I assume most people know that Google makes almost all of its money from ads. And, in practice, those ads are based on clicks. Paid clicks. That fact means that Google can’t survive in a zero-click world. While that same reality is not (yet) true for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and other AI answer engines, they’re almost certainly going to need some form of ads—again, probably clickable ads—to fund their operations.

For example, ChatGPT alone is planning to invest over 1 trillion dollars in their compute and infrastructure. That’s “trillion.” With a “T.” Some quick back-of-the-envelope math says that, at $20 per month, they’d need to sign up roughly a quarter of the world’s population—and keep them paying for a couple of years—to cover that cost. That seems… unlikely.

So, does zero-click search forecast a world where Google is doomed? Does it mean the entire ad-based world is over? And, most importantly, what does zero-click mean for your business? That’s what “Revisiting the Real Story of AI and Zero-Click Search” on the podcast is all about.

Want to learn more? Here are the show notes for you.

A Revisiting the Real Story of AI and Zero-Click Search (Thinks Out Loud Podcast) — Headlines and Show Notes

Show Notes and Links

• AI and Zero-Click Search: The Real Story (Episode 467)


• The Rise of Agentic AI Among Your Customers (Episode 466)


• Will Agentic AI Kill Your Content Marketing? (Episode 470)


• Are ChatGPT’s Apps Good for Your Business? (Episode 471)


• The New SEO? (Episode 469)


• Exploration–exploitation dilemma – Wikipedia


• Revisiting The Brand is the Prompt (Thinks Out Loud) – Tim Peter & Associates


• Traffic Is Down; Revenue Is… Up? – SparkToro


• Revisiting AI is Eating the World (Thinks Out Loud)


• Google Earnings Q2 2025 PDF Link


• Google briefs brands on AI Mode ads ahead of Q4 rollout


• Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript | Seeking Alpha


• The Zero-Click Future: How Customer Behavior is Rewriting Digital Strategy – Becoming Radical | Podcast on Spotify


• Tim’s LinkedIn post about zero-click marketing — or, y’know, marketing


• AI in Search: Driving more queries and higher quality clicks


• The Future Of Search: 5 Key Findings On What Buyers Really Want


• AI Search Currently Drives Less Than 1% of Traffic To Most Sites, Google Is Still Dominant, and Watch The Long-term Risk of Igno


• Google and Bing Tests Search Title Expansion, Colors & Location Moves


• From Ranking to Reasoning: Philosophies Driving GEO Brand Presence Tools


• Google briefs brands on AI Mode ads ahead of Q4 rollout


• Industry Pioneer Reveals Why SEO Isn’t Working & What To Refocus On


• AI Search Changes Everything – Is Your Organization Built To Compete?


• How LLMs Interpret Content: How To Structure Information For AI Search


• Why Your SEO Isn’t Working, And It’s Not The Team’s Fault

Buy the Book — Digital Reset: Driving Marketing and Customer Acquisition Beyond Big Tech

Tim Peter has written a new book called Digital Reset: Driving Marketing Beyond Big Tech. You can learn more about it here on the site. Or buy your copy on Amazon.com today.

Past Appearances

Rutgers Business School MSDM Speaker: Series: a Conversation with Tim Peter, Author of "Digital Reset"

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