AI Reshapes How Life Sciences Share Information
Most search queries today see no click through – artificial intelligence gives responses on the spot. Six out of ten times,users take what they need right there. Companies in life sciences notice this shift, adapting fast.
Instead of only chasing website visits, they build strategies around answer-focused results. Some aim to appear in oneout of five cited sources for key industry questions. Others work on shaping how data appears in reference platforms like Wikipedia. Attention moves from page views toward visibility within AI-generated summaries. What matters now isshowing up where machines pull facts.
Most search queries today lead nowhere. Answers come straight from tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AIsummaries – no site visit needed. In healthcare, being seen often means better choices for patients and doctors alike.This change brings risk, yet opens new paths.
The Zero-Click Dilemma
One day, a marketing manager in a medium-sized drug company in Geneva showed its top managers some oddnumbers. Though their pages now appeared higher in searches, almost nobody clicked on them anymore. Visitorskept dropping, which made little sense given how well they ranked online.
What changed was how we reach answers.
Now, instead of hunting through links, someone in medicine might ask an AI and get one clear reply built from manyplaces at once. That old routine – typing something, opening pages, reading each one – is fading fast.
A healthcare giant out of Basel in Switzerland, focused on niche medicines, once found that its digital reach was mostlyinvisible. Only a small slice – between five and twelve per cent – showed up in standard reports.
What slipped through?
Nearly ninety per cent of the impact played out beyond those tools. Responses from smart speakers carried mentions.Summaries built by artificial intelligence included them too. Algorithm-driven answers spread their presence quietly.Old tracking methods simply missed it all.
From SEO to AEO and GEO
Firms shift toward Answer Engine Optimisation, while some still explore Generative Engine Optimisation. New pathsopen beyond traditional SEO or advertising methods.
Content shaped by AEO lets AI pull out clear responses. Organisations now face many questions – real ones asked bydoctors and people needing care. What matters is matching how users phrase their needs.
What shows up in search can shape what AI tools later repeat. By grounding information in well-checked details, asite gains weight in the eyes of systems that pull answers from trusted sources. Authority grows quietly, throughclaims but mostly through consistent presence where machines look first.
Ahead of the pack in medicine, one big drug company in Germany took a close look at how digitally equipped it reallywas. Even with years of proven results plus dominance in the marketplace, search engine performance lagged farbehind. Missing entirely was a strategy to shape content so artificial intelligence systems can find it easily – puttinginfluence at risk without even noticing.
Real-World Implementation
A few companies started tests lately.
A single organisation leader in oncology mapped out the most common half-thousand queries from patients andprescribers per therapy zone. It set starting benchmarks for presence on artificial intelligence tools before rolling out tailored material methodically. Attention moved slowly away from time-limited promotions toward steady creation ofuseful information.
A different team in the dermatology field this time set clear goals with their scorecard. Hitting 20 per cent visibilitycame first, for being cited among the leading fifty queries in their medical field. Influence mattered more than visits.Credibility weighed heavily than click counts.
Starting with what mattered most – visibility – the company wove Wikipedia improvements into its
science-focused tasks. Noticing how often artificial intelligence pulls data from online encyclopedias, they focused onbuilding clear, complete entries backed by solid references. These pages followed strict rules: factual only, never self-serving. Over time, accuracy became part of the process, quietly shaping how outside systems saw them.
The Technical and Cultural Shift
Of course, machines now expect clean code behind web pages – so labels matter more than ever before. Questionspop up everywhere, meaning teams should answer them plainly, one by one. Definitions come next, spelt out without jargon. Experts write best when they skip the pitch and just explain things straight. Pages work better whenevery term makes sense to someone learning it today.
Harder still is changing how people think. Scientific Affairs Teams start looking at content as priority one, thinking yearsahead instead of months. Instead of asking who needs to hear about the product, they wonder where their audienceturns for answers. The strategies to win become less about pushing messages, more about earning trust throughuseful knowledge
One digital healthcare leader from Abbott, Olivier Gryson, captured it: “This isn’t just SEO, it’s a dramatic change inthe way we are doing marketing.”
Measuring What Matters
When people start seeing things through AI eyes, how we measure success needs a rethink. Instead of old methods,some now follow who gets mentioned most on key topics, using links shared by AI tools as clues. Impressions mattermore these days – seen but not clicked still counts. That shift makes Google Search Console stand out, showing whatactually shows up, whether anyone visits or not.
Surprising results showed up fast. Just over a year later, one tech advisory firm saw most visitors arriving through AEO.
A store selling cannabis in New Jersey, Leaf Haus, wrote a straightforward breakdown of one product, built somachines could quickly grasp it. That piece started showing up when people asked different but similar questionsonline. Workers there treated it like a model – packed facts, spelt out how much to take, lined up choices side by side,answered common doubts – all laid bare for computers to grab. More visitors arrived through those machine-writtenreplies than regular web searches after half a year.
Looking Forward
Staying seen means staying ready. Anyone still focused only on old-style search might just fade out of sight. What workstoday is still anything linked to promoting your domain or page authority. The rest of that coming from SEO can shift fast.
Ignoring that could cost attention. Relevance fades when efforts don’t match how people look now. Finding theright answer matters most when doctors and people need it – timing and context shape trust.
Getting clear facts into those moments aligns with broader well-being goals. How systems deliver knowledge nowaffects outcomes beyond profit margins.
Finding success here means backing a lasting plan for content and beyond, credibility. Staying seen later on comes downto being truly helpful, nothing less.
Haider Alleg
