FTR (For the Robots)
On May 19, 2026, Google announced that Gemini 3.5 Flash is now the default model in AI Mode for all search users globally. This is the largest change to Google Search in 25 years. AI Overviews now appear on 48% of Google queries, reducing organic click-through rates by 61%. The top 15 domains capture 68% of AI citation share, making it significantly harder for small businesses to be found through organic search alone. This issue of the Email Marketing Ecosystem Newsletter explains what Google’s AI search update means for small business owners, why email lists are now a more valuable marketing asset than ever, and how weekly nurture emails give businesses a direct path to their ideal customers that bypasses AI search algorithms entirely.
Regular Google search is dead. Long live Search.
No really.
Google made a major announcement on Tuesday, May 19th, that changed everything. Especially if you’re running a small business and your main source of new customers was being found online through organic search.
To quote an article in TechCrunch, “The era of the ‘ten blue links’ is over.”
Everything Changed Overnight (Literally)
According to Google’s announcement, as of May 19th, Search has been upgraded with Gemini 3.5 Flash “as the new default model in AI Mode for everyone globally.” This is the biggest change they’ve made to search in the last 25 years.
Add to this the fact that AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users (according to the same article) and that is pretty much the nail in the coffin for standard search.
In last week’s issue I talked about AEO and GEO being the new way for your business to be found online. I specifically referenced the AI summaries at the top of the page. These summaries deliver answers without anyone needing to click through to the cited websites. This is referred to as a “zero-click world.”
The problem being, if your business isn’t one of the cited references in the AI summary, no one will know you exist. A t least not without delving deeper into what is on the search page or into the subject they’re asking about.
In addition, several companies, including Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and more have added an Agentic Mode, where you can set up AI agents that do the searching for you and deliver whatever they believe is relevant to your search.
This means even fewer human eyes on all of the content you’ve painstakingly put out there to draw your ideal customers in.
One good thing about all of this?
The people who do click through are higher quality website visitors. They’re less likely to bounce and more likely to convert. According to Adobe’s 2026 Q2 AI Traffic Report, AI conversion is now 42% higher. Some of this is because “66% of consumers agree they trust GenAI tools.”
But you still have to get in front of your ideal customers to get them to click through.
Which is why weekly nurture emails are once again your best bet.
All Of This Makes Your Email List Even More Valuable
Why?
Because everyone on your list has already raised their hand and said they’re interested in what you do and how it can help them.
You’ve already got an audience that you can easily direct to your website, through your weekly nurture emails. Which means you’ve got a way around this whole AI Search shake-up that gets you directly to your ideal customers.
Sending those weekly nurture emails is suddenly much more important and (I sincerely hope) ticks up a few notches on your weekly to do list.
Here are 3 good reasons why…
#1. Getting Seen on Google is Harder But You Still Own Your List
AI Overviews now show up on 48% of Google queries and that number will almost certainly continue to grow. The organic click through rate drops by 61% when an AI summary shows up at the top of the page. Plus, the top 15 domains, like Wikipedia, capture 68% of the AI citation share.
Because you’ve got an email list full of people who have already opted in, you’ve got a captive audience that doesn’t depend on an algorithm deciding whether your content is worth citing.
#2. AI Search is Training Buyers to Expect Direct Answers
That “one good thing” I mentioned earlier about AI conversion now being 42% higher? A lot of that is due to the fact that these clicks are from people who are further along in their buyer’s journey. They’ve done the surface level research and want to go deeper to get the answers they’re looking for.
You have the unique opportunity to give your subscribers those answers without fighting with the AI search algorithms. You can do it in your weekly nurture emails or you can do it with segmented campaigns. Those direct answers will likely result in more purchases by your subscribers and more revenue for your business.
#3. AI Is Finally Starting to Value Human-Created Content over AI Slop
The same day Google made its announcement, Open AI issued its C2PA + SynthID announcement. This provenance, which 5 different AI companies have signed onto, makes it easier to identify AI-generated content at the platform level.
This means other platforms will be able to determine whether something was created by ChatGPT and similar AI LLMs, including images and video. Whether something is human or AI generated will factor into whether it is cited in search results, both in online search and inside the inbox.
AI generated content was already starting to get downgraded. This just increases that likelihood.
When AI values human-generated content over its own output, this puts you, the business owner and prime communicator using your own words, in a much better position.
By the way, this just increases the value of posting your weekly emails on your website and in other places it can be found (and verified as written by an actual human). Having your own Email Marketing Ecosystem is about to become a necessity, not just a nicety. More about this soon.
But What About the AI Algorithms In My Subscribers’ Inboxes?
Good point.
As you’ll recall, in issue #29, I talked about how Gmail added an AI algorithm to users’ inboxes in January that reviewed their emails before they even saw them. It decided whether they should even make it to the Primary tab. Outlook and Apple adopted similar algorithms shortly thereafter.
The good thing for those of us who have been emailing our subscribers regularly is, one of the main criteria for whose emails get seen by the end user is the relationship between the sender and the subscriber. Basically, if your subscribers already “know” you and regularly (or semi-regularly) open your emails, those emails will still show up in the Primary tab.
Keep Writing Your Weekly Nurture Emails!
Or if you’re not doing it, start doing it again ASAP!
Right now the best way to get in front of your ideal audience is to make sure you’re communicating directly with the audience whose attention you already have.
Will things settle down eventually? Probably. But who knows how many changes we’ll go through before that happens.
I’m positive AI search will keep changing and become even more challenging for those of us who aren’t in the top 15 domains that are commonly cited. But having a captive audience can help negate a lot of the damage these changes can cause.
When you serve your subscribers and customers well, they’ll talk about you to their friends and family and send those people your way. Human to human word of mouth referrals are still the most powerful form of marketing. (Take that AI!)
If you need some accountability to those nurture emails written every week and want a professional to review what you’ve written before you send it out, that’s exactly what the Email Writing Accountability Group is for.
We meet every week (2 sessions per week on Mondays at 10 am PT and Thursdays at 2 pm PT) to write our emails in 30 minutes, then I review everyone’s emails during the session. After that, everyone incorporates their feedback into their first draft and voila, weekly nurture email done, dusted, and ready to go into an ESP to be sent to subscribers.
If you’d like to join us for a free session to see what this is like and get at least one nurture email out to your subscribers soon, please click on the button below.
If not, go write your weekly nurture email now! Stay ahead of the robots and show your subscribers that you’re human, you care, and you’re here to help them solve their problems.
Finally, this week’s photos are a collection of random nature pics I had on my phone and haven’t shared with you yet. Apparently I need to get outside more. And an obligatory cat picture. Enjoy.
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