Is AI Killing Search — or Just Rewiring It?

A new stat stopped me in my tracks this week: LLMs send 94% less traffic than traditional search engines for the same query.

Let that sink in.

If a search term once sent you 100 website visitors, AI search will send you six.

The "blue link" — the humble, clickable search result we all fought to rank for — was once the heartbeat of discovery online.

It represented openness, competition, and the idea that the best answer would win. But its popularity is diminishing. And with it, so is much of the organic search traffic marketers once relied on.

To make sense of this shift, I’ve been listening to three very different voices — and each one adds a crucial piece to the puzzle. If you don’t already, I’d highly recommend you follow the trusted expertise of:

• Matt Lerner, who has worked with hundreds of startups on growth marketing, and is a world-renowned expert on product growth strategy.

• Kieran Flanagan, SVP Marketing at HubSpot, is on the front line of GenAI’s impact on marketing and content strategy.

• And Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy and renowned expert on ‘behavioural economics’, brings the behavioural lens — reminding us what makes humans tick when they search, browse, and decide.

Together, they paint a picture of a world where discovery isn’t dead — but it’s definitely been rerouted.

The Great Rewire: Discovery Has Changed

Kieran Flanagan, SVP of Marketing at HubSpot, recently shared that the company has lost 80% of its organic search traffic. That’s a seismic shift — especially when you consider that HubSpot spent over a decade building one of the largest content engines in B2B SaaS.

But Kieran’s takeaway? It’s not just about traffic anymore. It’s about relevance. Resonance. Fit.

• Search is no longer a funnel. It's a network.

• Social is the new SEO. And creators are the new search engines.

• The landing page is rarely the starting point. A reel, a tweet, a Substack might be.

The takeaway: We need to stop optimising for the click, and start designing for the moment of curiosity.

Not All Searches Are Created Equal

On a recent podcast, Rory talked about the value of ‘slow search’. Here’s what stuck with me:

"We refine our preferences in the act of searching."

Whether you're shopping for a house, planning a ski holiday, or choosing a B2B software provider, you often don’t know what you want until you start looking.

Rory's point is particularly relevant for two specific types of search intent: Navigational (getting to a known destination) and Commercial (exploring options, comparing offers)

AI may - in the future - shortcut these journeys, but it can also strip away the reflection, surprise, and meaning we gain through them.

Our job isn’t to help customers race to the answer — it’s to make the exploration worthwhile. That means designing content for experience, not just efficiency.

Your New Playbook for Discovery

Matt Lerner has worked with hundreds of early-stage startups on exactly this kind of problem: what do you do when the old growth levers stop working? His take is that this shift isn't a threat — it's a moment to rewire your entire approach around how people actually discover, trust, and choose your product.

He argues that the best growth strategies today aren't channel-first, they're distribution-led. And the best marketers aren't just content creators — they're content matchmakers, connecting audience needs with formats and platforms that resonate.

In a world without blue links, what do we build?

📚 Here’s the emerging playbook:

1. Be where discovery happens: LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, newsletters, communities.

2. Work with creators who already have trust: Think distribution-first. (I talked about this in last week’s post)

3. Design content that shapes preferences: Not just informs.

4. Earn attention with relevance: Don't just publish. Connect.

5. Move people from rented to owned: Email > followers.

Matt calls this the convergence of SEO, paid, outbound, and brand: all built around one core skill — understanding the customer’s information diet.

Search Isn’t a Channel — It’s an Intent

For years, “search” was synonymous with Google. But that idea is starting to crumble.

Today, we search everywhere: in TikTok videos, on Reddit threads, through Substack posts, in YouTube explainers— and yes, through generative AI like ChatGPT.

The shift isn’t just technological. It’s behavioural.

People are still searching — they’re just doing it across contexts and platforms, not within a single channel. And they’re doing it not just to find answers, but to make much more immediate sense of things, to shape opinions, and to refine what they value.

This isn’t the death of search. It’s the decentralisation of it.

This is Not the Death of Content

Maybe the death of the blue link isn’t the death of discovery. Maybe it’s the rebirth of content that makes us feel something. Content that builds trust. That helps people figure out what matters to them.

Search isn’t disappearing. It’s simply being rewired.

Humans will always search. But how we do it — the paths we follow, the signals we trust, the places we start — is shifting. As marketers, our job is to meet people in that new flow, not chase the old one.

Search has a new game... and we’re already playing it.