Will SEO Survive the AI Wave? How Web Intelligence Is Evolving
The rise of AI chatbots and generative search is fundamentally changing how people find information online, challenging traditional SEO strategies and creating new opportunities for businesses that can adapt quickly.
The Shifting Landscape of Online Search
The internet has been built around traditional search engines like Google for decades, with businesses investing heavily in ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs). However, this paradigm is experiencing a dramatic shift as AI tools rise to prominence.
“The largest challenge is that ranking doesn’t mean traffic anymore,” explains Anna Sharma, Marketing Communications Manager at NetNUT. “Being cited by AI is more important than being number one in the search results.”
This transformation requires businesses to rethink their digital strategies entirely. Rather than focusing solely on ranking metrics, companies must now optimize for AI visibility and citations.
From Ranking to Being Cited
The introduction of AI overviews in search engines and the growing popularity of AI chatbots has created a new digital reality where users often get answers without ever visiting a website. This fundamental change means businesses need to adjust their approach:
- Optimize content to be quoted by AI rather than just rank well
- Create structured, clear content that AI can easily parse
- Distribute expertise across platforms AI systems trust
- Monitor how AI tools perceive and represent your brand
“For everyone out there who is asking, should we invest more in SEO? I have an answer. Not in the SEO ranking anymore, that doesn’t matter. Your ranking doesn’t bring you the clicks anymore, but invest in your SEO visibility,” Sharma advises.
How AI Search Actually Works
Understanding the mechanics behind AI search reveals why proxy services and data collection have become so crucial. When a user queries an AI system, the process is far more complex than traditional search:
“When I ask ChatGPT how to solve a problem, I will not wait for half an hour for it to check each source one by one. The AI cannot allow such a long time process… when the user request comes, it has to visit all those search results simultaneously,” explains Sharma.
This parallel processing enables AI to synthesize information from dozens or hundreds of sources almost instantly. However, it requires sophisticated infrastructure to execute these simultaneous requests across different regions, devices, and user contexts.
The Infrastructure Behind AI Intelligence
For AI systems to deliver relevant, personalized results, they need to access the web from various locations and device types. This is where proxy networks become essential:
“AI is doing requests on my behalf, but it wants the results to be relevant for me. The AI has to take that into account, has to choose the right country, meaning the right IP, it has to choose the right device… it has to basically take my user fingerprint and replicate it in its own request.”
This infrastructure layer enables AI tools to collect real-time data from search engines and websites, effectively turning traditional search engines into a commodity infrastructure for AI-powered interfaces.
Tools for the AI-First World
As businesses adapt to this new reality, several tools are becoming essential:
Search API tools allow companies to see how AI systems view their content and whether they’re being cited in AI-generated responses.
Scraping APIs provide cost-effective ways to collect structured data without building custom solutions.
Anti-blocking technology ensures consistent data collection even when websites change layouts or implement anti-scraping measures.
The Future of Web Intelligence
Looking ahead, the demand for web data collection is only likely to grow as AI becomes more integrated into everyday tools.
“The hunger for data is only growing,” notes Sharma. “Even when we ask ChatGPT or Gemini what the best restaurant is, we are directing the AI to scrape the web for us.”
This trend points to a future where search engines might evolve from consumer-facing products to infrastructure providers for AI systems, fundamentally changing how information is organized and accessed online.
For businesses navigating this transition, the key is adaptability—recognizing that the rules of digital visibility are being rewritten and developing strategies that prioritize being cited by AI rather than simply ranking well in traditional search results.