Here's Why I Deleted Google (and What It Means for Your Customers)

👉🏾 EPISODE 3 OUT NOW - here

Last month, I needed a builder for some fencing and a deck renovation. Normally? That's hours on Google, ten tabs open, reading reviews, clicking builder websites, chasing quotes.

Instead, I typed into Perplexity: "Do I need a building permit for a deck extension in Melbourne?"

Simple question. And suddenly - it's mapping out the whole permit process step by step. Like a consultant I'd just hired.

Then it escalates. Local builders. Pricing comparisons. Availability. Reviews from multiple sources.

And then the moment. It asks me: "Want to upload a photo of your house?"

So I do. And within seconds, I'm staring at a hyper-realistic mockup of my backyard... except now it has the dream deck I've had in my head for months.

The Conversion Moment

Here's the part that shocked me. I didn't Google. I didn't shop around. I didn't even touch a website. I booked the builder right there. Dropped over ten thousand dollars - inside the AI.

And listen - I would never normally do that. Ever. I've been building digital campaigns for fourteen years. I know funnels. I know customer journeys. I'm the guy who normally opens fifteen tabs before buying anything. But this time? I didn't.

Why It Worked

Why? Two things. First - branding matters. I'd actually seen this builder once before, years ago, in a news publicaiton. Just a fleeting mention. But that little touch of credibility stuck in my head. If I'd just seen him pop up on Google, no way I would've converted.

Second - AI wrapped it in a way Google never could. Personal, trustworthy, tailored to me. It collapsed the whole journey from weeks into hours.

Three weeks later, I'm looking at my phone and for the first time in years I realised Google's not even on my home screen anymore. When did that happen?

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The Problem in Numbers

Here's what's actually happening out there: Salesforce just found that 88% of buyers are making purchasing decisions with AI-powered tools helping them. Not next year. Right now.

McKinsey's saying mid market businesses could lose 20-40% of potential revenue to competitors who show up in AI answers. Think about that. Nearly half your pipeline could vanish because your business doesn't exist in AI conversations.

Your customers stopped browsing ten websites to compare options. They ask AI one question, get one confident answer, and move on. If that answer isn't you, game over before you even knew there was a game.

The weird part? Most customers don't even realise they've changed. They're not consciously choosing AI over your website. They're just asking questions and trusting the answers.

Want to know where you actually stand? Run the AI Visibility Scorecard and see if your business exists when customers ask AI about your industry.

The Shift (AI killed the customer journey)

Remember Alex, the CFO? His decision-making used to be predictable. See something, hear something, Google something, hit a few comparison sites, call vendors, sit through demos, get proposals. Each step gave you multiple shots to win the business.

Now Alex opens ChatGPT and types: "What's the best financial software for a 200-person professional services firm?"

AI spits back one confident recommendation. Feature breakdown, implementation timeline, even pricing estimates. By the time Alex calls anyone, the shortlist exists, evaluation criteria are set, and frankly, preferences are already formed.

Alex represents the rise of the invisible customer. They've already made up their mind in an AI chat long before your sales team even knows they exist.

Business Impact

Look at Klarna. Their AI now handles 2 million customer conversations monthly-equivalent work of 700 full-time agents with higher satisfaction scores.

Here's the CFO math for mid-market operations:

Your Monthly Volume × Minutes per Interaction × Loaded Cost = Total Monthly Spend

Say your business handles 5,000 customer interactions monthly (sales inquiries, support tickets, account management), averaging 20 minutes each, with a fully-loaded cost of A$3.50 per minute. That's A$350,000 monthly, or A$4.2 million annually.

If AI resolves just 40% of those interactions instantly, you save A$140,000 monthly-that's A$1.68 million annually. Scale that to 10,000 interactions and you're looking at $3.36 million in annual savings.

But here's what that calculation misses: the real impact isn't just cost savings. It's the customer journey transformation.

When customers can get instant, accurate answers from AI instead of waiting for callbacks, they stop needing your traditional sales process. The $1.68 million in operational savings becomes secondary to the revenue question: are you the answer customers get when they ask AI about your industry?

Your 48 Hour Action

Here's what I want you to do this week. Pick one business problem that's been sitting on your desk too long. Instead of handling it the way you always do, ask AI first.

Start with this reality check: Open ChatGPT or Claude and research your own industry. Ask the exact questions your customers ask: "Who's the best [whatever you do] in [your city]?" If your business doesn't show up in those answers, neither do you when customers are actually looking.

Fix the obvious stuff while you're at it. Check that your Google Business Profile says the same thing as your LinkedIn company page and website. AI gets confused when your story keeps changing. Takes maybe two hours to align everything. Costs nothing.

Then create one killer answer to the most important question customers ask about what you do. Not marketing fluff. Not jargon. Real information-the kind AI will want to recommend when someone asks.

This works because AI systems prioritise authoritative, comprehensive sources. When major publishers like News Corp, AI systems weight those heavily in recommendations. Your goal is creating content that meets the same standard of authority and completeness, making AI confident enough to cite you alongside established sources.

Closing

The deck renovation moment I shared wasn't just about my personal convenience. It was early evidence of the most significant shift in customer behaviour since the internet itself.

If you're not in those answers, you're not even in consideration.

The question isn't whether this shift will hit your business. It's how fast you'll adapt when customers have already moved.

Run the AI Visibility Scorecard and start appearing in the conversations that matter: www.appliedaiaustralia.com/visibility

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AI News & Tools Digest

Top Story

OpenAI Opens Sydney Office - First Australian headquarters with local hiring plans. Expect deeper integration with government and universities, and more real world use cases in finance, healthcare, and logistics. AI won't stay abstract for long.

Tool of the Week

Shortcut.ai - AI Excel agent that automates complex spreadsheet tasks like financial models and data analysis using plain English instructions. At AU$60/month for Pro (unlimited tasks) or AU$300/month for Max, saves 15-25 hours weekly on model building. Completes Excel championship level tasks in 10 minutes versus human hours. Break even within 2-4 weeks for finance teams handling daily spreadsheets.

Quick Roundup

Things I'm tinkering with this week:

AI prompts that expose your blind spots - Prompts that act like a brutal mirror for executives. Ask "What's unique about me that I haven't noticed?" or have AI write you a Sunday reflection letter about your week. The killer insight: self-awareness compounds like capital, and these prompts give you unfiltered feedback in minutes - the kind your team won't say out loud.

The fastest way to learn AI: solve your own problems - Instead of reading more articles, pick one annoying task you do repeatedly and ask AI to help fix it. The real learning comes from building alongside AI, not consuming content about it.

👉🏾 EPISODE 3 OUT NOW - here

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If this helped, forward it to one colleague who needs to understand how customers really make decisions now.

Connect with me:

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