Published on: May 13, 2025 / Updated on: May 13, 2025 – Author: Konrad Wolfenstein
Is Google dominance coming to an end? Brands in the AI search world: Insights from OMR 2025 – Image: Xpert.Digital
OMR alert: AI is rewriting the rules of online search – what brands need to know
Visible despite ChatGPT & Co.? OMR strategies for your brand in the AI era.
At this year's OMR Festival in Hamburg, which took place on May 6th and 7th, 2025, one topic was particularly in focus: How can brands remain visible in an increasingly AI-dominated search world? The following report summarizes the key findings and strategies presented in various lectures and sessions.
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The AI revolution in the search landscape
The way people search for information online is fundamentally changing. While traditional search engines like Google have dominated the market, AI-powered alternatives such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are gaining increasing importance. At OMR 2025, it was clearly emphasized that AI is permanently changing online search behavior. Google is already responding by offering AI summaries for certain search terms, often making further research unnecessary.
Nicholas Turley, Chief Product Officer of ChatGPT and one of the star guests at the festival, emphasized the growing importance of AI systems: “Many of us have no idea what else will be possible. AI will become much more useful to us.” He added that Germany is one of OpenAI’s most important markets. This statement underscores the urgency for German brands to engage with AI search.
Fundamental differences compared to classic search
The new AI search engines function fundamentally differently from their traditional counterparts. While Google indexes websites and ranks them according to specific algorithms, AI systems generate direct answers based on their training data and additional web sources. A crucial difference: These systems do not offer classic organic search results with fixed rankings.
In a masterclass by the SEO company Claneo at the OMR Festival, it was highlighted that young people in particular no longer rely solely on Google, but increasingly search on various platforms such as AI and social media platforms. This makes SEO broader and more complex.
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New strategies for brand visibility in AI search results
The changing search landscape requires companies to adapt their strategies. Several presentations at the OMR Festival offered concrete recommendations for action:
Consistent SEO practices remain important
Experience with hundreds of search engine campaigns has shown that companies that continuously optimize for search engines also perform better in Perplexity and other AI search engines. The reason: AI search systems also use indexable and crawlable URLs to generate results.
Building a trustworthy brand identity
Compared to other answer engines, Perplexity places particular emphasis on a domain's authority, reputation, and trust. This can sometimes lead to larger brands dominating the responses. Therefore, it's all the more important for smaller businesses to build a strong brand identity.
In an OMR Deep Dive session on “How AI is revolutionizing SEO: GPT Search and AI Overviews”, exclusive insights were presented from a recent SEO study with 2,000 respondents from Germany and the USA, which analyzes the changed search behavior through AI-supported functions.
Optimization for AI search
Several concrete measures were presented at the festival:
- Semantic depth instead of mere keywords: For AI-supported voice assistants and chatbots, companies should focus on semantic depth, technical readability and clear language.
- Clear content structuring: For Google AI Overviews, website content, structural clarity, and relevance to the search intent are paramount.
- Define individual key phrases: Companies should ensure that their brand is associated with specific, recurring phrases across the web.
- Organic PR strategies: Articles, podcasts, and mentions in trusted sources can improve visibility in AI search results.
Measuring and analyzing AI visibility
One challenge for marketing managers is measuring visibility in AI search systems. Various approaches to this were presented at the OMR Festival:
Specialized tools for AI visibility measurement
Otterly.AI was introduced as an AI search monitoring platform for monitoring brands and content on emerging AI search platforms. The software is aimed at marketing and content teams looking to improve their visibility on Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.AI.
Self-analysis of AI visibility
Instead of waiting for external tools, companies can already test their visibility in AI systems themselves. LLMs are capable of dialogue and provide consistent, structured answers when asked the right questions. Those who ask targeted questions quickly identify gaps or distortions in the presentation of their own brand.
Challenges in AI search optimization
Optimizing for AI search engines also brings difficulties:
Time delay until visibility
Unlike traditional SEO, ChatGPT optimization is slow and involves uncertainties. New content and mentions often only appear in ChatGPT after 6-9 months.
‼️🛑 We at Xpert.Digital cannot confirm this. We have evidence that new articles and topics can be found in the AI search within just a few minutes.
Limited controllability
LLMs are not directly controllable like traditional SEO. Technical optimization is hardly possible; only long-term brand building truly helps. While Google AI Overviews are based on content from "neutral" sources, Google still considers authorship, credibility, and brand strength.
The future of AI search and its implications for brands
Experts at the OMR Festival predicted that AI-powered search functions will continue to increase. A BrightEdge study presented during a session shows that perplexity searches are growing by 40% monthly. Furthermore, 60% of the quotes in these searches overlap with the top 10 organic Google search results.
Google is continuing to test its AI-powered ranking algorithm, which is expected to overtake Perplexity once officially launched. However, the biggest changes will likely be in the ranking criteria used, with a greater focus on contextual relevance, user engagement, and website credibility.
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The balance between AI optimization and authenticity
The presentations and discussions at the OMR Festival 2025 made one thing clear: AI search engines are fundamentally changing the digital marketing landscape. For companies, this means they must adapt their strategies without losing the authenticity of their brand.
Experts advise that those who think in terms of answers rather than just keywords will remain visible tomorrow. Brands should focus not only on technical optimizations, but above all on trustworthy, up-to-date, and semantically rich content that offers genuine added value for both human readers and AI systems.
The AI search world may bring new challenges, but it also offers opportunities for brands that are willing to look beyond the traditional SEO horizon and develop a holistic content and brand strategy.
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Konrad Wolfenstein
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