What is agentic search in simple terms?

It is search where the AI does the legwork: it runs many searches, opens and reads the pages, compares the options and can take the next step, such as reserving a table or adding a product to a cart, while the user supervises.

Agentic SEO is preparing a site for AI agents rather than only for ranked results: letting their fetchers in, putting prices, availability and policies in readable text, keeping forms simple, and making product and booking pages work without fragile scripts.

Which products offer agentic search today?

Google announced agentic capabilities in AI Mode in May 2025, starting with event tickets, restaurant reservations and local appointments, plus an agentic checkout for shopping. OpenAI's ChatGPT fetches pages on demand for users through its ChatGPT-User agent.

Do AI agents obey robots.txt?

It depends on the operator and the fetcher. OpenAI says that because ChatGPT-User visits are started by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply to them. Google publishes separate IP ranges for user-triggered fetchers and agents so sites can identify them.

AI search glossary

Agentic search: when AI searches, browses and acts for the user

Agentic search is a form of AI search in which the system acts as an agent: it plans a series of searches, visits and reads web pages, compares options, and can take actions such as filling forms or starting a purchase on the user's behalf, instead of returning a single list of links or one answer.

Also called: agentic SEO, AI agent search, agentic browsing

Why it matters for AI search

In agentic search the AI, not the person, does the shortlisting. It reads your pages, checks prices and availability, and may move on to a booking or checkout. A site that is slow, hidden behind scripts, blocked to user-triggered fetchers, or vague about price and fit gets dropped from the shortlist before a human ever sees it. Agentic SEO is making your site easy for that agent to read and act on.

How agentic search differs from AI answers

A classic search returns links. An AI answer, such as an AI Overview, retrieves pages and writes a summary with citations. Agentic search adds planning and action on top:

Plan. Break the goal ("two affordable tickets for Saturday's game, lower level") into steps.
Search widely. Run many queries, the query fan-out pattern taken further.
Browse. Open the result pages, read prices, seating, availability and terms.
Act. Fill in forms or prepare a purchase, then hand control back to the user to confirm.

Real examples

Google's May 20, 2025 announcement described bringing Project Mariner's agentic capabilities into AI Mode. Its example request was finding two affordable lower-level tickets for a Reds game: AI Mode searches across ticket sites, compares options and fills in forms, and the user picks where to complete the purchase. The first categories were event tickets, restaurant reservations and local appointments, with partners including Ticketmaster, StubHub, Resy and Vagaro. The same post announced an agentic checkout that can buy a product with Google Pay once the price meets the user's target, under the user's guidance.

OpenAI's crawler documentation describes ChatGPT-User, which visits pages when a user asks ChatGPT a question or uses an external app through GPT Actions. It is not an automatic crawler; it is the agent fetching on the user's behalf.

What agentic SEO means for your site

Let user-triggered fetchers through. Blocking them at the firewall can remove you from an agent's shortlist. Google publishes IP lists for user-triggered fetchers and agents, and OpenAI publishes one for ChatGPT-User, so you can verify rather than block by user agent guesswork.
State the deciding facts in text. Price, stock, shipping, return policy, booking availability and who the product is for. An agent comparing three options picks the one it can read.
Keep core flows simple. Booking and checkout pages that work without heavy client-side scripts and use standard form fields are easier for an agent to complete.
Stay eligible for normal AI features. Google says pages must be indexed and snippet-eligible to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode. The same pages are what an agent starts from.

Agentic search builds on retrieval-augmented generation and multi-turn conversational search. For a broader view of how often AI engines pick your business, see AI visibility.

Questions

What is agentic search in simple terms?: It is search where the AI does the legwork: it runs many searches, opens and reads the pages, compares the options and can take the next step, such as reserving a table or adding a product to a cart, while the user supervises.
What is agentic SEO?: Agentic SEO is preparing a site for AI agents rather than only for ranked results: letting their fetchers in, putting prices, availability and policies in readable text, keeping forms simple, and making product and booking pages work without fragile scripts.
Which products offer agentic search today?: Google announced agentic capabilities in AI Mode in May 2025, starting with event tickets, restaurant reservations and local appointments, plus an agentic checkout for shopping. OpenAI's ChatGPT fetches pages on demand for users through its ChatGPT-User agent.
Do AI agents obey robots.txt?: It depends on the operator and the fetcher. OpenAI says that because ChatGPT-User visits are started by a user, robots.txt rules may not apply to them. Google publishes separate IP ranges for user-triggered fetchers and agents so sites can identify them.