Business owners of all shapes and sizes are constantly asking the same question: how can I gain an edge in digital discovery? After years of businesses focusing on what they believe is most crucial – like Google Maps for a local restaurant or social media for a clothing brand – a recent shift has one industry professional saying that it’s time to change course.
“It’s no secret that you want to be where your customers are,” shares digital discovery specialist Drew Chapin, “But the reality is there are more platforms than ever before. And if you continue being dependent on one single platform, you’re about to get left behind.”
Instead, Chapin urges business owners to embrace what he calls a holistic digital discovery solution: “Artificial intelligence platforms, voice assistants, niche social media networks, and video platforms are all growing at unprecedented rates, and search engine dominance is at its lowest in the modern internet era. That means your business has dozens of platforms they need to now care about.”
AI-driven platforms like OpenAI and Google Gemini have seen a 65% growth in usage over the past year alone. Voice search platforms, such as Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri, have grown by 50% in that same time. As more consumers turn to AI and voice assistants for answers, businesses that are slow to adapt risk being left behind.
It is this fundamental shift that pushed Chapin to launch The Discoverability Company: “At The Discoverability Company, we have decades of cumulative digital discovery experience. We understand how these platforms pull their information together, and we help businesses appear across the full spectrum of digital discovery points—whether it’s AI, voice search, video platforms, or social media.”
While this shift in digital discovery presents clear challenges for local businesses, it also poses a serious threat to specialized marketing agencies, particularly in California. Many of these agencies have built their reputations by focusing on a single platform or angle—such as SEO optimization for Google, paid Facebook ads, or Instagram growth strategies.
In a world where digital discovery is diversifying, that singular expertise may no longer be enough to keep clients competitive.
As AI platforms and voice search rise in popularity, businesses are increasingly asking for more than just search engine rankings or social media followers. They want a presence that spans multiple discovery points, and agencies that can’t deliver on that expectation may see their clients moving elsewhere. The very strengths that helped these agencies dominate in a particular niche could become their Achilles heel in a rapidly fragmenting digital world.
The signs of this shift are already being seen across the digital landscape, even in the political arena. One notable example is the controversy surrounding Amazon Alexa, which came under fire for allegedly allowing political campaign groups to influence its responses to politics and campaign-related issues. Critics argued that Alexa’s responses to politically charged questions appeared biased, favoring certain candidates and platforms over others. This raised questions about how AI platforms gather and prioritize information, and whether businesses or political groups could manipulate these systems to their advantage.
Such incidents highlight the growing power of AI-driven platforms and the complexities that come with them. As more people turn to voice assistants like Alexa for information on everything from product recommendations to political insights, it’s clear that the control over digital discovery is shifting away from traditional platforms like Google and into more fragmented, AI-driven spaces.
Stories like this only underscore the importance for marketers to skate where the puck is going—because it’s going to arrive much faster than business owners realize.
In fact, it may already be here.
