Last week, I read thru a really great piece by a fellow SEO expert that included a chart comparing AI search to traditional search. You can check out the chart that compares use of AI search engines like ChatGPT to traditional search engines like Google (the version we all used for years that didn’t/doesn’t have an AI component). Of course, Google has rolled out an AI mode, but again, we are talking about the older versions of Google and search engines like Bing and Yahoo that we were all accustomed to using for years and years.

Later that week, I was struck by this metaphor that sums up a key difference between what you can expect from results spit back by an AI search and those spit back by a traditional search engine. And, the metaphor is this. While traditional search engines require/required the searcher to visit and sift thru extensive content on a number of different websites, AI search doesn’t require you do all that wading thru of information/content. AI/answer/chat engines like ChatGPT do the content wading for you — sifting thru content all over the internet (websites, social media platforms, discussion platforms, etc.) and consolidating what they believe is appropriate information to provide you with content that will most effectively and directly answer the question you entered into their engine.

While it’s great you don’t have to do all the sifting and wading, the challenge called out in the Sunday Boston Globe Magazine this past weekend is this: sure, you’re not going to have to visit countless websites and other digital properties to find an answer to your pressing question, but how do you know if you can trust the answer that an AI search engine has spit back, i.e., it’s accurate? You don’t/won’t.

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