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Exploring AI in Search: Key Takeaways from POLARIS’ Ecommerce Roundtable.
Earlier this month, POLARIS hosted an intimate invite only breakfast roundtable, with senior ecommerce leaders from Next, Pact Coffee, Joules, Trinny London, UK Lash, and Dune London. The conversation centered on one of the biggest questions in digital marketing today: “what does search in the age of AI really mean for brands?”
The session was an open space for sharing challenges, wins, and practical insights, with a focus on how AI is reshaping search visibility, product discovery, and content strategy. For brands partnering with an experienced SEO Agency, adapting early to these shifts will be key to staying visible.
Key Discussion Themes
Understanding AI Search and the Zero Click Reality
Despite the recent hype around AI, Google still drives around 90% of search traffic globally for most brands. AI-first tools like ChatGPT account for less than 1% of brand traffic today but they’re beginning to influence search results. Around 25% of Google queries now trigger AI overviews, creating zero click moments that can limit brand visibility.
Questions on everyone’s minds included:
- Where to start with AI search strategies
- How much resource to allocate
- How to justify investment when it may not directly drive RoI.
Alternative discovery platforms also came up. TikTok continues to grow as a discovery channel (though still 50% below YouTube), while Reddit emerges as an untapped opportunity for many, particularly as its content feeds AI overviews.
Shifting Content Strategies
Marketers are moving away from long-form content and shifting towards video first and visual formats. While AI assisted tools can help scale production, authenticity remains crucial as audiences become more aware of AI generated content.
Discussions also explored how brands can experiment safely. Testing AI generated content safely, without compromising brand reputation, and early curiosity around AI avatars and virtual influencers, though most agreed it’s still too early to tell how consumers will respond.
Ecommerce and Product Discovery
AI is changing how products appear in search, prompting brands to rethink product feed optimisation and content structure. Key takeaways included:
- Product data management becoming more important, particularly in ensuring all product detail pages (PDPs) are optimised for AI and agentic search.
- Brands want more control over how their products and content appear across partner and reseller sites, with authenticity and messaging being consistent front of mind.
- Many marketers voiced the need to connect more directly with consumers moving beyond Google Analytics data to gain real, qualitative insights into what customers actually want.
As one attendee put it perfectly: “We’re so used to reading the numbers, but we need to start listening to people again”.
Building Tactical Strategies for Growth
After breakfast, the conversation turned to practical next steps and how to balance innovation with brand protection, resources, and ROI.
We discussed ways to keep consumers at the heart of digital strategy, from sampling cohorts and product events to community initiatives that build genuine engagement. There was also strong interest in using AI to streamline content production across multiple campaigns and channels.
When it came to measurement, attendees agreed that traditional KPIs may need rethinking. While share of voice is difficult and costly to measure, revenue, engagement and visibility remain the metrics that matter.
The overall consensus: AI search isn’t a new channel. Instead, it’s a new layer influencing how existing channels connect and perform. Achieving full-channel visibility means optimising specifically for AI search.
Summary
While AI may feel disruptive, it’s encouraging marketers to revisit the fundamentals: from how we measure success to how we connect with consumers and maintain authenticity. For ecommerce brands, the opportunity lies in learning and adapting early.
AI search is still a small part of total traffic today, but it’s impact on visibility, authenticity, and discovery is already being felt.
In a world of AI generated content, authenticity matters more than ever. Understanding how consumers move across search, scroll, stream, and shop will be key to success.
“It’s nice to know we’re not alone.”
A perfect way to close the session.
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for morning full of insightful conversations, and great food.
