Just as I was starting to feel somewhat comfortable with the current state of AI, Google I/O hit like a tidal wave.
I finished watching the recording and was left reeling. This was not just from the sheer volume of updates, but from their implications. The sudden flood of AI advances, Gemini 2.5, agent workflows, AI-infused search, and multi-modal breakthroughs - left me questioning whether “keeping up” was even a viable goal anymore.
This disorientation didn’t come from a lack of interest or effort, it came from the speed of change. Just as we begin to internalize one shift, another wave crashes in. And the impact of these shifts goes beyond the technical. What’s happening in search, for instance, is not just algorithmic. It's behavioral.
John Bonini recently shared a post that really captured this: AI isn’t just changing how people find content, it’s replacing the need for search altogether. Gartner predicts a 25% decline in traditional search activity by 2026. Why? Because AI tools don’t just point you in the right direction anymore. They do the work. They give the answer. No fluff, no friction.
The industry’s response, in many cases, has been to double down on the content treadmill: publish more, SEO harder, keep pushing. But that feels increasingly disconnected from reality. The truth is, we can’t optimize our way out of a behavior shift this massive.
The more meaningful path lies not in fighting the tide, but in shifting how we create and communicate. Interestingly, homepage traffic is actually up, because people still want to learn about the brand they engage with. Homepage content is likely to need to change - customers no longer need “how to” content as much as they need “how you” content - your approach, your lived experiences, your thinking. That’s the stuff AI can’t replicate (yet).
Traffic to product and service pages is also holding up for now, because they’re focused on unique value that you provide, but traffic to these pages could disappear as Deep Research adoption and agentic shopping shift the buyer journey further.
I’m still trying to synthesize all of this, and honestly, I’m still overwhelmed. I’m a marketer who’s been trying to proactively disrupt myself using AI for well over a year, and yet I walked away from that keynote shaken. If even the best tools frozen in their current state would take us a decade to fully exploit, how are we supposed to stay afloat when the pace keeps accelerating?
This moment demands not just adaptation, but reflection. Not just strategy, but honesty. We have to stop pretending we can reverse-engineer a future that’s already arrived, and start building a voice that’s human, differentiated, and deeply rooted in our lived context.
Because in a world where AI can mimic almost everything, your unique thinking might be the last true moat.
