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What do we do about ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI agents?

Last week, I presented at BrightonSEO - the world's largest search marketing conference - where thousands of marketers and business leaders gathered to discuss what's actually working in digital marketing right now.
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My session: The Agentic Era: How to Optimise for AI Agents, Not Just Humans [access slides here].
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As you'd expect, AI dominated most conversations. But here's what surprised me:

Nobody was panicking.

Instead, conversations were practical: What's working. What's not. How to track it.

The search community isn't scrambling. They're adapting. Fast.
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​And I can't think of a better group to lead AI strategy than the people who understand both humans and machines.

If you're already doing SEO well, you're halfway there to figuring out your AI strategy. The other half? Giving your team time to test, track, learn, and adapt.
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Meanwhile, elsewhere this week in search and AI...
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​What Public Companies Recently Said About AI and Search
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Booking.com:​
"Travel clicks that are coming to us from traditional search are still going up year-over-year. The number of leads we're receiving from large language models is relatively small, but it is growing."

Translation: Traditional search still dominates. AI traffic is tiny but increasing.
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​Wayfair:
​"We are actively shaping the future of agentic commerce with a clear dual-pronged strategy. First, we view this as a new additive channel for growth, so we will be where our customers are. This begins with ensuring a vast and specialised catalog is deeply integrated and accurately represented on leading AI and search platforms including Google, OpenAI and Perplexity."

Translation: AI agents are a new sales channel.
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​CoStar Group (Homes.com, Apartments.com):

"SEO remains the foundation of AEO and GEO, though a portal's brand, content, and context remain the key building blocks for success. Today, GEO is sub-1% of top-of-funnel acquisition... but will become a much bigger top-of-funnel traffic feed. Many believe that traffic from GEO may be monetised the way Google monetised SEO with SEM."

Translation: AI traffic is less than 1% today but growing. SEO skills are the foundation. This could become the next paid search.
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​The consensus: All three agree - AI traffic is tiny today (sub-1%), traditional search still dominates, but AI is growing consistently and SEO fundamentals remain the foundation.
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​👉 Public Company Commentary on SEO and AI in 2025 - Detailed.com

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PayPal + OpenAI: ChatGPT Just Became a Checkout Page​
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Yesterday, PayPal announced a landmark deal with OpenAI: they're embedding payments directly into ChatGPT.

Starting in 2026, users will be able to discover products, compare options, and complete purchases - all without leaving the conversation. PayPal handles payments, fraud protection, tracking, and disputes.
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​Compare the funnels:

• Google Shopping: Search → click → website → cart → checkout

• Amazon: Search → product page → add to cart → checkout

• ChatGPT + PayPal: Ask → recommend → buy → done
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​The funnel just collapsed.​
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​What this means: 800 million weekly ChatGPT users will be able to complete purchases without ever visiting your website. Product data quality, content, and popularity determine whether you're recommended. The time to optimise is now.
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👉 OpenAI and PayPal Team Up to Power Instant Checkout and Agentic Commerce in ChatGPT - PayPal Newsroom

👉 PayPal signs deal with OpenAI to become the first payments wallet in ChatGPT - CNBC Finance

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Your Analytics Just Broke: What ChatGPT's Atlas Browser Means​
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Last week, ChatGPT launched Atlas - a Chromium-based browser built directly into ChatGPT.
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If you've been watching Google Analytics, you might have noticed something strange: a spike in "new users" that aren't actually new.
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​What's happening: When users switch from Chrome to Atlas, their GA cookies don't transfer (by design, for privacy). GA4 treats returning customers as brand new visitors.
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​The impact: New users inflated, returning users deflated, attribution messy.
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​Who's affected: Early adopters - marketers, developers, tech enthusiasts.
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If you have unexplained new user spike - that's Atlas.
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👉 Introducing ChatGPT Atlas - OpenAI

👉 When a New Browser Launches: What I'm Seeing in Google Analytics for ChatGPT’s Atlas - Analytics Playbook

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How Does ChatGPT Traffic Perform Compared to Traditional Channels?​
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A new study analysed 973 e-commerce sites ($20B combined revenue) to see how ChatGPT referrals actually perform.
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​The results:

• ChatGPT traffic: 0.2% of total (200x smaller than Google)

• Conversion rates: lower than all traditional channels except paid social

• Average order values are declining over time

• Growth rate: 40% month-over-month
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​The consensus from the researchers: "This evidence challenges narratives of LLMs as immediate Google killers but also points to potential for long-term channel evolution."
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​Why this matters: Brands shouldn’t abandon traditional search just because LLMs are hot. But right now is the window to test while stakes are low and learning is cheap. By the time AI traffic is 5% of your total, early movers will have 12-24 months of optimisation advantage.
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👉 ChatGPT Referrals to E-Commerce Websites: Do LLMs Outperform Traditional Channels? - University of Hamburg & Frankfurt School of Finance & Management [warning: 61 pages long PDF]

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Living 48 Hours Without AI​
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A.J. Jacobs tried an experiment for The New York Times: live without AI for 48 hours. He couldn't:

• Unlock his phone (facial recognition)

• Turn on lights (energy grid uses machine learning)

• Brush his teeth with tap water (NYC reservoir system uses AI sensors)

• Take the subway (fare monitoring, electronic signs)

• Pay with credit cards or use an ATM (fraud detection)

• Order lunch via Resy (machine learning)

• Walk his dog without anti-facial-recognition sunglasses (street cameras)
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We won't spoil what happened, but what's clear is AI isn't future tech. It's already the invisible infrastructure we live inside.
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👉 48 Hours Without A.I. - The New York Times​
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