AI chatbots and agentic tools are fundamentally changing the way users discover brands, which means they’re fundamentally changing marketing and search.

If that sounds big, it is. Combined traffic to AI search tools is up by 158% YoY to 7 billion visits per month. While the market has some way to go to catch up with Google, which receives 82 billion visits per month, the growth trajectory is tremendous and should not be ignored.

The way users discover information has changed more in the last 2 years than in my 20 years in the marketing industry, so the impact of AI search cannot be underestimated. Yet marketers have few places to turn for guidance, advice, and inspiration in AI search and generative engine optimization.

As a marketer myself, I saw that there are publications that cover the technical specs and documentation around how these tools work, but many of them are aimed at developers, and only a few are for marketers trying to manage their brand visibility and understand AI’s potential as a channel for growth.

This publication is designed to change that.

At the AI Search Lab, we’ll bring you insights from marketing leaders who are experimenting, exploring, and dare I say, “delving” into how their brands are being surfaced in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and others. We’ll share how they’re using the latest AI search tools and which models are important for brand discovery today, and in the future.

And we won’t just talk the talk. You can expect to see deep research, tools, and actionable tips on how to be seen in ChatGPT and other LLMs, as well as how to manage and monitor your visibility.

Related: Wix Studio's AI tools will transform the way you work

How did we get here? 

When I first started my marketing career, Google was the primary tool for online discovery. Then, social media emerged, then video streaming. And with these new platforms, the idea of the messy middle became a very apparent reality as marketers tried to keep pace with 360-degree campaigns and an omnichannel presence.Then came ChatGPT.

Breaking big in 2022, ChatGPT created not just another channel for users to discover brands and information–but a highly disruptive one. With its clean interface and extensive training data, ChatGPT now receives 5.5 billion visits a month, and it’s considered the “fastest growing consumer application in history.” It disrupted the search industry immensely, leading to ground breaking changes in how search players like Google and Bing delivered results for everyday users.

Within a few months, we saw the emergence of Perplexity, Claude, and other AI-powered search platforms. Then, the new Bing, an AI-powered search assistant, put Google on “Code Red,” pressuring them to add more obvious AI innovations to their classic search experience with Search Generative Experience and the evolution of AI-Overviews.

Fast forward to Google I/O 2025, and we see that the increasingly agentic Google Gemini is the driver behind Google’s AI Mode and the development of hyper personalized search. AI has fully penetrated the classic search experience and LLMs have become a part of nearly every facet of the user journey.

Wait, isn’t this just SEO?

Is ice skating the same as rollerblading? No. Are the skills transferable? Yes. That’s how I feel about AI Search Optimization vs. SEO: yes, the skills translate; yes, SEOs are poised to be the professionals to lead us into the new world of AI search. But no, they are not the same.

Marketers who drag their feet and stick only to the previous best practice, will get left behind. LLMs and AI search demand that we build on our existing SEO knowledge to optimize for this new wave of search. I’m ready to do that, and I hope you are too.

What to expect from the AI Search Lab

This space is changing fast. There's a lot of noise, fear, and some uncertainty. But there’s also a lot of opportunity. 

And that’s what the AI Search Lab will focus on: giving digital marketers the tools, advice and insights to make the most of this incredible technology. We’ll tap our internal Wix Studio experts and industry leaders on the cutting edge of AI search to give you everything you need to experiment—and succeed—in the world of LLM optimization. We’ll also share the latest Wix Studio features that improve your site’s LLM presence, like the new AI Visibility Overview now available in Wix Analytics.

Where to find us

Right here, in the AI Search Lab, but also on LinkedIn and monthly in the Wix Studio Searchlight newsletter. And since we’ll be following our own LLM optimization advice and best practices, feel free to ask ChatGPT about us, too.