Rocket55 founder and CEO Steven Ayres has been deep into ChatGPT research for more than a year. He knew that understanding artificial intelligence was going to be critical to the future of business, and created an AI research department within his Minneapolis digital agency. But even he was caught off guard this week by Microsoft’s rollout of an AI-powered version of its Bing search engine.

“Since 2008, I’ve been saying, if you want to be in digital marketing, you need to embrace chaos. This is one level more urgent in that battle cry,” says Ayres, who lost some sleep the night of the Feb. 7 announcement.
“It really drew a line in the sand that Microsoft’s first endeavor into AI was not their Office products or cloud storage—it’s search.” And as has been widely discussed, debated, dissected in the ensuing days, Microsoft is issuing a direct challenge to Google in the search space. “They threw down the gauntlet,” Ayres says.

But what does it mean for the rest of us? Ayres breaks it down.

The Details: Microsoft vs. Google

• Microsoft is a major investor in ChatGPT and has begun rolling out a new version of Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) that integrates an AI chatbot experience into the search engine results.
• Microsoft is positioned to take bigger risks than Google within search engines, as Bing is only 5% of Microsoft’s revenue while Google’s revenue is 81% based on its advertising platforms.
• This has already resulted in Google launching their own AI chat feature sooner than expected, which they are calling Bard.

While no one can say for certain what the next development will be or how successfully both Bing and Google will roll out these innovations, Ayres shares some predictions that he says he feels comfortable making in a fast-changing environment.

Immediate Outlook and Assumptions

• Things are going to change—and they are going to change fast, Ayres says. Microsoft and Google are now in a race. Bing, the underdog, will try to muscle their way to bigger market share. Google will do everything they can to launch a superior product and crush the remaining market share Bing still has.
• No one knows with certainty where we are headed. Be wary of anyone who tells you they know exactly where this whole thing is headed. “We believe a lot of mistakes will be made in the short run by digital marketers who are trying to adapt to something they don’t understand.”

Assessment and Opinion

• Ad spend and search engine market share could be volatile in the mid-term range, Ayres says, adding that Google will lose users to Bing in the near future.
• AI will sometimes create inaccurate or subpar content, along with many things that are fun and interesting.
• Some users will love using AI-powered chatbots. Others will hate it.
• The initial output of the integrated platform on Bing has not added significant improvements to create a truly significant disruption (so far).

What Should this Mean for Your own Industry or Business?

“Every business and industry will be affected in different ways,” Ayres says. Here are the biggest things to consider at the moment:

• Are there any functions ChatGPT can offer to your team to help with automating repetitive tasks?
• How reliant is your business on both organic search and paid search traffic? What portion of your current website visitors come from Google and what percentage from Bing? Will this disrupt traffic or marketing you’ve taken for granted?
• Is there any other talk of disruptions ChatGPT could cause within your industry? For example, we have heard from attorneys who said it could disrupt the way law briefs are written.

“These are just a few examples,” Ayres says. “The search industry is being massively disrupted and this is only the beginning of the impact this change will have on the business world as a whole.”

What’s Next?

“This is the beginning of a new battle between two tech giants that will have massive implications on how people use technology on a daily basis,” Aryes says. “As we have written on the wall in our Minneapolis office, it’s time to improvise, adapt, and overcome. Complacency will quickly lead to obsolescence in this newest era of search.”