Three ‘reality checks’ for businesses in the AI search era

We keep asking ourselves: “Will AI kill the internet?” But the issue isn’t the disappearance of the web. It’s the fact that it’s already no longer the primary source consumers visit to find answers to their questions. For twenty years, companies have shaped their image through their websites, but that era is ending.

In 2026, the first impression of your brand will come from an AI interface that filters information and answers a query before the user even reaches your site. If brands don’t prepare for this transfer of power, they risk letting others write their story.

AI isn’t just another channel. It’s a layer of interpretation between you and the market that prioritises collated information into informed summaries and next-step recommended actions. Throughout 2026, we will continue to see shifts in AI where recommended actions move to agentic “do it for me” processes.

AI will choose the sources that define your business

The first reality is simple: AI will always talk about you. When queried, it sorts through available data and delivers a relevant answer that users increasingly accept without verifying. The starting point for discovery is no longer your website, but multiple citation sources including local listings, reviews, social posts and blogs.

And that’s where we need to pay attention, because those sources sit in a web where misinformation is now inherent. The first European SIMODS report estimates that around 20% of TikTok content on public-interest topics contains false or misleading information, equating to nearly one post in five. In that context, letting AI “fish” on its own means accepting that it may build your image from questionable content as much as from facts.

That’s why Model Context Protocols (MCP) will increasingly become a strategic topic of interest. These standards let brands feed models with structured, verified data, instead of AI deciphering unverified information.

AI will recompose your information

Even when AI relies on your content, it doesn’t read it like a human entering your website as a visitor. Instead, it extracts facts and entities, then rewrites. It consumes your data rather than your narrative.

The direct consequence of this is a changing role of the website. We’ll see websites become a back-end base meant for machines as much as for people. As it stands, most companies still publish for a linear web with long pages of scattered information and messages buried in text.

Poorly structured information will be reshaped in AI’s own way. Sometimes well, but sometimes poorly - and a single error on a product promise, price, HR policy, or CSR commitment is enough to damage a brand’s reputation. In an environment where AI summaries are trusted, the impact of errors is amplified.

Brands must stop thinking of content as pages to read and start treating it as a database of facts to cite. They should feature short, clear pieces of information that are regularly updated and labelled unambiguously. In 2026, we need to optimise for AI visibility.

AI will decide your credibility

We rejected cookies for years because they embodied silent surveillance, yet we now share far more intimate information with AI assistants, such as personal issues or upcoming plans. Why? Because the benefit is immediate and the friction has disappeared.

But that trust is conditional and any content generated or modified by AI will need to be clearly disclosed. Think about questions such as: Who is speaking? When? Based on which sources? With what level of certainty?

In finance, healthcare, and insurance, an estimation quickly turns into an economic or legal risk. And as AI is becoming the dominant interface, the requirement for disclosure automatically extends to the brands it cites. If AI gets something wrong about you, any doubt will fall on your credibility rather than on AI.

These three realities point to the same shift. The internet isn’t dying, but the source of truth no longer sits within the brand itself. In a world where the interface is AI, you can’t manage your brand’s image by staying silent because AI will talk about you anyway.

In this environment, AI visibility begins with structured data, such as a verified Knowledge Graph, that consistently feeds into every consumer-facing endpoint where AI systems learn, reason and respond.