Marketing to Machines

Every company has a new Chief Spokesperson. Actually a team of spokespeople, who could theoretically be answering questions about your business 24/7 - describing you to potential employees, interested prospects, possible acquirers and discerning investors.

You probably haven’t trained them on what to say - there’s a scary thought - and they can say anything they like. Well, anything their model leads them to say.

These de facto representatives of your brand are large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. Their influence on how your company is understood in the market is both immediate and expanding.

Gartner predicts that brands’ organic search traffic will decrease by 50% by 2028 as people embrace generative AI-powered search. Consumers are already turning to LLMs for everyday recommendations - where to eat, what to buy, how to live.

Increasingly executives, clients, candidates, and journalists regularly ask them to evaluate your services, compare you to competitors, and summarise your expertise.

What they see won’t necessarily be your website or your latest branded content. It will be a machine’s interpretation of everything it has found out about you. That interpretation will serve as your virtual shop window. These LLMs are now the default gatekeepers of your corporate narrative.

While most marketers we spoke to still believe in the credibility and influence of legacy media, industry revenues suggest budgets are flowing elsewhere - towards owned channels and in-house production. But in an AI-powered search environment, legacy outlets may be regaining relevance. Tools like Perplexity now cite their sources, and those sources often include local news, niche trade journals, and established publishers. In this new landscape, a credible media mention doesn’t just build reputation - it could directly shape what LLMs say about your brand.

As generative AI starts shaping buying journeys, we may see a resurgence in media relations, with PR playing a crucial new role in helping brands stay top of mind (and top of model output).