The AI-Fueled Vibe Shift Happening in Product Search

As we stand on the cusp of a new era in retail, one thing is clear: AI isn’t just disrupting search—it’s completely reinventing its future.

Evolving Landscape of Product Search

In our recent SMX Next demo session, Vibe shift: Elevating shopping ads with AI-powered natural language search, Lily AI explored how retailers can navigate the evolving product search landscape.

Take, for example, Google’s historic search engine dominance. Today’s consumers are no longer confined to traditional search engines, like Google, when looking for products.

In fact, consumers are increasingly searching on:

  1. Generative AI answer engines, like Perplexity and ChatGPT
  2. Retail media, such as Amazon and Walmart
  3. Social media, including TikTok and Instagram

In our session, we covered the broader changes occurring across the search and retail landscape, no doubt accelerated by advancements in AI. These changes are happening across channels, and can be measured by changing consumer behavior as well as the advertising dollars that inevitably follow.

While it is true that search is diversifying and evolving, Google still commands approximately 70% of search ad spend today. This means for retail marketers, it’s still a “Google world.”

As Google’s dominance slowly gives way to a more diverse and fractured search environment, it’s critical that brands and retailers adapt to both a changing world today–and tomorrow.

The AI-Fueled Vibe Shift

In our SMX Next demo session, we delved into these critical issues as well as critically, how to address them:

  • The State of Product Search and Advertising: We explored how AI is reshaping consumer search behavior and its implications for retailers.
  • Preparing for an Increasingly Feedless GMC Future: As Google moves towards a more AI-driven approach, retailers need to adapt and harmonize advertising, product, and e-commerce strategies.
  • Lily AI’s Attribute Platform Live Demo: We showed how easy it is to ensure Shopping Ads and Organic Listings are always enriched with Lily AI’s customer-centric attribute data.

Enduring Principles in an AI-Forward World

The more things change, the more things change the same time. When it comes to advertising relevance and search engine optimization, certain principles will become more crucial than ever:

  1. Content Quality is the New Content Quantity: High-quality, authentic information is key in an AI-curated world.
  2. Natural Language is the New SEO: Understanding and aligning with natural consumer language is critical for success.

Since Lily AI was founded, we’ve been deeply committed to empathizing with consumers as we emphasize the importance of understanding natural language and intent.

Looking ahead as we navigate this new era of product discovery, retailers must embrace the changing consumer behaviors shaped by AI, technology, and media. By focusing on high-quality, customer-centric content and leveraging tools like Lily AI’s attribute platform, retailers can stay ahead in this rapidly evolving digital retail landscape.

The future of product discovery is here, and it speaks the language of the consumer.

Product Attributes 101

The right product attributes speak the language of your customers. Here, we explain what product attribution is and how it can help you make the most of the hottest trends.
Read the blog