The Discovery Shake-Up: Why Retailers Must Rethink Visibility in the GenAI Era

Editor’s note: This blog is part of a three-part series exploring how AI is reshaping search, discovery, and the digital commerce experience for retailers.

• Read Part 1: The Discovery Shake-Up: Why Retailers Must Rethink Visibility in the GenAI Era
• Read Part 2: Search Is Changing—But Not All Search Is Lost: How Retailers Can Win With Embedded AI
• Read Part 3: The AI Edge in Retail: Taking Back Control of Product Discovery with HCL Commerce+

Remember when getting to the top of search results felt like the ultimate win? That might be changing faster than we think. And not in retailers’ favor.

Search today is less about keywords and more about understanding context. With the rise of generative AI tools layered into search experiences—whether through standalone AI assistants or new “AI-powered” search tabs—retailers are entering unfamiliar territory. The old rules of SEO are breaking down, and visibility is getting harder to control. If you're still optimizing for search the way you did last year, you might already be behind.

Here’s what’s happening, why it matters, and how retailers can take action.

Discovery is No Longer Direct—AI is Now the Middleman

In the past, a customer would type a question into a search engine, and your brand had a fighting chance of showing up—either through paid placements or smart keyword strategies. But now, customers are typing full prompts like:

“What should I wear to a garden wedding next weekend?”

Instead of returning a list of links, AI tools break that prompt down into dozens of micro-questions behind the scenes, synthesize content across the web, and serve a single summarized answer.

Here’s the challenge: that summary may or may not mention your brand—even if you’ve invested heavily in SEO or product ads.

Retailers Are Adapting—But It’s Not Enough (Yet)

Some retailers are beginning to experiment. They’re enriching product tags with lifestyle descriptors like “great for hiking” or “ideal for date night” in hopes that AI will surface their products in answer to lifestyle prompts.

It's a smart move, but it’s not a strategy—it’s a survival reflex. As generative search grows more sophisticated, this patchwork approach won’t cut it.

Why? Because retailers don’t have access to:

• What questions are AI tools asking on a customer’s behalf
• How relevance is being calculated
• Or how past prompts and behaviors are influencing future answers

We're flying blind. And that’s a problem.

The Cost of Customer Acquisition Could Skyrocket

With traditional paid search and SEO losing ground, retailers could face a steep rise in customer acquisition costs (CAC). Why?

Because your ability to influence the discovery journey is shrinking. If AI tools are summarizing, synthesizing, and deciding for the customer—without showing your link or letting them click through—then you’re effectively cut off at the source.

And let’s not forget: these AI tools still need to monetize. But instead of selling access like traditional ad models, they may end up selling influence. That means your brand might not just be unseen—it might be silently outbid.

The Trust Equation is Shifting—again

What started with a search is now centered on trust. 

Customers already struggle to tell when a recommendation is authentic versus sponsored. If AI tools start nudging consumers in directions that favor advertisers over relevance, that trust will erode quickly.

And when customers don’t trust what they’re seeing online, where do they turn?

Back to physical experiences. Back to you.

What Can Retailers Do Now?

We’re entering a new phase of discovery—one that’s less predictable, more opaque, and increasingly governed by AI logic.

So what can you control?

• Strengthen your product content: Go beyond specs. Make sure your product descriptions speak to intent—not just features. Use natural language that reflects real customer scenarios.
• Experiment with AI-ready metadata: Consider enriching your product feed with lifestyle, occasion-based, or emotion-driven tags. Even if you can’t influence every prompt, you can be more “AI-friendly” when describing products.
• Double down on brand channels: You own email, apps, loyalty programs, and even physical stores. These are your safe zones—places where you control the narrative and build direct trust with the customer.
• Watch the landscape closely: This is evolving fast. Stay on top of changes to how major platforms incorporate AI into discovery. What works today might not work a month from now.

The future of discovery might not be about search rankings—it might be about resonance. And that starts with rethinking how, where, and why customers find you.

How are you preparing for the shift to GenAI-powered discovery?

Contact us to learn more about AI in Commerce and how we help retailers rethink their commerce strategy.