By Justin Taylor & Thomas Bowie, Co-Founders, IgniteStack
The grey skies over the UK’s digital economy aren’t just a seasonal fixture; for many publishers and brands, they represent a structural shift. While the industry narrative has focused on the “efficiency gains” of generative AI, a quieter, more disruptive reality is emerging: a crisis of visibility.
Across the digital ecosystem, the numbers are sobering. Publishers are reporting traffic declines of around 15%, while some brands have seen click-through volumes plummet by up to 60%. For SMEs and D2C brands that live or die by organic search, digital sales haven’t just dipped, they’ve fallen off a cliff.
This isn’t a failure of execution or a change in consumer demand. It is a fundamental change in how information is surfaced. The traditional search journey, that linear path from query to link to site, is being compressed, and in many cases, bypassed entirely.
The Zero-Click Reality
We have entered an era where consumers find answers without ever browsing a site. Using LLMs like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Bing AI, users are researching options and validating decisions within a closed interface. These tools have become the default layer for decision-making.
If a business is not clearly understood, referenced, and trusted within these AI systems, it is no longer just “lower down the page, “it is simply not considered.
The Divergence: Survivors vs. Adapters
As visibility fades for the many, a distinct group of organisations is moving faster and compounding their advantage. These businesses aren’t “fighting” AI discovery; they are restructuring their digital presence to feed it.
This divergence between those struggling with legacy search models and those building for an AI-native future led to the launch of IgniteStack.
Moving From “Positioning” to “Understanding”
For over a decade, digital growth has been built on the pillars of search visibility and traffic acquisition. While those principles remain, the mechanics underneath have broken.
Generative AI systems don’t rank pages; they synthesise information from a vast array of sources to assess relevance and authority. In this environment, your “ranking” is replaced by your “referencability.” Many organisations are currently flying blind, with no insight into how or if they appear within these AI models.
The common knee-jerk reaction? Increasing paid media spend to plug the organic hole. While this offers a short-term sugar hit of stability, it fails to address the underlying evolution of discovery.
A Systems-Led Response
IgniteStack has been developed in response to this structural shift in how discovery now works. As AI systems increasingly sit between businesses and buyers, treating AI as an additional channel or standalone capability is no longer sufficient. What determines performance is the system underneath how a business is understood, referenced and acted upon across AI-driven environments.
The first step is to help businesses understand how they currently show up in this landscape. That includes analysing how content, data, platforms and signals interact across search, social and AI-powered interfaces, and where representation breaks down or disappears entirely.
From there, automation and optimisation are introduced through AI-powered systems that sit on top of the existing stack. These systems coordinate tools, execute actions, and continuously refine performance against clearly defined commercial objectives. When designed properly, they reduce manual effort, improve efficiency, and allow the business to adapt as AI behaviour and demand patterns change, without repeated replatforming.
This approach is not about chasing trends or deploying technology for its own sake. It is about building flexible, connected stacks that can evolve as AI-driven discovery continues to develop, so performance compounds rather than resets.
Why SMEs and D2C are the Front Line
We’ve launched IgniteStack with a sharp focus on SMEs and D2C brands because they are the most exposed. Historically reliant on organic search and often lacking the resources to re-engineer their entire digital infrastructure, these businesses face skyrocketing acquisition costs.
However, agility is their secret weapon. With fewer organisational constraints, SMEs are often better positioned to adapt, provided they have the right insights.
The shift from “searching” to “answering” is the defining challenge of 2026. As generative AI continues to reshape the landscape, the ability to influence how an organisation is represented within these systems will be the primary factor in determining long-term growth. The era of the blue link is ending; the era of the AI-trusted brand has begun.
