Future of Search

Is that it for the reach models of many media companies? AI will permanently change internet searches. Large language models make ‘answer machines’ possible that provide specific answers to users' questions. Not only Google is working on this, but also new competitors such as the start-up Perplexity, with which Der Spiegel, for example, entered into a new cooperation this year. This could shake Google's dominance of the search engine market - but above all the media industry's reach models. SEO as we know it and how it has been vital for the survival of media offerings up to now would also be history. But what does this mean in concrete terms for media companies and how can they adapt to these developments? Will traffic from search engines completely disappear in the future because users will get all the answers there in well-formulated texts? Will media companies have to seal off their content from the crawlers of AI developers - or should they conclude licence agreements? Or will the error-prone nature of AI searches lead to users specifically accessing information from reliable providers? At this MedienNetzwerk Bayern Thinktank panel, we will discuss these questions with pioneers in the industry in order to identify options for action for media companies - and to create an understanding of the current technological upheavals.