The digital visibility landscape is undergoing its most significant transformation since the founding of Google, with traditional search engine usage collapsing at unprecedented rates while AI assistants gain 800 million weekly users. According to newly released research compiled in The SPARK Framework: The Blueprint for AI Search Dominance, companies investing millions in traditional SEO are optimizing for a platform that's hemorrhaging users at the fastest rate in internet history.
Google's general search market share plummeted from 73% to 66.9% between February and August 2025, representing the steepest six-month decline in the company's history. Meanwhile, ChatGPT exploded from 400 million to 800 million weekly users in just eight months, a 100% increase that shows no signs of slowing. The data reveals that 43% of all searches now start with AI assistants instead of traditional search engines, with 34% of Gen Z users preferring AI chatbots over Google for information discovery and 79% of Americans trusting AI search engines to provide accurate information.
Lane Houk, author of The SPARK Framework and founder of Franchise AiQ™ and Quantum Agency, explains that traditional SEO focused on ranking in Google's top 10 results, but AI assistants don't show rankings—they cite sources. Companies with perfect Google rankings are getting zero mentions in AI responses, spending $5,000-50,000 monthly on SEO while their leads dry up. They remain visible to a shrinking audience while becoming invisible to a growing one of 800 million weekly AI assistant users.
The book introduces Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), a completely new discipline that focuses on making businesses citable by AI assistants rather than merely rankable by search engines. AEO combines advanced traditional SEO strategies with new tactics that specifically address LLM visibility. The 12-month implementation system is already producing dramatic results for early adopters, including 150-300% traffic increases from AI-driven search, 50-100+ AI citations monthly across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, and 300-500% ROI on AEO implementation compared to traditional SEO alone.
The SPARK Framework breaks down into 12 monthly implementation phases, each with specific, actionable tasks. Month one focuses on emergency protocol and foundation setup, followed by semantic optimization and entity mapping in month two, platform authority building across AI ecosystems in month three, and answer readiness implementation in month four. Months five through twelve cover advanced technical optimization, content scaling, competitive intelligence, and future-proofing. Each phase includes detailed task lists, technical tutorials, recommended tools, and clear success metrics.
The urgency stems from AI assistants building authority based on consistent citations over time. Businesses implementing AEO now are gaining 12-18 month leads over competitors, advantages that compound as AI assistants continue to cite established authorities more frequently than newcomers. The window for early-mover advantage is measured in months rather than years, with businesses that move in 2025 positioned to thrive in 2026 regardless of budget size. The framework is designed for business owners watching traffic decline, marketing directors tasked with understanding AI, SEO professionals needing skill updates, agency owners seeking high-value services, and home services businesses competing in local markets where AI search is exploding.
