The Way We Discover Products is Changing

It's been almost a month since I started working. Honestly... life changed a lot. A month back I was just another college guy. College, INOVUS, random ideas, side projects, late night coding... that was my routine.

Now life is more like... Sleep. Travel. Office. Travel back. Some me time. Sleep. And repeat.

The sudden change in environment, the people around me, the work culture, the schedule... everything felt weird at first. I'm still getting used to it.
One thing I noticed is that I haven't really spent much time on my own projects this month. Initially I felt bad about it because building my own stuff is something I genuinely enjoy.

But...

At work, we built something really cool.
And while building it, I ended up learning something that completely changed the way I look at the web.

We all shop, right?

For years, the way we shopped online was almost the same. We'd open a shopping website, search for a product, apply filters, compare products, read reviews, maybe watch a few YouTube videos, and finally buy it. That was the normal flow.

But now...

Think about how many times you've opened ChatGPT before opening Amazon. You don't search anymore... You ask.

"Suggest me the best mechanical keyboard for programming."
"What's the best monitor under ₹20k?"
"Recommend a good skincare routine for oily skin."

Instead of giving you hundreds of products, AI understands what you're actually looking for and recommends a few that match your needs.

That made me think...

How does AI decide which product to recommend?

If my product exists...
Why would AI recommend mine instead of someone else's?

For years we were building websites for search engines.

SEO was everything.
Keywords. Meta tags. Backlinks. Search rankings.
The goal was simple...
Rank higher.
But AI doesn't really think like a search engine.

Earlier people searched with keywords. Now they ask questions.

Earlier someone would search...

"wireless keyboard"

Now it's more like...

"I'm a software developer. I code for almost 8 hours a day. I need a comfortable wireless keyboard under ₹5,000. Which one should I buy?"

See the difference?

That isn't just a keyword anymore.
That's context.
That's intent.
And AI understands that.

That's where I came across terms like Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).

Instead of only optimizing websites for Google...
We're now optimizing websites for AI. Things like proper sitemaps, structured content, FAQs that answer real questions, schema markup, and even files like llms.txt help AI understand what your website is actually about.

It's not about stuffing keywords anymore. It's about giving AI enough context to confidently answer questions using your content.

Another thing I found really interesting was Agentic Readiness.

We're slowly moving into a world where AI won't just answer questions. It'll compare products. Browse websites. Book services. Maybe even purchase things on our behalf.

Which means...

Your website isn't just being visited by humans anymore. It's also being visited by AI. And if AI doesn't understand your product... How will it recommend it?

I don't think SEO is going away.

Not at all.

But I do think we're entering a phase where SEO alone isn't enough.
The way people discover products is changing.
From keywords to conversations.
From search engines to answer engines.
From humans browsing websites to AI recommending them.

If you're building a product, a website, or even an online store...
Maybe the question isn't just,

"Will people find my product?"

Maybe it's...

"Will AI recommend my product when someone asks for it?"

I'd love to hear what you think.