How AI Search Platforms Shape Customer Questions — and What That Means for Your Brand

Fellow marketers: we all know that search is changing.

But now, it's not just about where customers search or even what answers they get back. It's about the very questions they're asking in the first place.

As platforms like Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Apple Maps redefine how people find information and make decisions, one thing is clear: the platform itself influences the search behavior.

This has become obvious to me in my own search behavior — so maybe you've noticed it in yours, too.

But the fact is: the way a person types a query into Google looks very different from how they talk to a chatbot, search in a map app, or use voice search. These subtle shifts in how people search create major implications for brands trying to stay discoverable across all search experiences.

If you're a marketer at a multi-location brand, this shift isn't just interesting. It's urgent.

Think about it: a customer searching "sushi near me" directly in Google Maps likely expects immediate, location-specific results. Meanwhile, when someone "dialoging" with ChatGPT to ask, "Where should I go for sushi for dinner tonight?" (or — ahem — "where can I get the best martini and fries in New York?"), the expectation isn't just a list — it's a curated recommendation.

Even when the intent is the same — finding something to eat — the platform guides the language, tone, and context of the question. And because AI agents, like ChatGPT, interpret intent conversationally (rather than retrieving blue links), the structure of the query itself affects what information surfaces.

Here's a direct-in-Google-Maps result with a (naturally) location-specific query. As you can see, it's very focused on location and NAP data:

In contrast, while someone might indeed ask ChatGPT for a sushi recommendation, the platform is inherently conversational. It invites users to type or speak a full question, and it certainly doesn't start by showing a map.

Plus, anyone who has used a conversational AI platform knows they'll be able to ask follow-up questions and continue to prompt the model. This all adds up to different expectations — and (often) different behavior.

A more conversational AI search query (via ChatGPT) boasts different context and shows different results:

Notice the difference:

• Traditional search or map apps, like Google, prioritize structured, location-based results.

• Conversational AI platforms summarize, compare, and suggest — pulling from broader datasets.

For brands, these differences are crucial. They illustrate why understanding the mechanics behind queries is more than a technical detail. It's foundational for brand discoverability in the "new" search world.

If your brand's data isn't organized, structured, and available across all these touchpoints, you risk being left out of the conversation altogether.

Chat-based platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity don't just display answers — they generate them. They interpret messy, human, natural language queries that look more like conversations than keyword searches, and create synthesized, conversational responses.

Again, instead of typing "best hotel in downtown Chicago," a user might ask, "I'm heading to Chicago for a conference — where should I stay downtown?"

These interfaces don't just reflect a user's intent — they interpret it. And the more conversational the input, the more critical it becomes for your brand's data to be structured, accessible, and contextualized correctly.

For brands, this shift demands a new approach:

• Making sure your location, hours, and offerings are clearly listed — and "machine-readable

• Writing content that answers questions in a natural, easy-to-understand way

• Thinking beyond traditional SEO to meet your customers where they are

• Prioritizing a knowledge graph to organize facts about your brand in a way AI can process

In short: if AI-driven search platforms are interpreting customer questions, your brand's data needs to be ready to answer — clearly, consistently, and across every touchpoint.

As you probably already know: it's no longer enough to optimize content for one kind of query or one kind of platform. Today, your customer's search journey could start anywhere. Your brand's information has to be present and optimized for a query in a Google search box, a question asked via Siri or another voice assistant, in a conversation with ChatGPT, in an exploration with Perplexity, or on a map app.

Your brand needs to show up accurately in all of them.

But this doesn't mean reinventing your entire digital presence. It means understanding where your customers are searching and making sure your structured data, listings, pages, and unstructured content are aligned, accessible, and AI-readable.

Ask yourself:

• How am I performing — everywhere someone might search? (For example: how is my brand showing up in a voice search result? In a map search result? In AI Overviews? Etc.)

• How do I compare to my competitors when it comes to that performance?

• And above all: what do I need to do to improve?

This isn't just about being first on the list for every question a potential customer asks. (That's not realistic, even though we all wish it were.) Instead, it's about being understood — and being useful — in every search experience.

As search platforms evolve, brands need to evolve with them. That starts with awareness: of how platforms shape behavior, how queries are formed, and how your content can meet those queries where they are.

Your customers are still searching. But their questions are changing because search platforms are changing. Is your brand ready to answer?

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