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Lewisville, TX--Since the mid-1990’s marketers and business owners have been developing content to appeal to search engine algorithms.  Every time the algorithms changed, we reformatted our content to improve rankings and searchability. 

If, as many jewelers do, you sell directly to customers on the web your business will be impacted by the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.  AI is already changing internet search in meaningful ways, and it will continue to do so in the future.

Six Ways AI is Changing Search

Here are six ways AI can change internet search.

1. It seems contradictory, but AI offers a more personal experience.  Search tools can now deliver more personalized results to users. By examining user behavior and search history, AI-powered search can produce results that are more relevant to the user's interests and context.
2. AI is improving natural language processing capabilities (NLPC), which allow search applications to better understand conversational phrasing and context. As a result, search engines can deliver more accurate and relevant results to users, even if they use complex or regional language.  This results in less efficacy for key word repetition in website copy.  Audio and video content will become a part of the vast information stockpile from which AI gathers data to answer our questions.
3. Video and Image Search is improving.  AI can “see” objects and people in images and videos, making it possible to search for visual content using keywords.  In the past, your website photos had to be labeled properly in the file name in order to be searched. With AI, a picture really is worth a thousand words.  Your prospective customer will paste a picture of the product rather than a written description.  Software will evaluate the image and the user history to produce a result.  Image and video content will be increasingly valuable as algorithms learn to scan these files for answers to our questions.
4. Answers, please! Hold the links.  The most impactful change is the shift from link-based search results to answer based search results.  ChatGPT, for instance, returns answers to questions rather that suggest other websites with related content.  This means that your website that has been a treasure trove of information about engagement ring design, will no longer be served up to couples planning their engagement.  If your web traffic is dependent on key phrases like, “what is a lab grown diamond?” or “lab grown diamonds Detroit”, AI may change diminish your unique visitor counts.
5. Voice Search will offer faster searches in the real world.  AI-powered voice assistants are changing the way we search for information online. With the help of natural language processing, voice assistants can understand spoken queries and generate audible answers in real-time. Consider how this may change the way people search for your products online.  In this context traditional search results with hyperlinks are unusable.  Imagine a search tool that could combine your recent restaurant reviews with nearby businesses to serve up the nearest place most likely offer you the best dining experience.  In the near future your business will rely on audio search for customers on the go. 
6. Semantic Search will change the way you search.  Do you type search terms and phrases the way you speak to a friend?  Now you can.  AI-powered search engines can understand the meaning behind a search query and deliver results that match the user's intent, rather than just the keywords they used.

Overall, AI is making internet search faster, more accurate, and more personalized. As AI technology continues to advance, we can expect even more improvements to the search experience.

Justin Parsons, vice president of Sales and Operations, Bufkor Inc., can be reached at jwp@vassiglobal.com, 972.837.6533.