AI is changing consumer search

A series on how consumer search habits are shifting toward AI answers, and what that shift means for the businesses, publishers, and engineers who depend on being found.

Part 1

How I actually use the web in 2026

I spent fifteen years building search engines - and somewhere in the last year I quietly stopped using one. An honest look at how my web habits have shifted, what it costs, and why I don’t think it’s just me.

Part 1

Part 2

The disappearing search engine result page

The previous post in this series was about my own habits shifting. This one is about the page itself. The shape of the Google SERP in 2026 is structurally different from the one we built businesses around - and the difference is mostly that you don’t have to leave it any more.

Part 2

Part 3

Retrieval inside an LLM is still retrieval

Open Perplexity, run a query, look at the Sources panel. The architecture is recognisable: retrieve, rerank, summarise, cite. The system has moved; the engineering hasn’t. A bridge piece between the observational posts and the next phase of this series.

Part 3

Part 4

Citations are the new ranking

The previous post in this series argued the engineering inside an AI answer is recognisable IR. This one looks at the visible end of the pipeline: the citation slot. When the surface is a paragraph with three sources cited, the question "did we get cited?" becomes the new "did we rank #1?".

Part 4

Part 5

Where did all the traffic go?

A lot of sites are watching their search traffic fall, and it isn’t because their content got worse. The funnel changed shape. This is the post in the series where the cultural shift turns into a commercial problem.

Part 5

Part 6

Optimising for AI search

If being in the AI answer is the new being on page one, how do you get there - and how do you know if you have? A look at what optimising for AI search actually means, and why the measurement problem is the hard part.

Part 6

Part 7

A new chapter

A few weeks ago I said I’d accepted a new role and wasn’t ready to say where. Here’s the where - and why it’s the most natural move I’ve ever made.

Part 7

Part 8

Why I’m betting on AI Engine Optimisation

The closing piece of the series, and the substantive one. Why the AEO problem is structurally interesting, what fifteen years of search infrastructure transfers and what doesn’t, and why I think the timing is right.

Part 8