I Tested AI Search for 3 Days

Generated with the help of AI by Sandy Rowley.

Over the past few months, I kept hearing the same thing:

“Search is changing.”

At first, I brushed it off. SEO has “changed” every year for the last two decades.

But something felt different this time.

So I decided to run a small experiment.

This is part of a larger shift in how AI SEO is being defined and understood. Read tech news article here: https://shein-fashion-discovery.top/01/ai-seo-expert%3C/em%3E%3C/a%3E%3Cem class="css-ak7tmt-Italic">

For three days, I stopped using Google the way I normally would. Instead, I used AI tools — ChatGPT, Perplexity, and a few others — and asked them the same kinds of questions people search every day.

Simple things. Business questions. Local queries. “How do I fix this?” type problems.

What I found wasn’t what I expected.

Day 1: The Answers Were… Good Enough

At first, I was impressed.

The responses were fast, clean, and easy to read. In many cases, they felt more helpful than a list of search results.

If I were an average user, I probably wouldn’t click anything else.

And that’s when the first thought hit me:

If people are getting what they need from the answer itself…

why would they visit a website at all?

Day 2: Something Started to Feel Off

After a while, I began to notice patterns.

A lot of the answers sounded similar. Even across different platforms, the tone and structure didn’t change much.

More importantly, the depth wasn’t always there.

Some answers felt:

• slightly generic
• a bit surface-level
• missing real-world nuance

They weren’t wrong.

But they weren’t complete either.

Day 3: The Gaps Became Obvious

By the third day, I started asking more specific questions.

That’s where things got interesting.

When I asked:

• detailed business questions
• local service-related queries
• niche topics

the quality dropped.

Sometimes the answers:

• skipped important details
• generalized too much
• or didn’t reference strong sources at all

In a few cases, I found myself thinking:

“There’s a much better answer to this… and it doesn’t exist here yet.”

What Surprised Me the Most

I expected AI to be either wildly inaccurate or incredibly advanced.

Instead, it landed somewhere in the middle.

It’s good enough to satisfy most people.

But not strong enough to replace truly well-thought-out content.

And that creates an interesting situation.

What This Might Mean Going Forward

If AI continues to improve — and it will — more people may rely on it instead of traditional search.

But at the same time, AI still depends on existing content to form its answers.

Which means there’s a gap.

Not a small one, either.

A noticeable gap between:

what AI provides

and what could be provided

The Opportunity Hidden Inside This

This is the part that stuck with me after the experiment.

If AI is pulling from available information… and that information is incomplete or generic…

Then there’s room for better content.

Not more content.

Better content.

More specific. More grounded. More thoughtful.

The kind of content that doesn’t just answer a question, but actually explains it.

A Shift I Didn’t Expect

After 25 years working in SEO, I’ve seen a lot of changes.

But this is the first time I’ve felt like the goal is shifting in a meaningful way.

It’s not just about getting someone to click anymore.

It’s about being part of what gets surfaced in the first place.

Final Thoughts

The experiment didn’t make me think SEO is going away.

If anything, it made me think it’s becoming more important — just in a different form.

The fundamentals are still there:

understanding what people are asking

creating something genuinely useful

But now there’s an added layer.

It’s not just about being found.

It’s about being understood.

About the Author

Sandy Rowley is an SEO expert and web designer with over 25 years of experience helping businesses grow their online visibility and generate revenue through search. Since 1999, she has worked with a wide range of clients, specializing in search engine optimization, website strategy, and digital marketing.