Dentsu’s annual Total Search Summit clearly showed that search has done more than shift in recent years. It’s undergone a transformation at its core. For marketers, it’s time to adapt fast or risk being left behind.
Over the course of the day, a clear narrative developed about how AI, changing user behaviour and platform fragmentation are reshaping the ways people discover, evaluate and react to information. For brands, the influence of these changes extends far beyond traditional search tactics, shaping how visibility, content and performance are now integrated as interconnected elements.
Here's a summary of the 2026 Total Search Summit for those who couldn't attend – and a recap for those lucky enough to make it – with additional reflections from our speakers on the day.
1. Search behaviour is shifting fast
The opening of the Summit was focused on the shift from conventional keyword searches to conversational, AI-driven searches:
- Traditional search queries tend to be brief, as most users engage in quick, goal-focused sessions
- AI search journeys tend to be longer and more detailed, and are notably more in-depth
- Sessions last longer and focus on continuous refinement instead of single queries
This pivot transforms how marketers should be thinking about content. Instead of focusing on isolated queries, our role has become supporting ongoing conversations and helping users navigate entire decision journeys. Remember, users aren’t just searching for a link anymore; they’re working through real problems, and relying on brands to provide content that genuinely helps them along the way.
“It’s an incredibly exciting time for search, at the heart of a rapidly evolving industry where user behaviour is shifting alongside advances in AI. As journeys become more conversational, personalised and iterative, content must evolve from answering individual queries to guiding full decision-making processes. Users now expect recommendations, depth and relevance beyond their initial question.
Brands that adapt quickly to how people engage across emerging LLM platforms will take an early lead.”
Rachael Murdoch – Managing Partner, SEO
2. AI is reshaping the entire search journey
Today’s users do more than just search for links; the search experience now spans the entire buying journey, from exploring options and comparing products or services to narrowing down choices, making a purchase, and often seeking ongoing support or advice. AI platforms, including – importantly – Google’s Gemini, are increasingly integrating these steps into a single, unified environment.
That means search isn’t just about driving traffic – it’s a key part of how people make buying decisions. The brands that do well will be the ones that show up helpfully throughout that journey, not just when someone is ready to click.
“As users move through the entire buying journey within AI platforms, it’s important to recognise that AI isn’t a truth engine, it’s an average-generating machine.
It reflects the balance of what exists online, meaning the more consistently and positively a brand appears across relevant content and search surfaces, the more likely it is to be surfaced at critical decision-making moments.”
Sarah Kelly – Partner, International & Editorial Search
3. The retention trap
Overall performance metrics are evolving, but it's important to recognise that customer value behaviours are heading in a much more strategic direction than the headlines about increasing acquisition costs might imply.
It's clear that the way we measure brand success is shifting towards the quality and lasting impact of each interaction rather than operational efficiency alone. This again highlights the importance of building genuine connections for lasting growth – a key theme from the day.
For brands, what truly counts is the quality and value of each interaction. In certain contexts, £1 spent on acquiring a new customer might seem higher, but it can deliver greater long-term value than £1 spent retargeting an existing customer.
The idea here is that instead of focusing solely on in-platform metrics, marketers should also consider investing in expanding their customer base, re-engaging and nurturing relationships through owned channels and earned media, building a stronger, more loyal community.
“Think about how to get your customers searching for you by name, because when they’re actively searching for you, they’re not comparing you in the same way or even considering anyone else. That brand-led demand is what gives you a stronger position in moments of intent.”
Kenneth Yau – Managing Partner, Paid Search
4. Zero-click search is accelerating
Another standout from the Summit was the discussion on the rise of the zero-click economy, where more searches are being answered before users ever reach a brand’s website.
It was noted that this decline is happening even when rankings are steady, meaning being at the top of the results page no longer guarantees traffic or creating influence the same way it used to. Thanks to AI Overviews, more detailed SERP features, and richer answers within platforms, users now often find what they need directly on Google without leaving the site.
So being seen is no longer enough. Brands need to be the source of the answer, not just a result that appears near it.
"We have to stop chasing clicks. We can’t win them all, and, more importantly, we shouldn’t try to measure today’s search environment with yesterday’s model. AI is shaping intent, building brand familiarity and influencing decisions long before someone lands on a website. So, as with TV or out-of-home, the question isn’t always ‘did it drive a direct response?’, but ‘did it play a meaningful role in the decision?’”
Antoniya (Anna) Darova – Partner, SEO
“Search measurement is being forced to evolve. As more influence happens before the click, we’re no longer working with complete, deterministic data; we’re working with signals. Clicks still matter, but they only show part of the outcome, not the influence that drove it. The focus now has to shift to connecting multiple signals – visibility, recommendation, demand and outcomes – and tracking how they move together over time.
Individually, each signal is imperfect, but together, they give us a better directional view of what’s driving performance. The goal isn’t perfect attribution; it’s better decisions. And the teams that start building that signal set now will be the ones best placed to prove real impact in the future.”
Jas Mahil – Managing Partner, Measurement
5. Demand isn't disappearing, it's concentrating
Many marketers believe overall search demand is decreasing, but the Summit examined the data carefully and questioned the assumption:
- Demand is shifting further down the funnel, with users arriving with clearer, stronger intent
- Discovery is happening earlier, across social platforms, AI assistants and content ecosystems, before users ever reach a search engine
- Search is increasingly the final validation step in a journey that started somewhere else
This is strategically important, with brands that wait until users start searching at risk of losing their edge. The real opportunity (and the potential challenge) is to ‘win before the search’, by shaping the conversations and content that guide user intent before it becomes a query. Today, upper-funnel visibility isn’t just about Google; it’s a challenge across all channels that calls for attention everywhere.
“Discovery is happening across a much broader ecosystem of platforms, communities, and AI models before users reach a search engine. To influence intent at those early stages, brands need a connected content strategy that shows up wherever customers are researching, learning and comparing options.
SEO still has a critical role to play, but its value is increasingly in helping brands understand emerging demand and turning those insights into action across every channel.
The brands that win won't treat SEO as a performance channel in isolation, but as an insight engine that helps them understand and influence demand before it becomes a search.”
Riona Doherty – Partner, Content Strategy
6. Search is now a cross-channel system
The idea of search as a standalone channel is gradually shifting towards integration and diversity. Today’s discovery happens across many platforms, including AI assistants, marketplaces and content ecosystems, making the purchase journey more personalised and dynamic. For example, a journey could begin on TikTok, flow through a ChatGPT chat and end with a branded search. Sometimes, they might even skip traditional search entirely, showing just how smoothly these experiences are coming together.
As discovery becomes more visual and platform-focused, search ads need to evolve beyond text alone, incorporating more videos, images and engaging assets that better reflect how people now explore brands. User-generated content plays an important role here, helping build trust and engagement across social and content platforms while also providing authentic third-party signals that can strengthen brand credibility in AI-generated answers and citations.
The speakers at the Summit shared a vision for this cross-channel intelligence, highlighting how integrating search strategy with social media, retail media and content can create a more connected approach, and emphasised the importance of thoughtfully shaping conversations even before users start searching. While rankings continue to be important, they’re now just one part of a much richer and more intricate system.
“Consumers no longer think in channels. They move between social, retail, search and AI-led environments as part of a single continuous journey, often without noticing the handovers between them.
The opportunity for brands is to make those handovers feel seamless: connecting the messages, content and commerce experiences that help people move from discovery to comparison to action with less friction and more confidence.”
Ash White – Managing Partner, Commerce Strategy
7. AI-ready content and infrastructure matter more than ever
Readiness was another recurring theme at the Summit. For content to excel in the new search environment, it needs to be structured so AI systems can efficiently access, interpret and surface it – it needs to be ready for LLMs. Additionally, brands should look to identify which sources and publishers influence AI-generated responses and establish a trustworthy presence within those ecosystems.
This shifts the role of search further away from simply optimising pages for Google, towards ensuring your brand shows up when and where AI answers are being created. While technical setup and high-quality content play a big part in good search results, the places where answers appear and how users encounter them are evolving rapidly.
“An LLM agent will not browse your website the way a human does; it will consume your data infrastructure. Feed optimisation is the new technical frontier because clean structured data is the only currency that matters to an AI system executing a task.”
Henry Price – Director, Technical SEO
"Searches are more conversational and complex than ever, so having the right content is key to being cited in answers to these queries and effectively powering AI-fuelled campaign formats. On PDPs, go for rich detail with clear semantics, structured in extractable formats to enable AI indexing, making sure you’re ready to show up. Informational, entity-driven content and branded content on trusted third-party platforms can then help control how AI understands and showcases your brand to build trust.”
Amy Louise Adlington – Partner, Paid Search
8. The role of search teams is evolving
One of the closing talks at the Summit offered insight into how search teams can evolve from traditional setups to succeed. As search increasingly integrates with content, media, measurement and AI, the discipline is expanding beyond its usual boundaries, opening new opportunities for organisations:
- Future search teams should collaborate across channels instead of viewing SEO and PPC as separate disciplines
- They will need to integrate technical, creative and data expertise, which can be challenging due to specialist silos
- Teams should start considering AI systems as broader distribution environments, rather than just ranking algorithms
- Experimentation and adaptability are now more important than following a fixed playbook
In short, search is evolving into a strategic, cross-functional capability, not just a specialist discipline. The teams that embrace this change and actively develop the necessary skills, structures and ways of working will find themselves better equipped to face whatever comes next.
"Search is no longer a channel, it's becoming the connective layer between content, media, commerce and AI. The organisations that succeed will be those that break down silos, align around business outcomes rather than channel metrics, and create a culture of experimentation.
With AI platforms introducing new behaviours and opportunities almost weekly, there is no playbook yet. Only a commitment to testing, learning and evolving."
Rachael Murdoch – Managing Partner, SEO
Where do we go from here?
So, where do we go from here? For brands, the most meaningful takeaway is to think of search less as a channel and more as part of a broader decision-making ecosystem. That means showing up earlier, being useful across more platforms, and creating content that’s clear, credible and easy for both people and AI systems to understand.
The opportunity isn’t just winning the click, but earning trust before the search happens, being present when decisions are being shaped, and giving people the confidence to choose you when it matters.
