Rise of AI manifested in a tide of doom's day BUZZ for marketing.Goodbye writers, designers, analysts and even managers. As people stop clicking and searching, goodbye SEO professionals and websites.Really? Let's panic down for a moment and think beyond the Zero click moment.
What is the assumption of Zero click internet?
A vision of information interaction where John
doesn't use his mouse (or even fingers) any more. He just asks the device:"
- Alexa, where is the best pizza in town?
- ""Siri, where do I buy the coolest shirt I could wear to the new year's party for the best price?"
John doesn't
click or look for results. AI provides the best answer and John just drives... No, an AI car drives him to the best pizza in town. Of course AI knows his habits and chooses pizzeria by his taste. Zero search. Zero clicks.
Zero click doesn’t mean Zero-options-list
This assumption is quite valid. People are lazy, especially when it comes to research. Clicking was fun when there was no alternative. But most people simply aren't built for clicking and reading. Most people hate books and prefer video. So they don't want to click. They don't want to read.
Days of such behavior are approaching fast. But there may be a twist or two after these days are here:
- John's wife. She may disagree with his choice. Suddenly John wants a list of pizzerias to discuss with her. She will decide, but she won't click.
- AI's Dilemmas. Even AI will sometimes require more information. "What colour will your pants be? Will the party include a pool? Do you intend to lose some weight?". A list of optional shirts may appear.
So while we really could end up in a world without a mouse and even fingers to make choices (Zero click), lists of options seem to be unavoidable. We can expect zero-click internet but we shouldn't expect zero-choices-lists internet.
Zero click doesn’t mean Zero-alogorithm
You see the logic already, but let's
dig a click further. One pizza master is not enough to feed all the hungry souls out there. So even
AI will have to choose among competitors and send them to different pizza masters. Otherwise John's wife will be desperate waiting for a table.
So while for now the game was about
convincing the search engine to put you on the top 10 pizzerias list, it will change just slightly:
convincing the AI engine you should be in the top 10 pizzerias to list.
Deep down the AI engine is a mysterious algorithm. Nothing else but statistics based on hundreds of signals. Parameters that is. Nothing else but math which tries to mimic human behavior.
And the most reliable source for statistics?
Review stars and
comments.
Which of course will not be clicked any more. John will tell his review to his device: "Alexa, give that pizzeria 5 stars because Maria was smiling so nicely today".
But his review along with some 500 other signals will result in
choices-list.
Zero click doesn’t mean Zero-competition
We are living in the early days of zero-clicking and our primal parts of the brain are looking for the strongest enemies. Strongest competitor who will become the number one in this new world order.
Fear is building tension. When Giovanni's pizzeria cracks the algorithm and becomes the number one choice on the choices-list, you know what Maria's pizzeria will do? Ask AI to improve her presentation?
Zero click doesn’t mean Zero-professionals
Think again. Maria has a business to handle. She is not a tech fan. She hates math and data. While AI is providing her with a list of optional strategies and actions and even some AI agent promising her to do that instead of her, she has an issue there.
The very same issue you have when making the pizza dough. Time and passion are not on your side. That's why you go to pizzeria. That's why Maria will want an expert to deal with that stuff.
Because you know which AI agent to use and what instructions to give. How to understand the analytical report you get.
Just like Maria knows how long that dough should be resting before she makes that pizza for you.