Google announced last week that AI Mode has passed one billion monthly active users.
That is a big number. A very big number.
And I know exactly what happens when a business owner hears it.
“Great. Now I need to spend all my time showing up in AI search.”
No, no, no.
That is the shiny object talking.
Google also said overall Search usage reached an all-time high and that its AI-powered search features are sending billions of clicks to websites every week. In other words, search is changing, but the rest of the internet did not disappear while everyone was posting about AI.
That distinction matters.
Because right now, there is an entire industry trying to convince you that AI search is a completely new marketing discipline. New dashboards. New trackers. New acronyms. New “secret sauce.”
Often, it is the same advice we have heard for years, repackaged under AI and sold back to us at a higher price.
A dashboard is not a game plan
I have watched the pattern spread from tools like Profound to established platforms like Semrush, and through the marketers, speakers, and promoters who have pivoted their messaging to AI everything.
The pitch works because the FOMO is real.
People remember the dot-com boom. They remember crypto. They remember every opportunity they think they missed, and they do not want to be the person who ignored the next big shift.
I get it.
But paying for an AI-visibility tracker before you have a functioning content engine is like paying an accountant to point at the line where you are losing money without helping you stop the loss.
Useful information? Sure.
Problem solved? Not even close.
A tool might show you which questions people ask, where a competitor appears, or where your company is absent. It cannot do the part that creates visibility in the first place.
The work.
The clear answer. The useful explanation. The real expertise. The recognizable person willing to attach their face, voice, and reputation to what is being said.
There is no reporting tool that will do that work for you.
AI search is downstream of good marketing
The fundamentals that helped people find and trust you before AI are the same fundamentals that make you useful to an answer engine:
- Know what your actual customers ask, not what an old persona document says they ask.
- Listen to sales conversations, objections, off-boardings, and support questions.
- Publish clear answers on your website.
- Show up consistently on the social platforms your customers already use.
- Earn mentions and coverage where it makes sense.
- Put a real expert’s face and judgment behind the information.
That last part matters.
Social and search platforms are relevance engines. Their job is to connect a person with information that fits what they are already trying to understand. The goal is not to create the most “optimized” answer in a vacuum. It is to create the most relevant, credible answer for a real person with a real problem.
The human is still the one searching.
What I would do with two hours
Imagine you run a law firm. You are worried that competitors are appearing in AI answers and you are not. You have two hours this week to do something about it.
Do not buy another dashboard.
Record one substantial video answering the most common question or objection you heard this month. Explain it the way you would explain it to a client or a friend. Go into enough detail to be genuinely useful.
Post the full video.
Then, over the following week, turn that one answer into:
- A short video
- A newsletter for your client list
- A useful blog post
- Several social posts
- A resource your sales team can send when the objection comes up again
Do the heavy thinking once. Let your team, your systems, or an outside partner handle the repurposing.
That one answer will do more for your authority than a report showing you 37 phrases where a competitor currently outranks you.
Because the report measures the gap.
The answer closes it.
“But my competitors are publishing every day”
Fair question.
Your competitors may be flooding the internet with AI-optimized content. It may even look like they are winning.
But building visibility, whether in classic search, social media, or AI answers, is a marathon. Shortcuts pull you into tactics that decay as soon as the platform changes its rules.
One genuinely useful answer a week gives you roughly 40 strong videos in a working year. Those videos become articles, emails, clips, posts, and sales resources. The following year, you can record less often because you already own a growing library that answers different questions for different buyers at different stages.
Someone discovering you today needs a different answer than someone comparing firms or getting ready to sign.
You are not trying to satisfy this week’s algorithm.
You are building a library that helps the right person find and trust you a year from now.
When AI-search tracking does make sense
If your content engine works, your paid acquisition works, your social presence works, and your email marketing works, and you have extra test budget, then yes, experiment with AI-search tracking.
At that point, it is a diagnostic layer on top of a functioning system.
It is not the system.
And you may discover that the work helping you appear in AI answers is the work you were already supposed to be doing: understanding customers, answering their questions, building trust, and making your expertise easy to find.
AI search is new.
The reason someone chooses you is not.
This week, take the two hours you might have spent comparing tracking tools and record one honest, detailed answer to a question a customer actually asked.
If this pulled you back to reality, hit reply and say “thank you.” Or send me the question you are wrestling with about AI search and content. I read every response, actually me, not a ghostwriter.
Sources
- Google and Alphabet Q2 2026 earnings remarks - AI Mode usage, overall Search usage, and website-click claims
