The AI Search Shift Is Already Here and Your Customers Are Already Using It

AI specialist wearing glasses and a conference badge at an AI event.

Every few years something happens in marketing that genuinely changes the rules. Mobile was one. Programmatic was another. And right now, in front of us, AI search is doing the same thing only faster, and with less warning. I’ve spent the first quarter of 2026 head-down in the data here at Phoenix Marketing HQ, looking at how people are actually finding businesses online today versus twelve months ago.