Picture a family planning a trip to Moab. Five years ago, they’d Google “best rafting trip near Moab,” scan a page of blue links, open a few tabs, and compare. Today, a growing share of those travelers ask ChatGPT or Gemini instead — and get back a short, confident answer naming two or three specific outfitters.

If your company is one of them, great. If it isn’t, that family books with someone else, and you never see it happen. No lost click in your analytics. No drop in your rankings. Just a booking that quietly went elsewhere.

This is the part of search that traditional SEO tools can’t see, and it’s growing.