Will ChatGPT replace Google? What it changes for your business

Will ChatGPT replace Google?

ChatGPT isn’t replacing Google: it is adding to Google. Both companies’ figures are growing in parallel, and their uses complement each other more than they compete.

On OpenAI’s side, the growth is spectacular. The company reports more than one billion users every week, and it has even launched advertising in ChatGPT. On Google’s side, classic search isn’t declining. It’s changing shape.

Two tools, two uses

People use ChatGPT to think, compare and get explanations. They use Google to find an address, opening hours, a phone number, a review. When a customer looks for a business, they often do both. They ask the AI for advice, then check on Google Maps. Sometimes it’s the reverse: they find a name on Google, then ask the AI whether that business has a good reputation. Either way, your business must be present and readable in both places.

What people in France say

In France, the CRÉDOC report shows that looking for information is the number one use of generative AI. But the same people keep using search engines. They add a tool. They don’t throw out the old one.

Is Google building AI into its own results?

Yes, Google builds AI directly into its results, with AI Overviews and AI Mode. The customer gets a written answer, with a few links to the sources.

Google details these features in its documentation on its search engine’s AI features. An important point: these answers rely on Google’s index and its usual ranking systems. To appear in them, you first need good SEO.

The real shift: from list to answer

For twenty years, being visible meant “being at the top of the list”. Today, being visible also means “being in the answer”. Whether that answer comes from Google, ChatGPT or Gemini, the principle is the same. An AI reads pages, chooses sources, then summarizes.

What it changes for clicks

A Pew Research Center study showed that users click less when an AI summary appears: 8% of clicks on a result, versus 15% without a summary. The customer reads the answer and often stops there. If your business is cited in it, you’re seen. If not, you miss out.

Where does ChatGPT get its information?

ChatGPT gets its information from the web, partly through partner search engines. In other words, even ChatGPT depends on well-ranked pages.

When OpenAI launched its built-in search, the company explained that it relies on third-party search providers, in addition to its own crawlers. Perplexity does the same: its help page explains that it searches the web live for every question, then cites its sources.

The consequence for you

Everything that makes you visible on Google also helps you in AI. A clear, fast, well-structured website. Pages that answer real questions. Consistent information everywhere. None of that is wasted. On the contrary, it’s the foundation for what comes next.

Is SEO dead because of AI?

No, SEO isn’t dead: it has become the foundation of visibility in AI. Google says it clearly in its AI guide: SEO best practices remain valid for its AI features.

What is dying, on the other hand, is a certain kind of SEO. The kind that stacks keywords, multiplies near-identical pages and writes for robots rather than people. These practices were already ineffective. With AI, they become downright harmful. The Princeton study on GEO even measured it: keyword stuffing does worse than changing nothing at all. AI prefers clear, well-supported, useful text.

What counts even more than before

Three things carry more weight:

• real experience a page that tells what you really do, with concrete examples
• clarity one service per page, one question per paragraph, simple words
• consistency the same information on your website, your Google profile and directories.

Should you choose between Google and ChatGPT?

No, you don’t need to choose: the same groundwork serves both. You don’t need two strategies, or two budgets.

Here is the order we recommend to our clients. First, a fast, clear website, with one page per service. Next, solid local SEO and a complete Google profile. Then real reviews, requested at the right moment. Finally, the settings specific to AI: crawlers allowed, structured data, summary files.

The settings specific to AI

A few technical points matter for AI assistants. Their crawlers must be able to read your website. Your structured data must describe your business. And it can be useful to prepare an llms.txt file for the assistants that choose to read it. Google, for its part, states that it doesn’t use this file. So we see it as a bonus, never as a priority.

How do you measure your visibility in both worlds?

You can track your visibility with two simple tools: Google Search Console and regular tests in AI assistants.

Google has opened a dedicated report to all websites on appearances in its AI answers. For ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, the most reliable approach is still to ask your customers’ questions yourself, regularly, and note who gets cited.

What we include in the monthly report

Every month, our clients receive a clear report. It shows their rankings on Google and Google Maps, visits from AI, review trends and the questions where they appear in the answers. No jargon: what’s moving forward, what’s stuck, what we’re doing next.

And in five years?

Nobody knows exactly what search will look like in five years. Those who claim to know for sure are often selling something. What we do know is that the tools will keep changing, and that answers will increasingly be written by AI.

In this context, one thing stays stable: a business that is clear, consistent and recommended by real customers will always be easier to cite than a vague one. It’s work that doesn’t go out of style.

Our advice is therefore simple. Don’t bet everything on a tool that’s making headlines this year. Build a solid presence that any search engine or assistant can understand. If a new tool appears tomorrow, your business will be ready, because its information will already be clear, verified and repeated everywhere.