AI search covers products such as AI summaries in a search engine, chat assistants with web access and answer-focused search tools. They take a question, find relevant pages, and use a large language model to compose a response, frequently with links to the sources.
For site owners it changes where attention goes. Some users read the generated answer and never click, while others click through from the cited sources. Being findable still starts with being crawled and indexed (crawling, indexing), and being useful enough to be chosen as a source (AI citation).
Behavior differs by product and changes often, so check what each one actually does before building a strategy on it. The disciplines of answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization address it.
Related: AI Visibility, AI Crawler, Search Intent.