AI search terminology
AI search
What is AI search?
AI search is the category of search experiences in which an AI system interprets the query and composes a response, rather than returning a list of links alone.
Who uses the term AI search?
AI search is used as an umbrella category by publishers, analysts and the platforms themselves. It covers AI Overviews, ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and agentic search tools.
The term is descriptive rather than promotional, which makes it common in journalism and research.
How does AI search differ from related terms?
AI search names the surface. AEO, GEO and LLM SEO name work directed at that surface. AI Overviews is one specific product within the category.
AI search includes systems that retrieve live results and systems that answer from training data alone. Those two behave very differently and the single term obscures the difference.
What does AEO GEO LLM Seeding AI SEO - Or Whatever The F$ck You Want to Call It say about AI search?
The book reduces AI search to four jobs: make your entity unmistakable, publish genuine answers, earn independent corroboration, and stay consistent everywhere machines read for long enough to compound. It states that every genuine win in AI search seen across the author’s businesses traces back to those four jobs.