A seismic shift is happening in how users find information online ... and it's not just a fad. It’s called LLM Search (Large Language Models), and it’s changing the industrial marketing landscape faster than most are ready for. Think ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, and other AI-driven chatbots ... they’re no longer just toys for techies. They’re becoming the new search engines for how industrial buyers get informed and make purchase decisions.
And here’s the kicker ... traditional search isn’t going away tomorrow, but the data says it's bleeding out.
Let’s define the beast. LLM (Large Language Model) Search uses AI to synthesize and deliver conversational, cited answers rather than a list of blue links. Users type a question ... and get a neatly summarized, often brand-cited response.
No scrolling. No skimming 10 blog posts. No bouncing back to the SERP.
The experience is frictionless, fast, and shockingly effective.
Google has already baked this into its AI Overviews — those quick summaries at the top of results pages, powered by Gemini. As of early 2025, 13.14% of all Google queries now trigger an AI Overview ... and that’s growing.
But here’s the wake-up call ... only 8% of users actually click through to the source of those summaries. That’s not a typo. That’s a full-blown behavior shift.
Does your industrial brand show up?
With Google Search, you optimize for ranking, meta descriptions, and click-through rates. Your reward? Website traffic, which you can track, nurture, and convert.
LLM Search plays a different game. The prize isn’t a click — it’s a brand mention embedded in an AI’s answer.
Does your industrial brand show up? Sorry!
There may be no link. No traffic. But if your brand is named in a ChatGPT or Gemini result, you’ve just entered the buyer’s subconscious.
More than that ... they’ll often go search your brand directly. And when they do, they’re already informed and 4.4x more likely to convert than the tire-kickers coming from traditional search.
It’s not about playing the old SEO game better. It’s about playing a new game entirely.
We’re already in the middle of the transformation. Before ChatGPT’s launch, around 55% of all searches ended in zero clicks. That number has only ticked upward with LLMs in play.
This means that even if you do rank on page one ... your content might never see daylight.
For B2B industrial buyers … already a research-heavy, engineer-minded crowd … AI search tools are a godsend. They remove noise and surface clear answers.
If your brand isn’t showing up in those synthesized answers ... it’s like being invisible at the trade show.
Projections from Semrush (my trusted SEO and AEO research tool) are downright shocking. Here's what they predict for search traffic share:
Yes, the future of search is AI ... and it’s coming at you like a freight train.
What this means for industrial marketers? Get on board or get steamrolled.
This isn’t about swapping keywords ... it’s about visibility inside the AI experience.
Start here:
Your website, blog, and thought leadership don’t need to rank anymore ... they need to influence the AI model’s responses.
That’s a major shift in mindset. One that rewards authority, clarity, and brand depth over cheap traffic hacks.
The industrial marketer who wins in the next 24 months will be the one who realizes this early ... and acts decisively.
Because once your competitor's brand becomes the default answer in ChatGPT ... it’s game over for you.
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