AI Search Traffic Flows to Local Leaders and Infrastructure, Not Global Brands—New Data Reveals
TLDR
Analysis of 87.6M AI search visits across 10 markets shows local and regional domains, not global brands, often lead AI search results—fundamentally reshaping competitive dynamics by market and vertical.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
Aleyda Solis analyzed Similarweb data covering March 2026 AI search traffic across ecommerce, finance, and travel in 10 international markets and found that AI search concentration varies dramatically by vertical and geography. Per the research, ecommerce requires only 2–11 domains to capture 50% of clicks depending on market, while travel needs 11–129, with local infrastructure—Bol.com in the Netherlands, Lefreccie in Italy, MercadoLivre in Brazil—regularly outpacing expected global leaders like Amazon, Booking.com, and Stripe. The pattern suggests AI systems favor domains with structured local inventory, operational data, and institutional trust rather than universal brand recognition.