Search where an AI system answers a query directly from retrieved sources, instead of returning a list of links.
AI Search is search where an AI system answers a query directly, retrieving sources and writing a synthesised reply instead of returning a ranked list of links. It covers Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews, the search behaviour of AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini, and any answer engine that reads the web to respond.
What separates AI search from classic search is grounding: the system runs one or more searches, retrieves pages, reads short extracts, and composes an answer from them. A brand becomes visible here by being retrieved and then cited or mentioned in the generated answer, the outcome AI Visibility measures and Answer Engine Optimization works toward.
