Ask not what you can do for AI, ask what it is about to do to you…

Recently, whilst gathering views about emerging technology for a digital strategy, I asked a well-known organisation how they felt they should respond to emerging technical trends like AI. Their answers went along the lines of “That’s all very exciting, but our main website is out of date and our CRM is falling over… we need to get our house in order before we start to play with the fancy new toys.”

They envisaged that they might be able to use a nice AI chatbot in the future, when they had finished cleaning their digital house and budgets had loosened. I sympathised. Most of the organisations we work with are faced with tightening purse strings, legacy infrastructure and a constant battle to afford the salaries to recruit the talent that can help them turn things around.

AI may be fun – it can make a picture of your bearded collie in Munch’s The Scream, for example (see above) – but when you already have a million things to do, how far up the job list should it be? It’s not like this is the first technology that is about to change everything…There’s a long list of “hyped but underwhelming” tech that you were meant to jump on immediately, but which never quite delivered the promised revolution – the Metaverse, the Internet of Things, NFTs, 3D printing, AR, and the blockchain (beyond crypto) all being excellent examples.

AI, however, is not one of those things. It is an entirely different order of magnitude.

AI is changing how your users behave

Many organisations talk about their website as their ‘digital front door’, the key way people engage with them. And somewhere between 50% to 80% of those people find that front door through search.

If you are a medical charity, users might search for questions about a condition – particularly when they are going through diagnosis (e.g., “What are the early symptoms of [condition]?”). If you are a research institute, they might search for information on a particular breakthrough.

Digitally-savvy organisations optimise for those terms on search and then build journeys on their site to try and engage users and showcase their work.

Now, with AI-powered answer panels on Google and GPTs built into browsers, there’s someone standing in the middle of the street answering your user’s questions and they may never need to look for your front door.  It’s still fairly early days – Open AI’s ChatGPT launched less than 2.5 years ago – and so safe to say that what we see yet is just the beginning.  There are a wave of new tools in development, including Google’s new AI Mode, an enhancement to the current AI overview and, Project Astra.   Microsoft has major investments in AI and we are starting to see Copilot roll out to individual users. And then there’s ChatGPT, Perplexity, Anthropic’s Claude and Bing AI.  A survey last year by The Verge found 61% of milennials reporting using AI tools in place of search engines.

Click-through rates are dropping

Research from Advanced Web Ranking (AWR) shows that AI overviews in Google appear in 42.5% of search results—and that percentage is rising.

Click-through rates for informational searches are already dropping. Sistrix found that when AI overviews appear, organic CTR drops by as much as 18-26% in some cases. Another study from SparkToro and Similarweb found that in the US, zero-click searches now make up 57% of all Google queries.  Zero-click, where users find the answer they need on the search engine without clicking any external site is a growing trend and has been driven by Knowledge Panels and local business listings and, most recently, AI overviews.

User behaviour is also changing, with searches becoming more conversational. People are writing prompts, not keyword queries.

“Googling is for old people, and that is a problem for Google,” read a Wall Street Journal headline not that long ago. A new generation uses TikTok, Instagram, and ChatGPT to get information, and this disruption is threatening Google’s traditional ad-based business model.

Chegg, an American homework site, is already suing Google for a loss of revenue, claiming AI overviews allow it to reap the benefit of their content without having to spend money producing it. They serve as a reminder that the beast we feed with our structured content may well turn around and eat our entire lunch.

How can you survive this change? 

For me, the very first thing to do is to recognise that the ground is moving right now and this is not one of those challenges that you can think about later.  The changes you may need to make take time and that time is disappearing.

So, here are some things that you should consider putting high up your to-do list:

1. Get your head in the game

• AI isn’t something to ignore and hope it won’t affect you—it will. The time to start getting your head into the game is now.
• Either find the time to learn about AI yourself or bring in someone who can help you navigate it.  We are already doing this work for some of our clients and we would love to talk to you too
• One of my favourite podcasters, Scott Galloway, says “AI won’t take your job. A person using AI will”. The same, I think, is true for organisations, your traffic will be eaten by those who have responded to a changed world.

2. Create content that AI can’t

• AI can generate generalist content but it lacks real-world expertise, nuance, and original thought.
• Organisations must leverage their experts and their networks —doctors, researchers, scientists, specialists—to create high-value, authoritative content that AI models can’t.

3. Strengthen direct audience relationships

• If you rely too heavily on search traffic, you risk losing control of your audience. Invest in email marketing, social media engagement and deeper engagement products to build loyal, direct connections with your users.

4. Take a strategic view on how and what you optimise for search

• Traditional keyword-based SEO is evolving and now there is also generative engine optimisation. Make sure you are talking to your SEO partners, understanding the impacts on your search and taking an informed view on how you move forward.

5. Be wary of feeding the AI machine for free

• If Google, OpenAI, or another AI provider is pulling from your content but not sending traffic back, then taking a view on whether you want to keep feeding the machine seems wise.
• Consider walled content, logged-in experiences, and exclusive insights to protect your value.

Why this is a fundamental shift

Traditionally, third sector organisations have often structured their content around internal priorities—publishing what they can, based on their expertise and team structures. But, in a world where AI is reshaping search and information discovery, it’s becoming increasingly important to focus on what users genuinely need and how best to provide it.

By leveraging expert voices, creating highly valuable content, and thinking beyond static information pages, organisations can ensure they stay visible, useful, and relevant—no matter how AI-driven search evolves.

Stay tuned

I’m currently working with large organisations to help them understand the challenges and opportunities AI presents—from its impact on search and how content strategies should evolve to what tools can help drive productivity and engagement. Where it’s useful, I’ll be sharing insights and trends I see emerging, with practical takeaways to help others adapt to this fast-changing landscape.

You can find those updates on @wearemc2.bsky.social and LinkedIn. And if you’re thinking, we should probably figure out how AI is going to impact us—I’d be happy to chat.