The future of Search isn't coming. It's already here.
On October 8th, we gathered over 300 leaders from the world's most influential brands at Ramp's headquarters in New York City for our inaugural AI Search summit, Zero Click. The half-day summit focused entirely on the evolving landscape of AI Search. This wasn't just a conference; it was a candid conversation among industry architects.
Brand marketers from Walmart, Amazon, Apple, Meta, JPMorgan Chase, Google, Pfizer, and many more joined forces to tackle the most pressing question facing marketers globally: how do we thrive in a zero-click world?
Insights that defined the conversation
The summit was anchored by a series of visionary and tactical talks that set the stage for defining the new era of Search.
A visionary welcome
James Cadwallader, Co-Founder & CEO of Profound, opened with a compelling vision, establishing the framework for how we must approach the future of AI Search.
Groundbreaking research
AI Strategist Josh Blyskal and Researcher Sartaj Rajpal unveiled exclusive findings from "The Machine Customer Era," new research exploring how AI is fundamentally reshaping commerce.
Key Takeaways:
- $33,000 of commerce is influenced by AI every 10 seconds
- An analysis of 10,000 non-shopping related queries showed that 33.8% of responses contained unprompted product recommendations
- ChatGPT results only overlap 19% with what is on the 1st page of Google SERP for the same query
The future of social
Rob Gaige, Global Head of Insights at Reddit, revealed how brands can build visibility as the lines between social media and search continue to blur.
Key Takeaways:
- 58% of consumers have replaced traditional search engines with AI platforms – specifically for product recommendations.
- Subreddits focused on 'Q&A' or advice are often prioritized. On average, only 3-5 communities are selected per topic.
- LLMs look for opinionated and conversational cues. 37% of the top 2,500 cited URLs include the words "best," "favorite," or "most".
The great AI debate
Lily Ray (VP, SEO Strategy & Research at Amsive) and Mike King (CEO at iPullRank) faced off in a spirited debate about navigating the AI Search future. Moderated by Nick Lafferty (Growth Marketing at Profound), the discussion highlighted both the opportunities and tensions inherent in this transition.
Content in the age of AI
Ross Simmonds, CEO at Foundation Marketing, shared tactical blueprints for content distribution when algorithms are king. Highlighting the new tools at marketers' disposal, Ross taught audience members how to embrace the 'content growth framework':
Research: Go beyond keyword research by reverse engineering YouTube content and analyzing investor reports using tools like ChatGPT.
Create: Leverage image generation software to create Youtube thumbnails and create scripts, tools like HeyGen to create human-realistic video and audio content, and LLMs to create blog content that captures when your consumers are have demand for.
Distribute: Bring in platforms like Distribution.ai can schedule & distribute your content at scale
Optimize: Create a checklist to avoid content debt and always create content worth reading.
The agency perspective
We cracked open the strategic minds of agency titans: Erin Lanuti (Chief Innovation Officer, Omnicom Public Relations Group), Tarik Mughisuddin (Executive Director, WPP Media), Michael Dobbs (SVP, Head of SEO, dentsu Media US), and Brian Buchwald (President, Global Transformation & Performance, Edelman), who provided invaluable perspectives on leadership in this new landscape.
Parabolic experimentation
George Bonaci, VP of Growth & Demand at Ramp (our hosts), pulled back the curtain on building AI search-native products, sharing lessons from their "Parabolic Experimentation with AEO" approach. By using visibility and citation data from Profound to fuel content creation, Ramp was able to:
- See that long-tail keywords Google didn’t care about... AI loved.
- Increase visibility in their test cohort by 24.6%. "We extended our own narrative – directly, credibly, inside useful content. AI rewarded us. That became a playbook."
- Understand that narrow metric pages had low citation rates while data backed pain point pages increased share of voice
- Focus on creating fresh and crawlable pages with propriety Ramp data that increased site sessions by 149% between June and August
A look ahead
Dylan Babbs, Co-founder & CTO, shared a glimpse of what's next on Profound’s product roadmap across visibility, creation, workflows, and impact measurement.
Our collective gratitude
To every single leader who showed up, engaged deeply, and brought their unparalleled energy: thank you. Your commitment to learning and evolving alongside us is what made this summit even more than what we hoped it would be.
To everyone who joined us: thank you. Your curiosity, expertise, and willingness to grapple with hard questions made this summit everything we hoped it would be.
Building together
As James said in his opening remarks, "We’re at the beginning of infinity."
The Zero Click summit in NYC was our first step in gathering the experts navigating this new era.
The future of AI Search will be defined by communities like ours. Leaders willing to experiment, share learnings, and build together. We're grateful you're part of this journey.
Get a closer look at Zero Click NYC programming.
