What real usage data from 2024–2026 proves about AI search behavior and why it complements, not replaces, SEO
Let’s clear something up before anyone starts drafting a panic email to their SEO agency.
This is not an obituary for search engine optimization.
SEO still works. For many brands, it works extremely well. If your organic traffic is compounding, your rankings are sticky, and your pipeline is healthy, congratulations. You should keep doing that.
This post addresses something else entirely.
Consumer behavior around search is expanding.
AI search behavior is now layered on top of traditional search, and the data shows it is becoming a default path for a growing share of users. Not instead of SEO, but alongside it.
Ignoring that layer is the risk. Integrating it is the opportunity.
AI Search Does Not Replace Search. It Broadens It
Search behavior does not change overnight. It accretes.
Historically, new discovery behaviors stack before they subtract. Mobile did not kill desktop search. Social did not kill Google. Marketplaces did not kill brand websites.
AI search follows the same pattern.
Consumers are not abandoning Google’s blue links en masse. They are adding AI mediated search moments where speed, synthesis, and clarity matter more than ten blue links.
That distinction is critical for how brands should respond.
The Data That Confirms AI Search as a Real Behavior
Across independent datasets, AI search now meets the criteria of a mainstream behavior: frequency, substitution in specific contexts, and measurable impact.
Consumer Self Reported Behavior
According to the Attest 2025 Consumer Adoption of AI Report, 27 percent of consumers use generative AI for at least half of their searches.
Not half of their experiments. Half of their searches.
That means AI is no longer a novelty tool. It is a repeated behavior used for product research, learning, and decision validation.
Platform Usage Confirms Scale
Survey data is only useful if it aligns with real usage.
It does.
The Andreessen Horowitz State of Consumer AI 2025 report shows ChatGPT sustaining 800 to 900 million weekly active users into 2025. Exposure Ninja further reports roughly 2 billion queries processed per day by late 2025.
That volume places AI search platforms in the same behavioral class as legacy search engines, not adjacent utilities.
Google Is Already Training AI Search Behavior
One of the more persistent misconceptions is that AI search only matters if users leave Google.
They do not have to.
Exposure Ninja reports that AI Overviews now appear in approximately 18 percent of Google searches globally. That means AI mediated answers are already embedded in traditional search experiences.
From a consumer perspective, this is seamless. They ask a question. They get a synthesized answer. The mechanics are irrelevant.
This is why AI search behavior does not replace SEO. It reshapes how SEO output is consumed.
The Referral Signal Most Brands Miss
The strongest evidence that AI search matters is not usage. It is traffic behavior.
According to Exposure Ninja, AI search referrals grew 357 percent year over year. That means AI answers are increasingly sending users downstream to brands, products, and publishers.
This is the bridge between SEO and GEO.
AI search is not a dead end. It is a new front door.
SEO vs GEO: A Practical Comparison
| Dimension | SEO | GEO |
| Primary goal | Rank pages | Be included in AI answers |
| Query style | Keyword driven | Natural language questions |
| Output format | Links and snippets | Synthesized responses |
| Brand visibility | Page position | Citation and inclusion |
| Measurement | Rankings and traffic | Mentions, referrals, authority |
This is not a fork in the road. It is a widening lane.
SEO still captures demand that starts with Google. GEO captures demand that starts with questions.
Why GEO Exists Alongside SEO
If SEO is about discoverability through pages, Generative Engine Optimization is about discoverability through answers.
Brands that win in GEO tend to share a few traits:
- Clear positioning and factual consistency
- Strong third party validation and citations
- Structured content that AI systems can parse and trust
- Visibility across earned media, not just owned assets
This is why Proper Propaganda treats GEO as an extension of PR, not a replacement for SEO.
Search engines rank pages. AI systems synthesize narratives.
Those are different jobs.
How Proper Propaganda Thinks About the Stack
At Proper Propaganda, we assume SEO continues to matter. We also assume it is no longer sufficient on its own.
Our AI & Search work focuses on ensuring brands are:
- Citable inside AI responses
- Consistently represented across authoritative sources
- Structured for machine interpretation without sacrificing human clarity
For deeper reading:
- Why PR Is Becoming Search Infrastructure
- How AI Search Changes Brand Discovery
- What Makes a Brand Citable by AI
Conclusion: SEO Still Works. GEO Expands the Surface Area.
If SEO is working for your brand, keep doing it.
But understand this.
AI search behavior is now a parallel path consumers use to find answers, compare options, and decide what matters. GEO does not replace SEO. It expands the surface area where brands can be discovered or ignored.
The brands that win are not choosing sides. They are covering ground.
That is not hype. That is just how search behavior evolves.