Thursday, November 6, 2025

New front door to the internet: Winning in the age of AI search - McKinsey

Half of consumers use AI-powered search today, and it stands to impact $750 billion in revenue by 2028–what is your strategy and activation plan for gen AI engine optimization? Hot on the heels of the ascent of social media as a means of researching and buying products, consumers are quickly defaulting to AI-powered search (through both AI-powered apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, and Claude, and Google’s AI Overview) to guide their choices, evaluate brands, and increasingly to discover new ones. About 50 percent of Google searches already have AI summaries, a figure expected to rise to more than 75 percent by 2028, according to trend analysis. Half of consumers polled in a McKinsey survey now intentionally seek out AI-powered search engines, with a majority of users saying it’s the top digital source they use to make buying decisions.