How AI Models Compete with Traditional Search
The actual topic has been featured in the latest issue of Cyprus Business Focus, where our Founder & CEO, Marianna Konina, shared expert insights on one of the most significant shifts currently transforming the digital landscape: the growing competition between AI-generated answers and traditional search engines.
For our team, it was both an honor and a pleasure to contribute to Cyprus Business Club’s media and bring attention to a topic that is becoming increasingly important for businesses worldwide. As specialists in online reputation management and AI visibility, we see firsthand how artificial intelligence is changing the way companies are discovered, evaluated, and trusted online.
In the article, we explored how platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are reshaping the search experience, why businesses can no longer rely solely on traditional SEO, and what organizations should do to ensure AI systems accurately understand and represent their brands.
Below is the full article as published in Cyprus Business Focus.
How AI Models Compete with Traditional Search
Have you noticed that the first result in search today is often not a list of links, but a ready-made AI answer?
Classic search and traditional digital marketing are changing fast. Decisions about partnerships or purchases are now made before someone clicks on your website — sometimes without visiting it at all.
For businesses, this means one thing: if AI doesn’t “know” your company properly, you may already be losing opportunities.
AI Has Become the New Front Door to the Internet
Search results no longer look the way they did just a few years ago. Recent research from Bain & Company shows that about 60% of searches now end without users clicking through to a website — a clear sign that people are increasingly getting answers directly in the search experience without visiting traditional web pages.
At the same time, AI-generated answers are displacing traditional search traffic.
Supporting this shift, research from McKinsey shows AI summaries already appear in about half of all Google searches and are expected to exceed 75% by 2028. Crucially, the presence of AI Overviews can reduce click-through rates to traditional results by nearly 47%.
“For businesses in Cyprus, this shift is especially critical in highly competitive and compliance-sensitive industries — finance, professional services, B2B. Where SEO and paid ads used to be enough, users now form opinions directly through their AI assistant.”
Where ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity Get Their Information
AI models do not search the internet the same way as humans do. They generate answers by pulling data from a broad ecosystem of sources. ChatGPT uses Bing and some databases, Gemini draws data from Google’s ecosystem, and Perplexity combines search results with media sources.
But for all of them, one thing matters most: official, trusted information about a company or individual.
All the public information published online matters. Starting from corporate websites, company pages in catalogs, registries, databases and media coverage to customer reviews and discussions on Quora and Reddit. When this information is fragmented, outdated, or contradictory, AI will inevitably produce a distorted answer — this is not due to intent, but it can have real business consequences.
“For example, if there is some outdated registration data or a single negative review from years ago about the business — it may damage the potential client’s or partner’s opinion long before the first call or email.”
Your Website Is Your Passport
AI models perceive your website not as a marketing tool, but as your passport — a structured identity of a company or you as an individual. Its structure, language, logic, facts, and wording directly influence what AI models repeat in their answers.
“In reality, most websites are built for SEO, not for GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation), as it is no longer about keywords. It’s about context and trust. Algorithms need to clearly understand who you are, what you do, where you operate, and a reason to trust you.”
If AI-generated answers are not managed, they can easily confuse your business with similar brands, surface outdated or irrelevant information, or even hallucinate details entirely.
Old mentions, negative reviews, or random sources may dominate AI responses. And when there’s no data at all, AI will still generate an answer, even if that answer is invented.
Generative Engine Optimisation in Practice
Companies should analyse how AI models currently perceive their business, identify reputational risks, gaps, and distortions, and then build a digital ecosystem filled with verified, aligned, and trusted data. This approach helps AI models consistently find and reproduce a correct, safe, and commercially profitable version of your brand.
Founded in Cyprus in 2023, Reputation City treats reputation as a core element of compliance and trust, especially when deals, partnerships, and access to opportunities are at stake.
The smartest first step today is to understand the current picture. By regularly evaluating what ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI models say about a company, businesses can identify discrepancies and better understand how to take control of the information environment shaping AI-generated responses.