Jodie Sangster. Credit: ACAM
Traditional search strategies are rapidly losing effectiveness as artificial intelligence reshapes how Australians discover brands and products, according to the Australian Centre for AI in Marketing (ACAM).
More than 70% of Google searches in Australia now result in zero clicks to a website, with that figure dropping to 17% when AI-generated summaries appear. On mobile, zero-click behaviour exceeds 75%.
ACAM says few organisations have moved beyond SEO to adopt answer engine optimisation (AEO), generative engine optimisation (GEO) and discovery engine optimisation (DEO).
To address the shift, the organisation has launched a four-week program, 'The Future of Search', covering all four disciplines. Contributors include The Navigators, Kantar, Genea, Microsoft Advertising, Gumshoe and Xpon.
ACAM co-founder Jodie Sangster said marketers were watching page views fall sharply and questioning their approach.
"The fact is the rules of the game have changed," Sangster said.
"I'm consistently having conversations with marketers who report that their traditional search is down by 30% or more, and that's being driven by AI. The only way to counter it is to know how to show up in AI answers. If marketers don't get how that works, they just won't show up."
Sangster said website restructures and more content were not the answer.
"It's about how the whole brand shows up across the internet and whether AI sees you as worth including,” she said.
The program targets marketing leaders, digital and content teams, agencies and in-house practitioners, with participants developing a 90-day action plan.
Adam Goodman, Microsoft Advertising's director of AI in advertising APAC, said marketers needed deeper insight into how their brands were represented across changing digital environments.
"This program brings together practical expertise and leading technology to help organisations move from experimentation to real-world application," Goodman said.
ACAM CEO and co-founder Louise Cummins said there was plenty of conversation about AI and search but not enough clarity.
"We wanted to give teams a structured, practical way to understand what needs to change so they can show up in AI-driven search and not disappear from them," Cummins said.
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