AI platforms are the chefs in today’s digital kitchen, preparing meals of answers using whatever ingredients they can find.
For years, search engines offered a buffet – a long list of links for users to browse. This worked for basic searches, but anything more complex became tedious quickly. Users had to run multiple searches, sift through results, perform search after search, and make notes. It was a lot of work to find your answers.
Your series of searches to assemble your answer might include:
“Easy dinner recipes”
“What to make with chicken thighs and broccoli”
“Side dishes that go with roasted chicken”
“How to cook quinoa”
“Substitute for garlic if I’m out”
“Healthy dinner ideas under 600 calories”
Then you’d bounce between recipe blogs, scroll past pop-ups and long intros, and try to figure out what you want to eat, like walking the buffet, hoping things go together for the right meal in the end.
Now, users often expect a personal chef — an AI that serves a single, well-prepared answer, served up front and center before the traditional buffet of blue links begins.
“Give me a healthy dinner recipe using chicken thighs and broccoli, with a side dish, that I can cook in under 30 minutes. I’m out of garlic, and I don’t want anything spicy.”
Tools like Google’s AI Overviews, as well as AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, represent this shift. These AI platforms are the chefs in today’s digital kitchen, preparing meals of answers using whatever ingredients they can find.
What’s on the Menu? Your Indexed Content
To be included in these AI-generated answers, your content must meet two criteria:
- It must be high-quality and unique. Think of it as using fresh, premium ingredients.
- It must be indexable and technically sound. Ingredients need clear labels and must be easy to find in the pantry.
Content that is indexed has been identified, analyzed, and stored in the search engine’s database, making it eligible to be displayed in search results.
If your content isn’t original or easily accessible to Google, the AI chef will pull information from somewhere else, like Reddit, competitors, or even outdated content sources.
Not All Chefs Cook the Same
Different AI tools will deliver different responses even when given the same prompt. Why? Because each one has its own recipe (algorithm) and pantry (data sources), some lean heavily on forums like Reddit, others prefer academic or government data. Some blend everything together without disclosing their ingredients.
This unpredictability makes it more important than ever to control the quality and clarity of your own content.
Here is how ChatGPT and Perplexity each answered the same prompt:
ChatGPT:
Perplexity:
Why Google Still Matters Most … for now
Google has long dominated the “buffet” model of search. Now, they’re moving into the “personal chef” model, with far more resources than competitors.
With Google AI Overviews and Gemini integrated directly into the Google search experience, Google is cooking with tools and data no one else has. With Google’s more than four billion users in the US alone, vs ChatGPT’s 25 million, Google still serves answers right where people are already searching.
That doesn’t mean it will always be this way. ChatGPT is currently the market leader among the AI Chatbot set, having experienced explosive growth since its release. However, don’t forget that Google was once a tiny search engine dwarfed by Yahoo.
Content Evolution: After the meal
Some users will be satisfied with AI’s short, clear response—and that’s fine.
But others will have follow-up questions. They’ll want more depth, more specifics, or expert guidance. That’s when AI sends them to the source: your website.
This is where your content strategy pays off. The brands that win are those who own deep, trustworthy, and original content, especially content only they can create. That’s how you turn curiosity into conversion.
Bon Appétit!
As AI continues to reshape search experiences, the pace of change can be overwhelming for even the most seasoned marketers. Partnering with an agency that stays at the forefront of AI developments or identifying someone internally to keep up with the industry can help businesses navigate these shifts with clarity and confidence. With expert guidance, brands can adapt their search strategies proactively, turning disruption into a great opportunity.
Pan Galactic Digital is a digital marketing agency based in St. Louis, Missouri, that specializes in data-driven SEO strategies, consistently outperforming industry benchmarks and delivering sustainable, long-term growth for our clients.