Shifting Sands For Marketers And Advertisers

Change in marketing is usually incremental. Then AI came along and rewrote the rules. According to McKinsey’s latest research on AI - half of consumers are already asking ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude what to buy. By 2028, some $750bn in US consumer spend could be routed through AI decision-making. And here’s the rub: much of the traffic brands cling to is at risk of evaporating, or being reduced to a fleeting footnote in an AI-generated answer.

This isn’t theoretical. McKinsey’s survey is blunt: brands that don’t adapt to what they call “GEO” (gen-AI engine optimisation) risk vanishing from the consumer decision journey. Your SEO playbook and content calendar? They will have to coexist with a new reality: structuring content so AI reads it, understands it, cites it, and - ideally - loves it.

McKinsey’s data also delivers a sobering reality check: even dominant brands may find themselves left off the AI stage. Their analysis reveals that a brand’s own website often makes up only 5 -10  per cent of the sources cited in AI-generated summaries. Instead, AI systems draw heavily on a sprawling mix of third‑party content - affiliate blogs, user reviews, community forums - and that mix varies by LLM, geography, and query type. In other words, brand strength in traditional SEO no longer guarantees visibility in AI search, because “being seen” by large language models is now being built in very different places. Only a minority of brands (just 16  per cent) even track how they perform in AI‑search results. This isn’t just a gap - it’s a vulnerability. Brands that underestimate the importance of this broader content ecosystem risk being absent from key moments when consumers’ decisions are being formed - before a single click is made.

And the shift is happening inside the creative process too. A recent experiment by Suresh Balaji, CMO of Lloyds Banking Group, illustrates this vividly. His ‘Project Turing’ put three teams to the test on the same marketing brief: a human-only team, an AI-only team, and a Human+AI hybrid. The AI team delivered speed and volume but lacked emotional depth. The human team uncovered sharp insights but couldn’t scale them. Only the hybrid team produced work that was both extensive and deeply empathetic - what Balaji calls “intimacy at scale”. This is precisely the kind of hybrid creativity brands must master as AI becomes central to how decisions are made.

Meanwhile, the market is already showing its jitters. SoftBank sold its $5.8bn stake in Nvidia to reinvest in “physical AI”. Peter Thiel’s fund offloaded a significant chunk of its Nvidia holdings. The message: AI is sexy, but it’s also a high-stakes rollercoaster. Smart money is hedging while hype runs wild.

Brand owners and agency leaders already juggling uncertainty now face a double whammy. The agency landscape is convulsing: Omnicom and IPG merger, rumours (now quashed) of Havas circling WPP, Dentsu slashing staff. AI doesn’t just arrive into this chaos as another tool; it lands like a new currency of relevance. Brands are entering a strange new world. The funnel has evaporated upstream - consumers aren’t browsing, they’re asking AI, and the answers often arrive before a single click. Your carefully plotted media plans are suddenly background noise; what matters is presence where the algorithms are listening.

Agencies are in the same storm. Mergers, layoffs, and boardroom manoeuvres are reshaping the landscape faster than anyone can track. Yet within this chaos lies opportunity. Those who understand AI, not as a toy but as a lens on attention and desire, will not just survive - they will set the agenda. The rest risk becoming footnotes in a world they used to control.

AI is rewriting who sees what, who decides, and who wins. Ignore it, and invisibility awaits. Treat it as mere hype, and irrelevance is inevitable. But lean in, with insight and imagination, and you can guide the machines as much as the humans - and maybe, just maybe, shape the next chapter of marketing itself.

Adapt or fade - there is no middle ground.