Beyond search: How AI and social commerce are redefining brand value

The era of SEO-led e-commerce growth is ending

SEO (search engine optimisation) aims to improve a website’s visibility in search results through keywords, links and content, most notably within Google. For the past two decades, this practice has shaped digital visibility, directing consumer traffic and influencing the economics of online retail. However, this model is now under structural strain. The rise of generative AI and the rapid expansion of social commerce are changing how consumers discover, evaluate and choose brands. This means that it is no longer a marketing conversation: it is a question of long-term brand resilience and enterprise value.

Consumer search behaviour is undergoing a fundamental shift, moving away from traditional query-based journeys toward AI-mediated discovery. Early testing of Google’s Search Generative Experience indicates this transition could meaningfully disrupt web traffic. In one study of 23 websites, organic traffic declined by between 18% and 64%[1], highlighting a significant change in how consumers find information and interact with brands online. According to Bain, around 80 percent of consumers now rely on zero-click searches or AI-generated search results for at least 40 percent of their searches[2]. At the same time, younger consumers are bypassing Google entirely: around 1 in 10 of Generation Z now use TikTok over Google for search[3] and Google itself has acknowledged that almost 40 percent of younger users look to TikTok or Instagram first when searching for a place for lunch, before using conventional search[4]. Discovery has become fragmented and brand visibility is no longer guaranteed, even for established players.

This shift presents both risk and opportunity

Many brands that depend heavily on SEO are now seeing declining discoverability and rising acquisition costs, and risk losing ground to those adapting to GEO, or Generative Engine Optimisation, which focuses on improving visibility within AI-generated search results. At the same time, social commerce ecosystems are reshaping purchasing behaviour, with creator influence increasingly guiding decisions instead of search intent.

At EPIC Investment Partners, we witness this transition first-hand: the recent bolt-on acquisition of LSA International into The Rayware Group highlighted the growing importance of structured digital presence in value creation. LSA’s fast-growing e-commerce platform is already experiencing a notable rise in traffic from generative search tools, where visibility is increasingly driven by optimised product data, authoritative content and adaptive SEO practices.

GEO represents a fundamental reordering of digital discoverability, focused on ensuring that brands appear in AI generated responses on platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Google SGE. Whereas SEO focused on keyword signals and ranking position, GEO rewards structured information, editorial authority, verified expertise and data integrity. This marks a shift from intent-led search to relevance-led algorithmic selection, where engines choose which brands surface. Brands that provide structured product data, credible claims and strong authority signals are more likely to appear, while others risk exclusion. Instead of competing for one of many ranking positions on a results page, brands now vie for as few as three AI-generated recommendations, creating a pronounced winner-takes-share dynamic.

As generative systems mature, they are increasingly drawing from authenticated sources and machine-readable brand signals.  As a result, rich product detail, clear provenance, third-party validation and consumer-trust indicators now play a decisive role in determining visibility in the era of generative discovery.

The impact is already visible in market behaviour

TikTok Shop has increased UK seller commissions from 5 percent to 9 percent[5], signalling its growing leverage in shaping commerce economics and the dependence many brands now have on social-led retail channels. Ralph Lauren has introduced “Ask Ralph”[6], an AI-powered styling assistant designed to guide product discovery through conversational interfaces, reflecting how brands are beginning to adapt to AI-driven search environments and protect control over brand positioning. Advertising spend is following a broader shift toward creator-led and performance-driven commerce. Budgets are gradually moving away from traditional pay-per-click models as brands prioritise higher-converting, content-driven formats and partnerships with creators. Investors are also responding, with growing interest in brands that demonstrate strong communities, recurring revenue and diversified acquisition channels.

Winning in this environment requires strategic adaptation

For leadership teams, this evolution is reshaping how growth is built, measured and defended. Major digital ecosystems increasingly shape customer journeys and control the data layer, restricting a brand’s ability to build direct consumer relationships. This is already reshaping omnichannel retail, where online visibility now meaningfully influences in-store performance. In our portfolio, we have seen social media campaigns deliver significant footfall uplifts beyond management expectations. At Whittard of Chelsea, for example, a time-limited in-store promotion advertised primarily through social channels led to a measurable spike in store visits across the estate, demonstrating how digital visibility and physical retail performance are increasingly interconnected. Retail buyers are responding to this change, often asking suppliers to demonstrate digital discoverability through metrics such as share of search, TikTok conversion and AI-ranking visibility.

Five priorities are emerging among outperforming brands:

1. Engineer AI visibility

Product information must be structured in a way that generative engines can interpret it. This requires enhanced metadata, detailed product attributes, comparison tables and clear claims backed by evidence.

2. Rebalance media strategy

Performance spend will continue to lose efficiency. Deloitte forecasts that 20 to 30 percent of marketing budgets will shift to creator-led commerce in 2025 as user-generated content and genuine advocacy outperform paid ads.

3. Build brand authority

Generative engines prioritise signals of credibility. Third-party endorsements, media coverage, expert content and verified reviews now act as ranking signals.

4. Measure GEO performance

Brands should track AI visibility across key platforms. GEO reporting must join website analytics and marketplace dashboards as a standard executive metric.

5. Connect discovery to conversion

Consumer journeys are no longer linear. Effective brands now connect TikTok discovery with marketplace exposure and direct-to-consumer retention. This looped model displaces the old funnel-based view of acquisition.

Discovery is becoming a capability, shaped less by how loudly a brand speaks and more by how clearly it presents itself to both consumers and the systems that surface it. As this landscape evolves, brands must earn attention through clarity, substance and credibility rather than scale alone. Those that excel at this will be recognised and trusted more easily, both by audiences and the platforms that influence them.

[1] Search Engine Land: SGE Impact Study (2023)

[2] Bain & Company: Goodbye Clicks (2025)

[3] Adobe: Future of Search Report (2024)

[4] Forbes: Gen Z Dumping Google for TikTok, Instagram as Social Search Wins (2024)

[5] Ecommerce News Europe: TikTok Shop increases seller fees in the UK (2024)

[6] Wall Street Journal: Ralph Lauren has entered the AI age (2025)