Previously, the customer journey could start with search and the company's website, she said. "Today, many customers are going right to the large-language-models and saying, 'I want the right loader for me, to do this type of work', so they are skipping much of that research stage that we were able to guide."

Owens says that product reviews, earned media, and dealer reviews factor into those LLM results. "You have to understand that the good, the bad, and the ugly are out there," she said. "It's pushed us to really focus greater on that customer experience."
https://www.businessinsider.com/bobcat-cmo-laura-ness-owens-cannes-lions-2026-7

RC: Amz is my primary online product source. Ebay is a very distant second.  I'm increasingly finding AMZ's still flawed onboard AI assistant (now Alexa, previously Rupert) to be very helpful --particularly when having to plow though pages of similar items.  I've also been able to prompt it to dig up alternative products that do not show up in its usual related products lists.

That very much ties up with my experience.

I already find I say: I want one of these what's the best, or the cheapest or the most efficient.

Then I will throw in:  and how does this one compare, what are the different features and the different benefits.

Then I check to see if the product works for me and if I can put up with the downsides.

AI is proving to be a great product research tool.

How a business manages that easily to change SEO massively.

You must be very interesting times in that space.

This is true, BUT one of the main reasons I do this is because I am looking for an appliance or a piece of furniture to fit a specific space.

After tearing my hair out, finding few websites have reliable size filtering and wasting a ton of time, someone told me to enter, "I am looking for an X that is 53" wide and 24" tall. Can you find me some candidates?" And 30 seconds later I have actual, viable candidates.

The data is all there on the websites, but they do not surface it to the user, so I have to use an LLM or spend dozens of hours and sacrificing the health of my eyes.

I think there are many other similar types of cases. The automotive parts places are one of the few where you can reliably verify that a part fits your car. For almost everything else, it's a lot of work and the LLMs seem to do it well