The Search Shift: How AI in Search is Impacting Telecom Consumer Behavior
By Rishi Modha and David Young – Vice Presidents, Strategy & Analytics
In today’s digital landscape, telecom customers rely heavily on the internet to choose their service providers – whether for internet, video, or mobile plans. More than half of telecom transactions already take place online, and that number is only expected to climb. For providers, the message is clear: evolve your digital marketing strategy or risk falling behind faster-moving competitors.
Even when purchases are finalized in-store or over the phone, the customer journey almost always starts online. Buyers research coverage, compare options, plan around life events like moves, and narrow their choices long before speaking to a representative or entering a checkout flow.
But how consumers search is changing – and 2025 marks a major inflection point. In an AI-first world, traditional SEO and paid search tactics are losing effectiveness as platforms deliver direct, personalized answers that bypass standard search listings. Google’s AI Overviews are fueling zero-click behavior, where users get answers without needing to visit a single website, while consumer research increasingly happens on platforms powered by large language models (LLMs).
According to new research from Semrush, searches originating from AI platforms are expected to surpass visits from traditional search engines by 2028 – signaling a dramatic shift in how users discover and interact with content online.
To stay competitive, telcos must transform their digital playbooks – reaching customers where they search, and how they decide. Read on to learn how to start adapting now.
How Customer Research is Changing
The internet has long empowered consumers with instant access to information – but with AI integrations accelerating in 2025, that access is becoming more personalized and precise than ever. Instead of searching “best internet providers near me” or “top ISPs in [city]” – search terms digital marketers have become expert in optimizing for – consumers are now turning to generative AI tools like ChatGPT with longer-tailed, stream-of-consciousness prompts: “I work from home, stream 4K video, and live in Pemberton Heights, Austin. Which internet provider should I choose?”
Even when users don’t start their journey in an LLM, AI is still reshaping their experience. Google’s AI Overviews now surface above traditional search results, summarizing content from across the web into a bite-sized recap. This encourages zero-click behavior and it’s becoming more common in telecom. Providers looking to capitalize on high-intent audiences like movers, who often search for new service options before relocation, will need to consider how these AI-driven tools influence early decision-making.
Additional Semrush research shows between September 2024 and March 2025, the percentage of telecom-related search engine results pages (SERPs) featuring AI Overviews grew by 12% (compared to the average of 8% across industries), underscoring just how quickly the search landscape is shifting in this sector.
For consumers, it’s a streamlined experience: direct answers, specific recommendations, no need to comparison shop or to have multiple tabs open. But for telecom providers, it means potential customers are making decisions without ever engaging with your website or seeing the tailored messages and offers you’ve invested in.
The good news? You can influence how AI platforms talk about your brand. And in this evolving search landscape, doing so is more important than ever.
The Questions Providers Must Answer
In the age of AI-driven search, it’s no longer enough to build content and hope consumers find it. Providers must meet customers where they are — often inside AI platforms — and rethink how to sell from that point forward.
Here are four questions every telecom leader should ask when crafting a modern search strategy:
1. Where are your customers researching? Different customer segments are adopting AI research at different rates. Understanding which prospects are moving to ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI features — and when — determines where to focus acquisition efforts.
2. How do you get recommended by AI? When customers ask AI for telecom advice, the platforms pull information from across the web to generate answers. The challenge is uncovering which sources AIs and LLMs trust and optimizing your presence across those sources to ensure your brand appears favorably in the answers.
3. What happens to your acquisition funnel? Traditional funnels assume customers visit multiple websites during research – from comparison sites to product offering pages and so on. If AI handles the research phase, customers may only visit your site to sign up – or go directly to competitors based on AI recommendations. Acquisition strategies need to work in this streamlined funnel.
4. How do you measure invisible research? In this new reality, customers research through AI, discuss options on Reddit, then convert through branded searches or direct visits, leaving your attribution models blind to the real journey. The key is to build flexible, directional measurement tools that guide decision-making, even as the landscape keeps shifting. Then test, iterate, and refine.
The Capability Challenge
This shift requires the same core skills that made search marketing work for so long – understanding customer intent, creating useful content, and optimizing for algorithms. But the platforms are now different, the optimization approaches are evolving, and the measurement playbook is being written in real time. Further, the pace of AI development and adoption means that continuous change is likely, which requires service providers to adapt rapidly.
For service providers, success won’t come from waiting until you have all the answers – it comes from strengthening your organization’s ability to test, learn, and adapt as the search landscape continues to evolve.
Contact us today to learn how Cartesian can help you take the first step in building a digital strategy that can withstand whatever the future brings.
