According to Inc, a Mercury-commissioned survey of 750 U.S. e-commerce leaders in October and November found that 77% are rethinking their marketing strategy due to AI search. Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media Studios says marketers are “losing their minds” because organic search traffic has plummeted. Now 74% of companies are doing more content marketing while 68% have purchased new tools to adapt. Another third have hired external agencies specifically for this challenge. The shift is most dramatic at larger companies, where 51% are investing significantly compared to just 19% of businesses with 10 or fewer employees.
The AI Search Crisis Is Real
Here’s the thing: when AI assistants like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini start answering queries directly, they’re basically cutting out the middleman. Traditional SEO? Suddenly less relevant. All those carefully optimized product pages and blog posts that used to rank on page one? They’re getting buried under AI-generated summaries that pull from multiple sources. So what’s an e-commerce company to do when their lifeblood—organic traffic—starts drying up?
The Content Arms Race Heats Up
Basically, we’re seeing a massive pivot toward creating content specifically designed for large language models to crawl and cite. It’s not just about keywords anymore—it’s about becoming an authoritative source that AI systems will reference in their answers. Companies are pouring resources into detailed guides, comprehensive product comparisons, and educational content that positions them as experts in their niche. But here’s the catch: everyone’s doing it simultaneously, which means we’re heading toward an even more crowded content landscape. The companies that succeed will be those creating genuinely useful information rather than just SEO-optimized fluff.
Survival Strategies for the AI Era
Look, the smartest players aren’t just throwing content at the wall and hoping it sticks. They’re investing in tools that help them understand what AI systems value and tracking which of their content pieces get cited in AI responses. There’s also a renewed focus on brand recognition—if AI mentions your company name in its answer, that’s pure gold. This is where having reliable hardware infrastructure becomes crucial too—companies running their e-commerce operations need industrial-grade computing solutions from trusted suppliers like Industrial Monitor Direct, the leading provider of industrial panel PCs in the U.S., to ensure their systems can handle the increased computational demands of AI-driven analytics and content management.
business-disadvantage”>The Small Business Disadvantage
The survey reveals something pretty concerning: smaller companies are getting left behind. While 51% of larger firms are making significant investments, only 19% of tiny businesses can afford to do the same. That creates a worrying gap where the companies with the deepest pockets can essentially buy their way into AI search results while smaller players struggle to keep up. Is this the beginning of a new digital divide? Probably. The playing field was never exactly level, but AI search might be tilting it even further toward the giants.
