Google Might Not Be Feeling Lucky Anymore: How Does This Affect Your Ecom Strategy

Apple just confirmed something that might change how our customers find our products: they're working on integrating AI search engines from OpenAI, Perplexity, and Anthropic into Safari. This isn't just another tech update—it's potentially a significant shift in how people discover products online.

Search Is Changing (And We Need to Pay Attention)

Here's something I never thought I'd see: Apple's Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue recently testified that searches on Safari decreased for the first time last month. After years of steady growth, people are searching differently, and Cue directly connected this to more people using AI-based search alternatives.

This matters because of the massive $20 billion arrangement that makes Google the default search engine on Safari. With about 1.5 billion active Apple devices out there, any change to how people search affects how they find our products.

We've reached a point where AI search interfaces are good enough that they're actually changing user behavior. And when discovery patterns change, our entire conversion funnels need rebuilding.

The Competitive Landscape Is Getting Interesting

Google still dominates with about 89.7% of global search market share, but things are shifting quickly. When Apple announced these AI search integration plans, Alphabet (Google's parent company) lost around $150 billion in market value in just one day. Investors clearly see the potential for big changes coming.

What makes this moment particularly interesting is that Google's search monopoly—recently confirmed by Judge Amit Mehta's landmark antitrust ruling—now faces its most significant challenge from both legal and technological fronts simultaneously. The ongoing antitrust remedies hearing has evolved beyond just addressing past anticompetitive behavior to tackling the future of how we'll all access information.

Government lawyers are making a case that without appropriate constraints, Google could simply leverage its search dominance to secure an equally commanding position in AI-powered information retrieval through Gemini. The Justice Department isn't messing around—their proposed remedies include forcing Google to share data with competitors and potentially even divesting Chrome. This shows they understand that AI isn't just an evolution of search but a complete reorganization of how people find products online.

Google's response has been swift with their "AI Mode" button testing—sometimes replacing the old "I'm Feeling Lucky" option—offering a conversational interface with visual product and place cards that connect directly to inventory.

Meanwhile, OpenAI reports over 400 million weekly active users and more than a billion weekly web searches through ChatGPT's "Browse" feature, while Perplexity is securing deals that position its AI search closer to users' first point of device interaction.

What This Means for Ecommerce Businesses

For those of us selling online, we need to rethink some of our strategies. The shift from keyword-optimized listings to conversational discovery requires fundamental changes to how we present our products.

When people use AI search engines, they're not typing disjointed keywords anymore—they're describing what they need in natural language. "I need a waterproof backpack for hiking that can hold a laptop" instead of "waterproof hiking backpack laptop." This means we need to structure our product data to address functional attributes, usage scenarios, and comparative advantages.

This also affects how we track where our customers come from and how much we spend to acquire them. As traffic spreads across multiple AI platforms, it might cost more to maintain visibility everywhere. Early data suggests that paid placement in AI answer boxes might be more expensive than traditional search ads, which could change the math on our advertising spend, especially if we're operating on thin margins.

With iOS 19 expected in September 2025 potentially incorporating these new AI search options, we might have only months to prepare for significant changes in how customers find us.

We're moving from link-based search to answer-based search, which fundamentally changes the path from discovery to purchase. When AI systems become the primary information filters, having well-structured product data becomes critical for visibility.

How We Need to Adapt

Based on these changes, here are the key strategies we should implement:

First, evolve our product descriptions from keyword optimization to attribute-rich information that addresses functional characteristics, usage contexts, and comparative advantages. This helps AI systems accurately match our products to complex customer queries expressed in natural language.

Second, implement comprehensive schema markup to provide the structured data framework that AI systems use to understand product characteristics. The completeness and accuracy of this data will increasingly determine whether our products appear in AI-generated recommendations.

Third, recalibrate how we measure success to account for customers finding us through multiple channels. As people navigate between AI assistants, traditional search, and direct navigation, understanding the complete customer journey becomes essential for effective resource allocation.

The Bottom Line for Sellers

The integration of AI search engines into Safari signals a significant shift in how customers will discover products online. While traditional search isn't disappearing overnight, the trajectory is clear—conversational AI interfaces are becoming increasingly important gateways to online shopping.

The best approach is to start adapting now: enriching our product data, implementing proper schema markup, and experimenting with natural language descriptions that address real customer use cases. The sellers who successfully navigate this transition—understanding both the technical requirements and the changing customer journey—will likely find themselves at an advantage as these AI search capabilities become more widespread.

The way people find our products is changing, but the fundamentals remain the same: understanding customer needs and clearly communicating how our products meet those needs—we just need to make sure the AI understands that too.

• CMOs are going all-in on AI, from automating BDR scripts to rewriting GTM playbooks. Smaller brands are innovating faster while big ones get stuck in governance loops. Real adoption is messier, smarter, and way more hands-on than the hype suggests.

• Pinterest is under fire for mass bans, with users losing years of content and few clear answers. As AI moderation takes the blame, some are ditching the platform altogether and calling for a class action.

• Building SaaS, from nothing to something for free with AI!

  

• LinkedIn is turning up the volume on video ads. “BrandLink” lets marketers place ads alongside premium creators like Gary Vee and Bloomberg, great for brand recall, and a quiet step toward influencer monetization on the platform.

• Claude is now able to perform a web search for everyday tasks as well as more complex questions!

  

• Google’s Display & Video 360 is everywhere - Netflix, Roblox, Spotify, you name it. With AI-driven targeting and real-time deal suggestions, it's shaping up to be the smart marketer’s omnichannel Swiss Army knife.

• ChatGPT now recommends products directly in search with no ads (yet). Ecommerce brands can sneak in early by optimizing schema, fixing their robots.txt, and keeping reviews clean across the web.

• Pinterest’s new visual search lets users shop with vibes, not words. From decoding outfit aesthetics to “refine by occasion,” the platform’s leaning into image-first discovery and it’s looking very shoppable.

• Crafting prompts for agentic AI? It’s an art. Clear roles, step-by-step reasoning, tool guidelines, and refusal protocols are the blueprint for building task-oriented agents that don’t just talk—they execute.

• GPT-4o and its siblings hallucinate more than older models. OpenAI admits the newer “reasoning” systems are smart but error-prone, making them harder to trust especially when speed matters more than fact-checks.

• After losing 98% of traffic, one creator sat down with Google’s Search team and left with hard truths. Google favors big sites, but is trying to fix it. The lesson? Diversify, post video, and stop writing for robots.

• Take your business information and place it in this o3 prompt for a future thinking, actionable list of growth moves you should be doing!

  

• ByteDance Is Developing AI Smart Glasses!

• Instagram’s testing “lockable Reels”, videos only viewable with a secret code. Creators can use it to reward superfans, while brands might use it for exclusive drops or discount reveals. Think gated content, but make it cool.

🌄 Pikzels AI - Create AI-generated thumbnails effortlessly

⚙️ CapGo AI: Make market research effortlessly fast. Seamlessly gather vast web information into spreadsheets in seconds.

✒️ Dittto - Fix your hero copy with an AI trained on top SaaS websites.

🪄 InMagic - Uncover your personality based on your Instagram profile

✨ Chat Ur Data GPT - Boost productivity and unlock data insights with AI-driven assistance

🤖 Before Sunset: An AI personal assistant that plans your day by automatically generating daily schedules.

😍It was great, all I needed

🙂Good, not great

🙄It sucked