By Brian St. Cyr, CEO, Mediaspace Health
AI is rapidly transforming the practice of healthcare, and the ways in which consumers seek health information.
For the healthcare industry, AI moved from pilot to mainstream physician usage in 2026. According to a newly released study from the American Medical Association (AMA), 81% of physicians are now using AI, a rate which is more than double what it was when the AMA first polled doctors on health AI in 2023.
At the same time, Generative AI (GenAI) is also transforming how brands are discovered.
According to a recent report by Deloitte Digital, “What was once a primarily keyword-led activity is becoming a more interpretive, AI-mediated process,” with research showing that more than 50% of consumers are now experimenting with or regularly using Gen AI tools, indicating AI-assisted discovery is quickly coming into practice.
Amid this rapid change, healthcare marketers may wonder what this means for their search strategies. Let’s take a closer look at what GenAI search is, its role in the marketing funnel, and what it means for brand strategy.
What is GenAI Search?
GenAI Search combines three steps – finding relevant information, interpreting what was found, and generating a written answer in natural language. For the consumer, this process creates a search experience where AI answers their query by generating a summary, recommendation or explanation, rather than showing a list of links.
AI Search tools, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and more, sit on top of classic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and are starting to intersect with Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in a few emerging ways.
These overviews use close to the same SEO model that Google has always employed, ranking which pages to show by their perceived relevance and authority, based on criteria such as backlinks, keyword matching, relevance of content, and more.
How GenAI Search Factors Into Media Strategy
As GenAI transforms the healthcare space, it is essential for marketers to understand what GenAI Search means for their media strategies.
For pharma and healthcare marketers, the key to understanding the role of GenAI search is based on understanding how it fits into the funnel.
AI platforms are great at complementing the research and brand awareness phase, reaching consumers at the early stages of their information-gathering process. For healthcare marketers, this could mean a decrease in clickthrough rates when AI summaries are shown above ads, which can in turn create a trust, visibility and measurement transformation.
This means that brands should approach GenAI Search as an SEO play rather than a paid strategy. Continue to assess and complete SEO optimizations as you always have, and to specifically appeal to LLMs, you can optimize the language on your site to match frequently asked questions and focus on keyword inclusion, approaches which are standard SEO practice, in addition to factors such as site load speed, backlinks, and site structure.
Of course, pharma is a highly regulated space, and with AI, there’s a real risk of inaccurate or misleading health information slipping through, which means strong governance and safety checks aren’t optional, they’re essential.
At the same time, paid search continues to be a high-performing bottom-of-funnel tactic. AI platforms primarily influence research and consideration, to capture high-intent audiences; however, traditional Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and paid search campaigns remain critical for capturing high- intent users, especially at the bottom of the funnel.
An Opportunity to Build Trust
Understanding where GenAI Search fits in the funnel, keeping governance at the forefront, and having SEO and SEM strategies designed to reach consumers at both the top and bottom of the funnel, will support success in the AI era.
What’s more, for healthcare marketers, the shift to GenAI Search represents an opportunity to build trust through credibility.
While around 80% of U.S. adults will look online for information about health conditions, there is much less trust in AI as a provider of reliable health information.
This means pharma brands that demonstrate clinical authority, and provide transparent, accurate information are more likely to be both surfaced by AI and trusted by users.
