How specifiers are starting to research products with AI (and what it means for you)
How specifiers are starting to research products with AI (and what it means for you)
An architect needs a cladding system for a mixed-use scheme. Two years ago, they would have opened Google, typed in a few terms, and worked through a page of blue links.
Today, a growing number of them open ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini instead and simply ask: “What are the best timber-effect aluminium cladding systems for a UK residential project, and who supplies them?”
They get an answer. A short, confident, written answer that names products and manufacturers, compares them, and points to a shortlist. The specifier reads it, trusts it (in the same way they used to trust websites at the top of Google), and moves on.
We are moving to a new way of working with AI, where if you are not cited or named in the answers from AI platforms, there is a good chance you won’t be specified.
Search engine traffic, mainly Google, is still the primary source of website traffic, but the rate at which AI is being used be specifiers means if you don’t start considering being found in AI answers, you will get left behind.
What has actually changed
For twenty years, getting found online meant one thing - ranking on Google. There are other search engines, such as Bing or Yahoo, but Google is by far the biggest search engine.
So you optimised your website, built content around the terms specifiers searched for, and you fought for a position on the first page to drive the most relevant traffic to your website.
That is SEO.
But specifiers now have another front door. They now ask AI platforms the questions they used to type into a search bar. And these platforms don’t hand back a list of links for the user to work through. They read the web, synthesise it, and give one answer.
So now the specifier gets a recommendation, not a set of options to evaluate themselves.
That changes the job. It is no longer only about ranking. It is about whether the AI platform surfaces you, references you, and cites you when someone asks it a question you should be the answer to.
Two terms describe this, and they are worth knowing because you will hear them more and more.
AEO - answer engine optimisation, is about being the source an AI platform pulls from when it writes its answer.
GEO - generative engine optimisation, is about influencing how those generative platforms represent and recommend you. They are giving their ‘opinion’ on your business.
But don’t worry too much about the definitions for now. They are different labels, but essentially have the same underlying goal for you.
Being present, and being trusted, at the exact moment a specifier is researching, even when that research never touches your website directly.
Why this matters more in construction than most sectors
Specification is a research-heavy process. Architects, main contractors, developers and quantity surveyors all spend time investigating products, comparing options, and checking suppliers before anyone picks up a phone.
It is exactly the kind of considered, information-led decision that AI tools are being used for.
Here at Time54, we hear “main contractors or architects already have their preferred supplier, so there’s no point in my website ranking in Google”.
There’s an element of truth in that, where specifiers use their preferred suppliers who they have a relationship with. But in construction, like any sector, things go wrong, people move jobs, or their current supplier can’t fulfil their demand. So at some point they will need to find a new supplier or manufacturer.
“But do specifiers really use AI to research products?”
It is a fair question, and the honest answer is that this behaviour is still building. Not every architect is running product research through Perplexity or Co-Pilot yet. Plenty still start with Google, trade press, manufacturer websites and their own contacts.
But the behaviour is growing fast, and the people adopting it earliest tend to be the ones doing the most research, on the most complex projects, with a lot to specify.
Visibility is no longer just about ranking
For years, marketing managers reported metrics such as website traffic and keyword rankings to the board. These still have value, but now the goal isn’t simply ranking for keywords or driving traffic to your website. It is overall digital visibility.
Being findable, referenced and cited wherever specifiers are looking, across every touchpoint they use to build their shortlist. Search is one of those touchpoints. AI is now another. Treating either in isolation misses the point.
This is where the thinking has to be joined up. Being surfaced by an AI platform, ranking in search, and being cited by others are not three separate projects. They are the same effort, done well.
What this means for you, practically
If you own or market a construction business, the useful response is not to panic about AI. It is to get deliberate about being visible in AI platforms where they reference your business to the specifier.
How do you do this?
First, you need content that genuinely answers the questions specifiers ask. We have heard “content doesn’t sell my products” in the past here at Time54, but times have changed.
Specification doesn’t happen with sales reps calling in to your customers or even over the phone. Many professionals are simply too busy and prefer to do their research on their own terms, which involves Google and AI searches.
So AI platforms build their answers from expert, relevant material. Thin marketing copy that says you offer “quality solutions” gives them nothing to work with. Content that clearly explains what you do, for whom, and how does it help them for their project success.
Second, your website has to present itself well to machines, not just to people. How your site is structured, how clearly it describes what you do, and how it signals expertise all affect whether search engines and AI platforms understand and trust you.
A site that looks good but says little to a machine is a common and expensive problem.
Third, you need to know what your competitors are doing and where the gaps are. If a rival is being cited by AI and you are not, there is usually a reason, and it can be reverse engineered. This is not guesswork. It is research, and it is one of the most useful things you can do before spending a penny on content.
None of these work in isolation. Publishing content without the site structure to support it, or optimising a site with nothing worth reading on it, gets you a fraction of the result.
This is why it has to be run as a complete strategy rather than a set of one-off jobs, and over the long-term as well.
How Time54 helped CSPAS
When we started working with CSPAS, a Cheshire-based swimming pool design and build company, they had a new website.
It looked good. It just couldn’t be found by the people who mattered. The little visibility it did have was for terms like “swimming pools Cheshire”, which generated enquiries, but from members of the public looking for somewhere to go for a swim, not architects and developers looking to commission a bespoke pool.
We were given free rein to build the strategy and run the content and optimisation on an ongoing basis. We started by researching their competitors and reverse engineering the keyword and content strategies that were working in the sector.
Then we created expert content built for their actual audience, which is mainly architects, main contractors and developers, and optimised the site so it presented itself far better to both search engines and AI platforms. This was SEO, AEO and GEO working together, not as separate exercises.
Within six months, their visibility had increased sharply across search engines and AI platforms. They now get found for the terms that bring buyers with real intent, like “swimming pool designers Cheshire” and “bespoke swimming pool contractor”.
Those visitors are looking to commission work, not book a swimming lane. CSPAS now has more visibility than their competitors and is generating enquiries through their website, something the site had never done before. We report on performance every month, so they can see exactly what the work is producing.
The takeaway
The way specifiers research products is changing, and AI is accelerating it. We can’t avoid it now, and those who are avoiding it may have a shock in the next 6-12 months.
Overall digital visibility is being present, referenced and trusted wherever specifiers look, including in Google and now increasingly inside the AI tools they now reach for first - ChatGPT, Co-Pilot, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini or others.
The businesses that treat this as a coordinated strategy now, rather than a panic later, will be the names those platforms reference and value. The ones that wait will keep losing work and will have to play catch up later down the line, which will involve considerably more time and resources.
If you want to understand where your business currently stands, how visible you are in search and in AI answers, and what it would take to be the brand specifiers find first, get in touch for a 30 minute discovery call.
There is no cost, we can simply get to understand your business and where the opportunities are.
Time54 - Construction marketing experts to get your products specified
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Simply book a discovery call using the form opposite (or below if viewing on a mobile).
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