What is actually changing
AI-generated answers now sit at the top of many searches, satisfying informational questions directly without a click. Someone asking how something works may get a complete answer in an AI Overview and never visit a site. This compresses the informational, top-of-funnel traffic that publishers and some advertisers relied on.
What this does not do is remove commercial intent. A person ready to buy a product or hire a service still needs to reach a provider, and that transactional demand continues to flow through ads and websites. The change is concentrated at the informational end of the funnel, where AI answers are most complete, and it thins out gradually as intent becomes more commercial and specific.
What stays the same
High-intent commercial search remains the core of paid search, because AI answering a question is different from AI completing a purchase or generating a lead. When someone searches to buy a specific product, compare providers, or hire a service in their area, they are looking to act, and ads that meet that intent still convert. The auction, the bidding, and the fundamentals of matching offer to intent are unchanged for this demand.
So the durable strategy is to lean into the commercial, transactional demand that AI search does not satisfy, rather than to compete for the informational traffic it now absorbs. The advertisers most exposed are those who relied on top-of-funnel informational clicks, while those focused on ready-to-act commercial queries are far more insulated.
The measurement shift
As click patterns change, measurement gets harder and more important. If some journeys now include an AI answer before a later commercial search, attribution becomes murkier, and the value of the eventual high-intent click may be underappreciated if you only look at last-click. Strong conversion tracking and an understanding of the fuller journey matter more as the funnel reshapes.
This is also a reason to double down on first-party data and durable measurement, because the signals are shifting under everyone at once. Accounts with honest, reconciled measurement will navigate the change better than those relying on fragile tracking, because they can see what is actually converting even as the paths to conversion evolve.
How iClick is adapting accounts
iClick's response is not to panic about AI search but to concentrate spend on the commercial, transactional demand AI does not satisfy and to strengthen measurement as click patterns move. The approach treats AI Overviews as a change in the top of the funnel to understand, not an existential threat to paid search, and it keeps accounts focused on the high-intent queries where ads still convert.
The method also means watching how AI search evolves and where new ad formats appear within it, since platforms are actively integrating ads into AI experiences. Staying close to that evolution, rather than assuming the old playbook holds unchanged, is how iClick keeps accounts positioned for where search is going.
