored content.
Grok also integrated an image-generation model named Aurora, allowing it to create images if you ask for something visual.
How To Track Performance in AI
Analytics for AI are not dissimilar from traditional search and some KPIs remain the same. We will dive into GEO KPIs in more detail in module 5, but in the meantime let’s take a quick look at the top GEO KPIs Obility tracks:
Tracking Performance in AI
- Search Visibility: Track how often your pages appear in AI chat summaries and traditional SERPs.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measure the percentage of users who click through from AI overviews or chat references.
- AI Referral Traffic and Conversions: Check analytics for visits attributed to Bing chat, ChatGPT plugins, or other AI-driven referrals.
- Keyword Ranking Distribution: Evaluate which keywords produce AI answers linking back to your pages.
- Citation Frequency: Identify how often AI tools cite your site or brand in their answers.
Where AI Search Takes Us Next
AI is not so much an “alternative” to traditional search as it is an enrichment and evolution of it. The search behemoths and upstarts alike are infusing AI at every level, changing how people find and consume information.
By staying informed and adapting strategies to this new reality, marketers and SEO professionals can ensure their content remains visible and relevant. The tools and tactics may be shifting, but the core goal remains the same: connect your audience with valuable information and solutions.
In order to understand how to improve your GEO performance and rank in the different AI search engines, head to module 4 to review GEO best practices.