How big is AI Search, Rise of Claude, ChatGPT fan-out shake-up | #MonthlyLandwehr

Every month I meet with Malte to take all the news, new research and interesting developments in SEO & AI Search to get his perspective on them.

Malte Landwehr is CPO & CMO at Peec AI, one of the leading AI search analytics platforms, and one of the brightest minds in the field.

### What we covered in this episode

- Ethan Smith's "AI is much bigger than you think" study: his 20% market share figure, how it compares to other estimates, and why the industry resists the higher numbers - Claude's rapid rise: 3x growth Jan–March, overtaking Perplexity, the mix of strong product + OpenAI missteps + Anthropic's PR savvy, and the professional vs. consumer usage split - Why people still treat AI search as a "black box": the parallel to early SEO reverse-engineering, lack of official spokespeople, and influx of non-SEO "experts" muddying the waters - ChatGPT's fan-out query changes (GPT 5.3 → 5.4): site search becoming more common, brand bias implications, and evidence that Google is still the primary grounding source - Digital PR as the key lever for AI visibility: why technical SEO alone isn't enough for LLM citations, the importance of matching content formats (listicles vs. profiles vs. how-tos) to what actually gets cited, and needing PR with an AEO/SEO mindset

▶ Let's connect! 🔗 Niklas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/niklas-buschner/ Radyant on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/radyant/ Malte on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/landwehr/ Peec AI on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/peec-ai/