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This article is part of ADWEEK’s Marketing Vanguard program and was written in collaboration with one of its members. For the last two years, every marketing conference has focused on the same topics: ‘AI for Efficiency,’ ‘AI and ROI,’ ‘Will AI Replace Creatives?’ But while the industry obsesses over automation and cost savings, they’re overlooking three huge shifts in how consumers use AI that marketers must understand in order to harness the technology. AI has rewritten the rules of brand discoverability Consumers are already discovering brands through AI platforms. According to a recent Forbes study, that traffic converts at 9x the rate of traditional search. Yet most marketers still see AI as a content creation tool, not a discovery engine. Brands need to focus on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) in addition to SEO. And unlike SEO, AEO rewards clarity, credibility, and differentiation rather than backlinks. Brands with sharp positioning and clear narratives will surface in LLM responses. Generic brands won’t. Marketers also need to understand how Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) actually works, including how LLMs pull from structured data and trusted sources. Then, they should prioritize creating content in places where they’re most likely to be cited. And this shift is accelerating fast. AI referral traffic to news and media sites jumped 770% year over year, according to TechCrunch. The early mover advantage here is real. Unlike SEO, which takes years, startups can win at AEO immediately if they’re strategic about being cited and sourced in the right places. What AI can’t do is a marketers’ biggest advantage Which brings us to the second thing marketers are missing: what actually drives discoverability in the first place. Strong communication skills, like authentic storytelling, are suddenly as valuable as technical skills. The shift to AI discoverability rewards exactly what brand-builders have been defending for the past decade: long-term investment in narrative, trust, credibility, and customer experience. Marketers are focused on what AI can do (write copy, analyze data) instead of what it can’t do (original thinking, strategic clarity). In a world drowning in AI-generated content, the ability to articulate a clear, differentiated strategy is the competitive advantage. Take Charli XCX’s brief for Brat Summer. It was bold, specific, and unapologetically clear about the cultural moment she wanted to own. The viral success and her 2024 award season accolades speak for themselves. That’s what a breakthrough brief looks like, and you’re not going to generate that with a prompt. Curiosity will define the best AI teams Finally, teams need to actually experiment with these tools—not just sit through vendor presentations. The best way to learn is to play in the dirt. However, most companies have locked teams into one AI platform via enterprise agreements. They think they’ve “solved” AI training by signing a contract. The problem with this is that it’s way too early to declare winners in AI. Teams need hands-on experience with multiple LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini etc.) to understand their differences. CMOs need to create structured training time. They should not expect people to figure it out on nights and weekends. Further, CMOs need to teach teams how to prompt effectively, help them understand how LLMs source and cite information, and identify the content territories where your brand has real authority. The AI conversation will keep happening, and if marketers stay focused only on efficiency, they’ll miss the plot entirely. The brands that win won’t be the ones who automated fastest. They’ll be the ones who stayed discoverable, stayed differentiated, and stayed curious. Lauren Weinberg is a member of Marketing Vanguard, ADWEEK’s exclusive community and intelligence resource for some of the most innovative and accomplished brand-side CMOs. Built on ADWEEK’s editorial foundation and shaped by the needs of today’s marketing leaders, Marketing Vanguard is an application-only program built for learning, connection, and personal and professional growth.
