How to futureproof your search strategies in the AI era

CUSTOMER search is changing, with nearly half of consumers now using AI tools for brand research. In this shifting digital landscape, what does it mean to win at discovery? To unpack this question, South African agency Sauce Advertising spoke with Sam Davis, Senior Director of Solutions Engineering at Yext — the New York-based international leader in Digital Location Management software and the #1 Listings Platform for multi-location brands — about the rise of generative engine optimisation (GEO). Davis is based in the United Kingdom.

Sauce Advertising [SA]: Sam, you work with UK brands to modernise their discovery strategies and improve search performance. What are some of the biggest learnings you’ve had over the past 12 months?

Sam Davis [SD]: “Over the past year, the most striking change I’ve observed is the fragmentation of the search journey. We’ve moved from keywords to conversations, and from a “Google only” mindset to a world where discovery happens across multiple AI-led applications — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini — and even social platforms like TikTok.

“I saw this shift in action first-hand on a recent family holiday. My teenage daughters were researching places to visit, where to eat, and how to get there — but they never once opened Google Search or Google Maps. Everything defaulted to ChatGPT or TikTok. For them, Google simply doesn’t exist in their search ecosystem.

“This has big implications for businesses. People’s behaviours are changing — not only how they search, with more complex, conversational queries, but also where they search. Brands that fail to adapt to these shifts risk becoming invisible in the very places their audiences are now spending their discovery time.”

SA: Can these learnings be applied to other markets, like South Africa?

SD: “Absolutely — the principles are universal, even if the adoption curve varies from market to market. The fragmentation of the search journey isn’t a UK-only trend; it’s being driven by global shifts in technology and consumer behaviour. AI-led discovery tools, conversational search, and social-first search habits are influencing users everywhere — South Africa included.

“The pace of change may differ depending on external factors such as technology penetration, adoption, and cultural preferences, but the direction of travel is the same. Younger demographics in particular are already bypassing traditional search entirely, favouring platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or ChatGPT as their first step.

“Forward-thinking brands are even starting to explore Model Context Protocol (MCP) strategies powered by a Knowledge Graph like Yext - initially for enriching and streamlining internal knowledge GPT-enabled applications, but with an additional eye on future-proofing for how public Large Language Model (LLM) end-points could evolve to ensure brands can surface the most accurate, up-to-date brand-verified content to LLM users.

“For brands in South Africa, adopting this kind of approach early could be a powerful way to future-proof discoverability in the AI era.”

SA: What are some of the common mistakes that marketers are making in AI search and GEO?

SD: “One of the biggest mistakes I’m seeing is that marketers are still treating AI search as if it behaves exactly like traditional search. They focus purely on optimising for Google’s blue links, when in reality AI-led discovery surfaces content in completely different ways - summarised answers, conversational flows, and even responses that combine text, images, and other rich content. If you’re not structuring your content for machines to understand and contextually reuse, you’re effectively invisible in those channels.

“We’re also seeing a marked behavioural shift - from single keyword searches, to short-tail queries like ‘restaurant near me’, to long, highly specific conversational requests that AI can remember and personalise over time. For example, I could ask ChatGPT: ‘Book a restaurant for dinner on Saturday night within 10 minutes of the hotel.’ ChatGPT remembers that my wife and one of my daughters are vegetarians and can respond in a conversational manner: ‘Is your wife and family with you?’ ahead of refining a factual, relevant response. AI already knows my family context, location, and dining preferences from previous conversations, and will surface options accordingly.

“For businesses, this changes the game. Without accurate, rich, structured data - menus, dietary attributes, opening hours, proximity, reviews, FAQs, etc — you simply won’t appear in how LLMs present summarised, structured content that aligns to these in-memory preferences.

“And when it comes to measurement, marketers need to move beyond rankings and clicks. This is where tools like Yext Scout become invaluable — providing insight into how a brand is performing at a hyper-local level, not just in isolation, but against direct local competitors. Scout uncovers gaps in core signal strength across all the surfaces that feed search and AI applications, showing exactly where competitors are stronger and where you can gain an advantage.”

SA: As always, some people will try to game the system. What is your take on the issue of ethics and manipulation in generative results? How can marketers recognise and, crucially, avoid falling into those traps?

SD: “It’s a fair point — every time a new search paradigm emerges, some will try to manipulate it. In the early days of SEO, it was keyword stuffing; in local search, it was fake reviews and location spam.

“The real danger here is that generative results carry an implicit sense of authority. If your brand appears in an AI-generated summary, the user assumes it’s there because it’s the best or most relevant option. That’s why content relevancy and E-E-A-T principles — experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness — are more important than ever. This is especially critical for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) industries like healthcare, finance, and legal, where inaccurate or misleading answers can cause real harm.

“The golden rules for staying on the right side of ethics in generative results are:

• Be relevant: create content that directly and accurately answers the questions your audience is asking, in the context they’re asking them.
• Be truthful: don’t exaggerate capabilities or withhold important details to get picked up in an answer.
• Be specific: break down exactly what your brand stands for, the products or services you provide, and who they’re for. Avoid vague positioning in favour of factual, verifiable detail.
• Show your credentials: where applicable, cite experts, reference reputable sources, and demonstrate real-world experience to strengthen your trust signals.
• Manipulating AI search can backfire faster than traditional SEO: LLMs (Large Language Models) are continuously retrained, and platforms are actively building guardrails to detect low-quality or misleading input.”

SA: Where to from here? What is the GEO landscape going to look like, come 2026?

SD: “By 2026, the GEO landscape is going to look very different. The rate of LLM development and maturity is frankly frightening - just compare the performance leap between ChatGPT-4 and ChatGPT-5. That pace isn’t slowing down. Search will be increasingly conversational, context-aware, and hyper-local, with results shaped by a mix of AI-generated summaries, structured data feeds, and in-memory personalisation.

“For brands, the mandate is clear: stay AI-ready. That means ensuring your listings are complete, accurate, and consistent across every surface; maintaining a strong reputation management programme; publishing highly relevant, E-E-A-T-driven content with structured markup; and keeping a regular cadence of local social posting to feed engagement signals.

“The forward-thinking brands will also be laying the groundwork for MCP (Model Context Protocol) strategies - preparing to connect their trusted, structured data directly into AI systems should LLM platforms open their APIs to brand-registered MCP servers. That will give them a secure, first-party route into AI assistants, ensuring their information is authoritative, current, and contextually relevant at the moment of discovery.

“By 2026, GEO success won’t just be about being found - it’ll be about being trusted, contextually accurate, and AI-ready in a way that makes you the obvious choice when an AI answers a query. The brands that start now will own that space.

“If there’s one takeaway, it’s this: the search journey is fragmenting, AI is accelerating, and consumer behaviour is shifting faster than most brands can adapt. The winners in 2026 will be those who prepare now - with trusted data, relevant content, and an AI-ready strategy that ensures they’re found, trusted, and chosen in the moments that matter.”

Sauce Advertising will continue the GEO conversation at the Nedbank Integrated Marketing Collective (IMC) Conference 2025, where Bryony Rose, Director of Yext Enterprise International Business, will deliver a keynote on search fragmentation, the rise of AI, and the hyperlocal advantage.

Yext is a key partner of Sauce Advertising — leading local experts in SEO, GEO and hyperlocal strategies. Sauce and Yext together will be unpacking the GEO narrative as headline sponsors for the IMC, which takes place on September 18 at Mosaiek in Randburg.