AI Search Face-Off: Who’s Winning the Race?

This Week

AI search is getting smarter—and more competitive. From tools redefining how we find information to a showdown between Perplexity and ChatGPT, the search game is shifting fast. If you’re wondering how to stay visible and relevant, I’ve got you covered.

Here’s what’s inside:

• Why you need to optimize for voice search

• How to use AI for top-quality SEO content

• Perplexity taps TripAdvisor for hotel results

• Gemini supercharges AI overviews in Google Search

• OpenAI testing video search for Sora

• ChatGPT vs. Perplexity: Who wins?

Read on.

Why You Need to Optimize for Voice Search

The most surprising thing about voice search? It only gives one answer. Unlike traditional search results where users can browse multiple links, voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant (and ChatGPT’s voice feature) often read just the top result aloud. If your site isn’t optimized for conversational, AI-driven queries, you risk being invisible while someone else takes the spotlight.

Users tend to trust voice search results more than traditional search because they perceive the answers as carefully selected and fact-checked. Since voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant often deliver just one result, it creates a sense of authority and accuracy. 

This trust factor means landing that top spot can not drive visibility and build credibility for your brand. When people hear your site’s content as the definitive answer to their question, it reinforces trust and positions you as an industry leader.

Convinced you need to optimize for voice search?

Neil Patel breaks down six strategies to help you own that top spot:

1. Target Voice-Specific Keywords: Focus on long-tail, conversational phrases people actually ask.

2. Audit Your Content: Make it more conversational and direct.

3. Optimize for Natural Language: Use pronouns and answer questions clearly.

4. Level Up Your Technical SEO: Focus on speed, mobile-friendliness, and schema markup.

5. Dominate Local Voice Search: Optimize Google Business and Bing Places listings.

6. Track and Tweak: Tools like Ubersuggest can help you measure and refine.

Want to be the only answer AI reads aloud? Dive into Neil’s full guide here.

How to Use AI for Top-Quality SEO Content

AI can supercharge your SEO—if you use it right. Section School breaks down how to harness AI tools like Claude for SEO content without sacrificing quality or damaging your brand’s credibility.

Their strategy? Repurpose, don’t replace. By feeding AI human-written, researched content and guiding it with targeted prompts, they’ve generated over 10,000 organic site visits, ranked in the top 10 for their target keywords, and optimized posts in under 30 minutes.

Here’s how they do it:

• Choose the Right Source Material: Provide AI with brand-consistent references to maintain voice and accuracy.

• Optimize with AI (But Review Manually): AI generates drafts, but human tweaks—like internal linking and visuals—keep quality high.

• Refine the Details: Let AI handle SEO elements like slugs, meta descriptions, and alt text for faster results.

The takeaway? AI works best when paired with human oversight—boosting visibility without compromising authenticity.

Want the full playbook? Head over here.

Perplexity Taps TripAdvisor For Hotel Results

Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, has partnered with Tripadvisor to enhance its hotel search results with real user reviews and ratings. Now, when you search for accommodations, you’ll see detailed recommendations, including images, highlights, and Tripadvisor-sourced summaries explaining why a hotel was recommended.

For example, searching “hotels in Madrid for a business trip” might showcase Hotel Regina with perks like “exceptional service” and a “rich breakfast,” complete with Tripadvisor's ratings and user feedback.

This collaboration helps Perplexity go beyond basic search results by offering curated insights while staying competitive against other AI-driven tools like ChatGPT. Next, Perplexity plans to expand its Tripadvisor integration to cover restaurants and local experiences.

In other travel search news, Thomas Reiner, a partner at Altimeter Capital, predicts that AI search will reshape how people book travel. He predicts that personalized AI assistants will deliver tailored results based on individual preferences, making it effortless to find options like a luxury hotel with a kids' club near the beach or an airport with a one-stop connection.

Reiner thinks this shift will lead to more direct bookings for hotels, airlines, and car rental agencies, and reduce traffic to online travel agencies. At the same time, he questions the future of traditional SEO, suggesting it may decline as AI prioritizes high-quality content over keyword optimization. He also predicts significant challenges for metasearch engines like Trivago, as AI tools move away from lists of links toward direct, curated recommendations.

Gemini Supercharges AI Overviews, Google Search

Google just launched Gemini 2.0, a major upgrade to its AI capabilities, bringing better results to Google Search and AI Overviews. This next-gen model can handle more complex topics, including multi-step questions, advanced math equations, multimodal queries, and coding problems.

Here’s what’s new:

• AI Overviews: Now capable of handling intricate topics, rolling out to more languages and countries next year.

• Integration Across Google Products: Gemini 2.0 powers tools like Lens, Maps, and Search Flash for richer, smarter results.

• Real-World Applications: Enhanced reasoning brings stronger utility to education, research, and programming tasks.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai called Search “the most transformed product by AI,” highlighting Gemini 2.0’s potential to keep Google Search at the forefront of innovation. (We’ll have to wait and see on this point!).

Google has already begun limited testing of Gemini 2.0. Next year, it plans to roll out the software in multiple countries and languages.

Want to see the future of search? Keep reading here.

ChatGPT vs Perplexity: Who Wins?

TechRadar’s Graham Barlow compared ChatGPT Search and Perplexity to see which AI-powered search engine delivered better results—and the findings were surprising.

While ChatGPT delivers quick, conversational responses, it often sacrifices depth and source transparency, making it less effective for fact-based queries. The results tend to be broad summaries rather than in-depth insights, which can limit its usefulness for detailed research.

On the other hand, Perplexity provides more comprehensive answers with direct source citations and images, making it better suited for detailed searches and verifying information.

I’ve run similar tests comparing ChatGPT Search and Perplexity, and I have to agree—Perplexity still wins. The user experience is easier to navigate, and the multimedia results are more fun to read.

While ChatGPT’s built-in search is great when you’re already in there, Perplexity wins for pure search quality and reliability.

Check out the full breakdown here.

OpenAI Testing Video Search for Sora

OpenAI is experimenting with a video search feature for its AI-powered video generation tool, Sora. The feature (still in testing) will allow users to search for videos in their recent feed. Users will see a curated list of related videos, though the exact mechanics behind how it determines "similar" content—whether based on metadata, visual elements, or user interactions—haven't been fully disclosed.

Read the full article here.