Hey Reader,

In the first Wicked movie, when Galinda comes down in her bubble, there's a very quiet mechanical whirr when her bubble bursts. It's a subtle hint to let us know that all of her magic and glamour isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Reminds me of how a lot of people are looking at the AI industry these days. I've come across think pieces, podcasts, and countless LinkedIn posts on the subject over the last few weeks.

And now here I am in your inbox talking about it, because I don't think this is all hype. I agree: An AI bubble pop almost seems like an inevitability.

I think we've all seen this coming for a while. So many nonsensical AI-centered businesses and apps have cropped up in the last few years, all of them propped up by billions of dollars in funding.

The clock is running out for these businesses to prove their usefulness before investors turn sour. Then, pop goes the bubble.

So if (when) that happens, what will happen to all this AI search stuff that I've been writing and talking about for weeks?

When the AI gold rush dies down, will all of this chaos, uncertainty, and new opportunity in search disappear?

No, probably not.

A popping bubble doesn't mean the collapse of an entire industry (hence me still writing to you via the internet, decades after the dot-com bubble).

My guess: We will eventually see a few of the top AI tools survive, likely under the umbrellas of Anthropic and OpenAI. Many of the companies rushed to market over the last two years will fall away, causing unemployment numbers to spike and another wave of economic uncertainty.

Not great. But even if that happens, AI search will still be a thing.

AI has been part of the search experience since well before ChatGPT came to market, so the technology itself isn't tied to the bubble. The big AI tools we know today will probably still exist once the dust settles.

Google won't be rolling back it's AI overviews anytime soon or getting rid of Gemini.

ChatGPT is here to stay, and people will continue to increasingly use it for search.

Maybe Claude and Perplexity will survive.

Maybe one of the big boys will go the way of AOL, and no one will be talking about ChatGPT in a year. (Cue No One Mourns the Wicked 🎶)

There's no way to know, but ultimately, which companies survive the burst isn't really what I care about, as a search specialist. Most of the companies that are about to go poof don't have anything to do with AI search.

So I'm going to stay focused on the ever-changing role that AI plays in search. I'm going to continue to bring you my latest learning and hottest takes. And I'm going to continue rolling out my AI visibility audits and modernized SEO and content strategies for businesses that want to get ahead with all of this stuff, before and after the bubble pop.

Want to see how your business is doing in AI search? Just reply to this email or any email I send you.

🤔 Do you think the bubble is about to pop? What do you think will happen after?

-- Liam

​The Search Evolution Strategy​ 👆 My gameplan for the new age of AI ​ 🙋‍♂️ Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here. ​ ​Content Strategy & Consultation | Content & SEO Training​ ​Freelance Community​

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