What is marketing’s role in the age of AI agents and LLM-powered discovery?
A few weeks ago, I used ChatGPT to help plan spring break with my kids.
I didn’t start with a destination. I started with a problem:
We want somewhere warm, affordable, easy to get to, and interesting enough for teenagers.
ChatGPT did what LLMs do best. It analyzed constraints, filtered options, and surfaced a shortlist. One destination stood out: Puerto Rico — described as “surprisingly affordable.”
It was right.
Flying out of Miami, we scored round‑trip tickets for $84 per person. The recommendation worked.
But here’s the thing.
What will bring us back to Puerto Rico wasn’t the recommendation.
It was the experience.
The people. The food. The music. The beaches. The feeling that we barely scratched the surface — that we didn’t even get to kayak the bioluminescent bay because we missed the full moon.
The LLM put Puerto Rico on my radar.
The lived experience is what earned my loyalty.
That distinction sits at the heart of how marketing is changing.
Marketing is not shrinking — it’s expanding
In the age of AI, marketing isn’t becoming less important. It’s becoming more layered.
As large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity increasingly sit between consumers and brands, marketing now has a dual mandate:
- Engineer brands so AI systems can discover, understand, and recommend them
- Build brands people experience, remember, and return to
If that feels like two jobs, it’s because it is.
The enduring role of brand for humans
At the end of the day, people still buy from brands they:
- Know
- Like
- Trust
No AI system can replace the emotional and experiential side of brand building.
People experience brands in the real world. They form opinions through:
- Customer service moments
- Product quality
- Word of mouth
- Reviews and referrals
- How a brand makes them feel
That’s what creates repeat behavior.
Puerto Rico wasn’t just a line item on a list. It became a memory — and memories are what drive loyalty.
This human side of branding still requires:
- Clear positioning and storytelling
- Emotional resonance
- Consistent experiences
- Proof through testimonials and reputation
None of that goes away in an AI‑driven world.
If anything, it matters more.
The new role of brand for machines
What has changed is how brands enter consideration in the first place.
More and more often, discovery doesn’t start with ten blue links. It starts with an answer.
When someone asks an AI assistant:
“What’s the best option for my situation?”
The system doesn’t browse the web the way humans do. It curates.
It synthesizes information from:
- Structured brand data
- Website content
- Directories and listings
- Reviews and sentiment
- Third‑party mentions
- Contextual signals like location and intent
LLMs now function as:
- Awareness engines
- Recommendation filters
- Shortlist builders
They don’t create loyalty — but they absolutely influence who gets considered.
Just like Puerto Rico entered my world through an AI recommendation, brands increasingly enter the buyer journey through machine‑mediated discovery.
Why marketing now operates in two systems
Modern brand building happens in parallel:
System 1: Human Choice
- Emotional connection
- Experience and memory
- Social proof
- Long‑term loyalty
System 2: Machine Selection
- Structured, scannable content
- Clear answers to real questions
- Consistent brand facts
- Fresh, up‑to‑date information
The mistake many brands are making is assuming these systems compete with each other.
They don’t.
They depend on each other.
Great experiences generate reviews, mentions, and trust. Strong structure ensures those signals are surfaced by AI systems.
From influencing people to feeding the system
This is the mindset shift marketers need to make:
We are no longer trying to influence every individual directly. Our job is to feed the system that personalizes for them.
AI agents often know more about a person’s constraints than a brand ever will — preferences, budgets, behaviors, and unspoken intent.
Marketing’s role is to ensure that when the system assembles an answer, your brand is present, accurate, and credible.
That means:
- Structured summaries
- Clear FAQs
- Explicit explanations of who you’re for
- Consistent brand facts everywhere you appear
Why doing nothing is the riskiest strategy
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Brands can appear (or disappear) almost overnight.
AI visibility is probabilistic. Small changes in structure, freshness, or consistency can determine whether a brand is cited or ignored.
Strong brands aren’t immune to this.
If Puerto Rico hadn’t been clearly represented in the data ChatGPT accessed, it never would’ve made my list — no matter how incredible the experience turned out to be.
In summary
Marketing isn’t shrinking in the age of AI.
It’s expanding into two connected disciplines:
Brand building for humans, grounded in experience and trust
Brand engineering for machines, grounded in clarity and structure
The brands that win won’t choose between them.
They’ll design for both.
Frequently asked questions
Does AI replace branding? No. AI accelerates discovery, but lived experience still determines loyalty.
Do LLMs influence purchasing decisions? Yes. They increasingly shape awareness and shortlists — often before someone ever visits a website.
What’s the biggest risk for brands today? Assuming great experiences alone guarantee visibility in an AI‑mediated world.
Next up: Why ‘search’ is giving way to ‘answers’ — and what that means for content strategy.
