Shifting search strategies in the age of AI

“Hey Siri, search for a grocery list starting with …”
“Hey Alexa, what are today’s deals on …”
“Dear ChatGPT, where can I find …”
“Yasmina, what’s that song with lyrics saying …”

The ways in which people search and shop are changing. People in the Middle East have switched from habitually opening default browsers on their devices to querying generative AI engines, virtual voice assistants and interactive chatbots.

Personalised recommendations, tailored discounts and product suggestions are now expected by mobile-first and multilingual Middle East audiences – especially given that their multi-modal search has been layered with generative AI tools.

This has ushered in an era of ‘zero-click search’ – with answers being spoon-fed through artificial intelligence (AI)-generated summaries. Add to the mix agentic AI, which are systems that act on behalf of users, and shopping agents, which autonomously compare prices, find discounts and ‘add to cart’. This has welcomed a culture that no longer requires consumers to manually hunt for deals. In short, the path to purchase is no longer linear or as textbook as the funnel would dictate.

Marketers are pivoting accordingly. Search specialists are being called on to become AI content strategists. Keyword optimisation and traffic-centric tactics are giving way to ‘answer engine optimisation’ (AEO).

Brands – and the agencies servicing them – are no longer catering only to consumers; they are also attempting to ensure that their data and content appeal to algorithms and machines taking decisions on behalf of consumers.

Marketers must ‘learn pronto’ 

Campaign Middle East speaks to several industry leaders about the evolution of multi-modal search experiences, changing consumer search preferences, and how marketers need to measure better in the age of AI.

Terry Kane, Managing Director – Middle East and Africa, The Trade Desk, begins the conversation by saying, “Search is moving beyond keywords, reshaping how consumers express intent. The challenge for marketers isn’t just to be present – it’s to stay relevant across channels with adaptive creative, rooted in durable identity and contextual insight.”

Najeeb Jarrar, Regional Marketing Director – Middle East and Africa, Google, adds, “Marketers’ key challenge now is recognising richer, more intuitive consumer interactions. This requires optimising for context and intent across input modalities, not just keywords. To simplify this: brands must ensure content is discoverable and understandable visually, audibly and across complex queries.”

With an aim to unleash the untapped potential of search through AI, Google revealed AI Overviews at its recent Google Marketing Live 2025 event, rolling out the tool across more than 200 countries and territories, with support in more than 40 languages, including in Arabic.

When asked about the speed of adoption of such search tools, Jarrar says that AI Overviews has already gained more than 1.5 billion monthly users globally, while Google Lens currently witnesses more than 25 billion visual searches each month, with a significant portion of users – up to one in every five – showing commercial intent.

Reacting to AI Overviews and new interfaces such as ‘io’, the AI device cooked up by OpenAI and former Apple designer Jony Ive, Laura Gleadhill, General Manager, Keyade Middle East, a WPP Media brand, says, “These point to a screenless, conversational future. For marketers, this means content, product feeds and site structures need to be optimised for AI interpretation, not just search engines. The priority is ensuring your brand is eligible to surface in these new environments – not just be discoverable. Teams across search engine optimisation (SEO), paid and content must work together, and measurement needs to account for multi-surface, zero-click interactions.”

The role of platforms is also changing. In 2024, approximately 64 per cent of Gen Z consumers used TikTok as a search engine, driven by the wealth of content available on the platform, according to an Adobe study.

In this context, Terry Mo, Head of Digital, OMD, raises some interesting questions: “How do platforms differentiate between real and AI-generated content? Are they willing to fight the battle? Will regulation step in to combat this, or will the line be drawn naturally between platforms that pride themselves on engaging quality content and platforms that build their reputations on accuracy?”

As such, leaders agree that brands need to rethink their content strategies, especially in a culturally sensitive region. While aiming to achieve distinctiveness, brands must foray beyond keywords to embrace relevant elements across modalities.

“But this is easier said than done,” says James Dutton, Chief Product Officer, UM MENAT. “It requires staying culturally relevant by understanding nuanced, contextual conversations while adapting to ever-changing AI generated content, which is being blended with brand content.”

“Another key challenge is ensuring accessibility across all modalities,” Dutton says. “The concept of brand distinctiveness is important here, where clear value propositions and integrated experiences are created to meet heightened consumer expectations.”

Jarrar adds, “In this new era of search, success hinges on a deeper, human-centric strategy resonating with the region’s youthful, mobile-first population. This requires shifting from keywords to understanding user intent and creating high-quality, culturally attuned and authoritative information – particularly in Arabic. For MENA brands, the goal is to be a trusted answer within intelligent search to build lasting brand affinity.”

However, to achieve this, marketers must welcome change and upskill on the go – quickly.

Sholto Douglas-Home, Chief Marcomms and Sales Officer, Expo City Dubai, says, “It’s clear this convergence of modalities will rapidly become the norm, but exactly how this will change the way content is tagged, loaded and optimised is something that we as marketers are having to learn – and learn pronto.”

Commenting on what marketers must prioritise learning, Douglas-Home adds, “In principle, it’s all about breaking down content silos, keeping on top of adtech developments, and designing for large language model (LLM) and intra-platform discoverability. That said, the reality is likely to be more fundamental in terms of understanding changing human behaviour: people will be re-framing and re-orientating their search expectations by moving from ‘searching for an answer’ to ‘searching for inspiration’.”

‘‘Brands must appeal not just to humans, but to AI agents making decisions on their behalf.”

What’s next for search specialists? 

Before we discuss what’s next, it’s important to acknowledge that search has been witnessing significant change – even before the dawn of generative AI.

OMD’s Terry Mo explains, “Knowledge graphs and search on social platforms have been taking a share of search activity from the established search engines, while more specialised queries have split off to platforms such as online travel agencies (OTAs) and retail e-commerce. Search specialists with a laser focus on Google Search have been shifting towards irrelevance, but specialists requiring understanding of consumer behaviour is more important than ever.”

With the advent of generative AI has come the ‘zero-click search’ era – an age when search queries result in definitive answers, not requiring further click-throughs that were previously required by search engines that offered links to the most relevant results. Hence, ‘zero click’.

“This repositions the roles of search specialists,” Jarrar says. “Their focus must evolve from driving clicks to ensuring brand visibility and authority within AI-generated summaries and multi-modal results. The goal becomes one of ‘more useful results’. Search specialists must delve deeper into content quality and how generative AI synthesises information. They will be instrumental in building genuinely valuable and informative content, encouraging engagement even without immediate clicks.”

With consumers favouring conversational queries and AI summaries, Deepak Mankani, Head of Search Experience, Merkle MENA, adds, “Specialists must optimise for LLMs, voice search and social platforms – all while maintaining the usual rigour on SEO fundamentals. As traditional search engine traffic is set to decline, new metrics such as AI share of voice and AI readiness will prioritise the search engine results page (SERP) presence and engagement over clicks.”

The notion that search specialists must shift from driving traffic driver to driving brand visibility is further cemented by leaders who point to the fact that AI is increasingly answering questions directly in the SERP.

Keyade Middle East’s Gleadhill says, “Search specialists now need to optimise for presence within AI-generated content – not just for clicks. That means focusing on structured data, content relevance and technical hygiene. The role has become more strategic, sitting at the intersection of SEO, paid media, content and user experience (UX). Specialists need to shape how and where a brand appears, even when the user doesn’t land on the website – and redefine performance accordingly.”

UM MENAT’s Dutton takes this a step further, saying that search specialists will need to evolve from “keyword strategists” to “AI content architects”.

Dutton says that search specialists will need to “craft structured content that is both discoverable by AI and engaging for human users, while also focusing on creating unique brand experiences that go beyond simple information retrieval to driving deeper connections and brand loyalty.”

He adds, “The future may hold a world where brand websites, as we know them, become obsolete – an era when it’s not just zero-click but also zero-page, and when AI manages most consumer interactions.”

The age of agentic AI

Industry leaders also share that agentic AI will fundamentally change the customer journey and, by extension, the marketing playbook.

Gleadhill says, “Consumers will delegate tasks such as buying, booking or researching, and AI agents will make decisions based on structured inputs: availability, reviews, pricing and relevance. That shifts influence from the consumer to the algorithm.”

This shift challenges traditional marketing tactics. Visibility, trust and AI agent-optimised experiences have become a ‘must do’ for marketers because agentic AI tools are revolutionising brand interactions.

Merkle MENA’s Mankani says, “Brands must appeal not just to humans, but also to AI agents making decisions on their behalf. As agentic AI replaces passive models, success will depend on being discoverable, trusted and integrated into these new decision-making ecosystems.”

Gleadhill adds, “Marketers need to ensure their data, product feeds and content are clean, accessible and optimised for machine-led evaluation. Messaging still matters – but technical readiness, operational agility and trust signals will increasingly determine if your brand gets picked.”

Additionally, agentic AI is also surpassing traditional reactive models, providing personalised and proactive engagement by anticipating user needs. It also offers tailored, real-time recommendations.

Dania Dallasheh, Business Director, Spark Foundry, says, “By autonomously gathering and analysing data, agentic AI grants brands deeper insights into consumer behaviour for more informed strategic development. This shift from reactive to proactive marketing drives brands to integrate these tools, crafting seamless and intuitive experiences.”

It’s no surprise, therefore, that agentic AI tools are reshaping the way brands connect with consumers in the digital age, and the way marketers are strategising and executing campaigns. For instance, Google’s Marketing Advisor – an AI-powered Chrome sidekick for marketers, announced in June 2025 and due to roll out later this year – is expected to offer real-time guidance, conduct business assessments and identify strategies across diverse properties, streamlining complex tasks and uncovering new growth opportunities.

Unlike traditional chatbots, Marketing Advisor will be able to proactively assess performance, recommend alternative strategies, and even apply changes across multiple business units. There’s no doubt about it: Marketing will need to not only embrace agentic AI but also learn how to engage with it.

Jarrar says, “From strategic planning and optimisation to reporting and troubleshooting, marketers will need to engage AI directly for holistic campaign management. This represents a significant evolution beyond traditional AI models, which have primarily focused on data analysis or content generation. Agentic capabilities, being integrated into platforms, aim to provide personalised recommendations, insights and automate problem-solving.”

Expo City Dubai’s Douglas-Home goes to the extent of calling agentic AI a “game-changing opportunity for brand owners,” especially given that AI agents are becoming the ‘masters’ of personal shopping and customer service by handling autonomous, multi-layered and informed brand interactions.

He says, “Handled correctly, any AI agent delivering customer experiences that genuinely resonate with a brand’s values, messaging, tone of voice and principles will open the door to a holy grail of optimised marketing campaigns through ultra-niche personalisation and empathy on steroids.”

While eMarketer data reveals that the adoption and execution of such AI experiences still lags behind technological advancement, leaders share that companies such as Google that are deepening AI integration into their core products will catalyse the shift towards agentic AI.

However, industry leaders also caution that this shift should be built on foundations of trust and led by utility. With increasing consumer demand for personalised and seamless brand experiences, marketers need to wade carefully into the agentic AI realm, rather than diving in merely because the option exists.

OMD’s Mo says, “Consumers will shift to agentic AI if they trust that AI over the brand. For example, I might use an agent to book a holiday. But if I have a favourite hotel group, then will I use an agent on that brand’s website or will I use a commercially available agent to search for cheaper prices, acting like a modern OTA? That choice will depend on the individual consumer. The only wrong move is when a brand ignores the possibilities of agentic. That’s just bad customer experience (CX).”

Dutton adds, “We shouldn’t get bogged down ‘developing an agent’ but rather focus on leveraging the right environments to create meaningful consumer utility experiences.”

“The shift in conversation away from media metrics and towards business impact is one of the healthiest things to have happened to digital media for many, many years.”

Diversify and measure search for better outcomes

The truth of the matter is: Search has diversified far beyond Google and Bing. It also includes retail platforms such as Amazon and noon, social search on TikTok and Instagram, and AI-driven discovery through tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews.

With marketers navigating fluctuating cost per click (CPC), new channels such as retail media and consumer demand for personalised recommendations are now forcing marketers to diversify and measure better.

Gleadhill says, “As CPCs rise on core search channels, marketers need to diversify within the search ecosystem – investing in retail media for high-intent moments, optimising feeds and product data for visibility, and using first-party signals to personalise experiences.”

She adds, “Measurement must evolve too: incrementality testing, margin-based metrics and cross-channel attribution are critical to prove what’s truly driving business results, not just clicks.”

The Trade Desk’s Kane agrees, “Don’t chase CPCs. The key is to diversify and focus on goals and tangible outcomes. Retail media, connected TV and audio all work better when you have a unified view of your customers and their behaviours in real time across all these channels. Fragmented ‘disconnected’ campaigns are often a sign that the right tech stack isn’t in place.”

Kane also calls for marketers to leverage programmatic advertising for enhanced targeting, deeper insights into campaign performance, real-time optimisation, and personalisation at scale across the open internet.

Leaders also agree that marketers must:

• Embrace AI-powered ad products designed to reach users across new ‘inputs and outputs’ without requiring additional work;
• Prioritise high-quality data and comparable measurement to track true performance and optimise campaigns; and
• Focus on the full funnel, from discovery to decision, ensuring a strong presence across all stages where consumers interact with information.

Dutton says, “This requires a shift from the popularity of lower-funnel, performance-based media metrics to holistic brand growth measurement frameworks that capture brand lift, cultural resonance, and the overall impact on brand health, enabling data-driven decisions that maximise return on investment (ROI) and build lasting brand value. Overcoming this challenge requires a focus on long-term brand building and a willingness to experiment with new measurement methodologies.”

If done right, this move from monitoring CPCs to holistic brand growth through new measurement methods could be just the medicine the industry needs to revive itself.

Spark Foundry’s Dallasheh says, “Leveraging data analytics and AI insights enables precise tracking of consumer behaviour and preferences, allowing more tailored personalised recommendations that collectively drive desired business growth. Implementing advanced attribution models facilitate more effective cross channel impact evaluation, improving investment efficiency amid fluctuating CPCs.”

She adds, “By prioritising customer experience and engaging content across various touchpoints, marketers can now strengthen brand loyalty while adeptly measuring and adapting to the rapidly evolving marketplace.”

Mo sums it up, saying, “CPCs were never a reliable metric, and any move we can make towards new measurement solutions is a win for the industry. Even brands and advertisers can shift focus to metrics such as brand lift and digital attention measurement, or use marketing mix modelling to measure the overall impact on business objectives.”

He adds, “The shift in conversation away from media metrics and towards business impact is one of the healthiest things to have happened to digital media for many, many years.”

All in all, marketers have their work cut out for them in the way they craft content and search strategies; embrace and engage with generative AI, agentic AI and shopping agents; and go the extra mile to connect with consumers calling for relevance, personalisation and memorable brand experiences.