Home » Marketing Blog » Search Behaviour 2025: How AI Is Redefining the Customer Journey

Search Behaviour 2025: How AI Is Redefining the Customer Journey

By Mhairi Petrovic, founder of Out-Smarts Marketing and search specialist, with support from AI
Published: October 2025

Key Takeaways

Search isn’t linear anymore. In 2025, people discover problems on social media, research with AI tools, and validate through Google and peer networks.

Discovery starts before intent. Social and AI reveal needs people didn’t know they had.
AI tools shape visibility. Clear, structured content gets cited and surfaced in AI summaries.
SEO spans multiple platforms. Visibility depends on being findable, credible, and consistent across touchpoints.
Measurement is evolving. Focus on brand visibility and engagement, not just last-click attribution.

Businesses that adapt early, optimising for both humans and AI, will build trust faster and stay discoverable wherever their audiences actually search.

The Biggest Shift in Search Behaviour Yet

I’ve seen many evolutions in digital marketing over the past two decades, but it’s evolving faster and more dramatically than anything I’ve ever seen. Previous SEO updates were small and easier for organizations to adapt.

The recent addition of AI in search is having a big impact on many businesses, including healthcare and purpose-led organisations. Many organizations seem unsure of how to make their websites appeal to both humans, AI, and traditional SEO. Is AI-search a temporary trend or something long-term that needs our marketing attention now?

When it comes to search, people increasingly start their journeys on social platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn rather than on Google (HubSpot, 2024). At the same time, AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are becoming part of early-stage research to compare products, interpret data, or clarify jargon before traditional searching begins (Statista, 2025).

While Google still matters for validation and comparison, it’s no longer the default starting point for SEO, as it has been for the past 20+ years.

Today’s buyer might encounter a pain point on social media, ask AI for context, watch reviews on YouTube, check Reddit for unfiltered opinions, and only then visit a company website. That’s not a funnel. It’s a pinball machine. In this article, I’ll explore how organizations can tailor their content and SEO strategies for this new way of searching.

How Customers Buy: Then vs. Now

It’s long been understood that a customer needs multiple touchpoints with your brand before making a buying decision. In the past, these were usually touchpoints that you controlled (your website, social media account, ads, and other owned content. Today, this single “should I buy” decision may lead them through multiple channels (not necessarily content you control): a TikTok spark, ChatGPT research, a Google search, a LinkedIn scroll, a Reddit review, a YouTube demo.

For small and mid-sized marketing teams, it can feel impossible to get your content on all these platforms. Instead, look at it as a chance to simplify. You don’t have to be everywhere; you just have to show up where your audience actually makes sense of problems. Wherever you decide to create content, you need to create content that is human and user-friendly.

The Problem Discovery Stage (Where Google Isn’t Dominant Anymore)

In the past, many businesses focused most of their SEO and content efforts on creating content for people who already know what they need, not those still naming their problem. While this is still true today, a growing audience is still naming their problem, and that’s where AI meets SEO. Businesses need to shift their SEO and content strategy to cater to the problem discovery phase in AI search.

For example, instead of targeting SEO keyword phrases like “best telehealth platforms,” a healthcare tech company could write articles about “why patients skip follow-ups” or “hidden admin inefficiencies costing clinics revenue.” These topics address the pain points people are researching on AI platforms, rather than the solution (at least to start). This kind of content educates before it sells, positioning your brand as a trusted expert before the buyer is even in-market. It’s this kind of content that AI search is more likely to include in its responses to queries.

Research Mode (Platform Hopping Goes Wild)

As people learn more about their pain point, and see your organisation mentioned in AI search results or social media, they switch to research mode to learn more about you. This part of SEO and traditional marketing strategies hasn’t changed as much: building credibility and trust.

As they research, they may explore content on platforms and tools like:

Google (still the go-to for detailed answers).
LinkedIn (builds credibility and peer trust).
Reddit (provides real-world experiences and third-party opinions).
YouTube (shows proof in action).
AI tools (to synthesise their research into shortlists, comparisons, and summaries.

As searchers land on AI search tools, you want your content to be quoted and referenced. This only happens when it’s structured and clear. AI can only summarise what it can understand. Humans can only trust what feels genuine. Aim for both, starting with the strategies in the next section.

Platform Strategies That Work

Your SEO and content strategy on each platform will be slightly different. Here’s our top, high-level strategies for popular online channels to help guide users through their discovery phases as they use traditional search and AI tools:

Google: Focus your keywords SEO phrases for people who know what they’re looking for. Prioritise optimizing content for Google algorithms that are in-depth, E-E-A-T, and intent-based.
AI Tools: To get referenced in AI search results, structure your content for visibility. Use headers, bullets, and FAQs to make your expertise easy for AI and humans to read.
TikTok: This channel is becoming a fast-rising star as a search engine for younger audiences. On this platform, create content that skips the sales pitch and focuses on quick, useful, authentic insights.
YouTube: Continue using video and shots to build authority through tutorials, walk-throughs, and case studies.
LinkedIn: Let team members speak. Authentic, personal posts often outperform polished corporate updates.
Instagram: Think “visual storytelling with substance.” Use Instagram for carousel posts, quick insights, or behind-the-scenes content and stories.

The AI Integration Reality

AI is now the first research stop for millions of users (Pew Research, 2024). People ask tools like ChatGPT for summaries, comparisons, or industry snapshots before ever visiting a brand’s site.

Use this as an opportunity to get discovered by your target audience early in their research phase. To do this, make your content AI-friendly:

Use structured formatting (headers and bullet lists).
Keep paragraphs concise.
Focus on clarity and context over keyword stuffing.
Add an FAQ section for related, commonly searched questions
Don’t forget to write descriptive meta titles and descriptions (AI looks for these).
Add author bios and credentials to build credibility
Add publish and update dates to content (so AI can assess recency)

SEO and AI are merging. SEO ensures your content is found. AI ensures it’s understood and reused. When your brand can master both, you’ll increase your visibility in our evolving world of online search.

What AI SEO Means for Your Business

SEO has long been a necessity for businesses to establish and grow their online visibility. Now organizations must add an AI layer to their strategy to cater to the new way people discover and search online.

To help you get started, here’s my recommended first four steps:

Map your real customer journey. Ask recent customers what influenced them (don’t guess).
Pick your platform focus. Instead of spreading yourself too thin, choose two or three platforms to focus on (base these on where your customers spend their time online).
Create structured, layered content. Create content that acknowledges a problem and creates awareness, compares solutions, and offers solution guidance.
Prepare for longer sales cycles. More research means slower conversions. Prepare for a longer sales cycle, but potentially stronger commitment from those who eventually choose your solution.

The Challenge of Modern Search Measurement

Like any marketing strategy, you need to measure its effectiveness. Unfortunately, AI SEO is a non-linear path, making it hard for traditional analytics to provide accurate measurements. Someone might discover you on social media, research via AI, visit through search, and convert after a retargeting ad weeks later. Currently analytics can’t track this multi-platform navigational path, so you may never know where your customers come from.

Shift your analytics strategy from chasing attribution perfection to monitoring brand strength indicators:

Branded search volume
Direct traffic
Engagement and mentions across platforms

These brand indicators show whether your audience is recognising and remembering you. (Of course, you can still use traditional metrics like click-through-rates to measure the effectiveness of individual campaign paths)

My Take

It’s been fascinating to watch how SEO has evolved over the past 20+ years. I believe that AI-search isn’t a passing phase. It’s forever going to change the landscape of digital marketing.

Yes, it’s more complex, but it’s also more human. Today’s buyers are curious, cautious, and connected. The brands that meet them with transparency and clarity will win loyalty long before conversion. This can be your brand!

To achieve this brand trust, show up consistently and conversationally across multiple platforms to educate, without shouting or tooting your own horn too loud. This is how you’ll become the trusted voice that helps people make sense of their challenge.

At Out-Smarts Marketing, this is our focus: helping the care sector and purpose-led organisations adapt to how people actually search, decide, and buy today. From SEO and AI-ready content to transparent reporting, our work centres on clarity, credibility, and results.

Let’s chat more about how you can adapt your traditional SEO strategy to make it appealing for the future of AI-search. Book a free discovery call today to ask your questions.

Mhairi Petrovic (pronounced [ˈvaːrɪ]) is the founder of Out-Smarts Marketing and specialises in search behaviour and digital strategy. She helps organisations understand how customers discover and evaluate products across platforms, and turn those insights into ethical, effective marketing strategies.

Connect with Mhairi on LinkedIn