Market Focus Shifts to
Chatbots which Recommend Brands
Companies are realizing they can no longer
simply promote themselves to potential customers. They have to win over the robots,
too.
1. AI
Models Are Now Key Gatekeepers
·
Companies must influence not just consumers, but AI
chatbots that shape consumer decisions.
·
AI tools increasingly determine which brands are
mentioned in answers to user queries.
2.
Trigger for Corporate Wake-Up Call
·
Athenahealth discovered chatbots lacked updated and
accurate information about its services.
·
Its CMO, Stacy Simpson, described this shift as one
of the biggest changes in marketing in decades.
3. Rise
of AEO/GEO (AI Optimization)
·
Traditional SEO is evolving into:
o
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
o
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
·
Brands now test chatbot responses, identify gaps,
and optimize content accordingly.
4.
Massive Adoption of AI Chatbots
·
OpenAI says ChatGPT has 800 million weekly
users.
·
Google reports over 750 million monthly users for Gemini.
·
AI platforms are becoming primary information
sources.
5.
Flooding the Zone with Content
·
Chatbots favor detailed,
structured, authoritative information.
·
Companies are dramatically increasing content
output:
o
Luxury brands expanding from 5 to 100 pieces per
month
o
Automakers publishing full owner manuals
o
Athenahealth publishing 250,000 words of targeted
content
6.
Reddit, LinkedIn, and Quora Matter More
·
AI models heavily cite platforms like:
o
Reddit
o
LinkedIn
o
Quora
·
Reddit is reportedly the most cited site in
“solution-seeking” AI responses.
·
Even a single negative Reddit post can
significantly influence AI outputs.
7. New
AI-Focused Marketing Firms Emerging
·
Startups like Evertune
help brands monitor chatbot responses.
·
Agencies such as Literate AI and Growth Marketing
Pro specialize in influencing AI-generated answers.
8.
Substance Over Style
·
Chatbots prioritize:
o
Clarity
o
Thoroughness
o
Detailed factual information
·
Traditional branding tactics focused on narrative
and “vibe” are less effective.
9. New
Risks and Challenges
·
AI models sometimes:
o
Use outdated information
o
Lack access to paywalled content
o
Hallucinate incorrect details
·
Brands must continuously monitor and correct
misinformation.
10. A
Short First-Mover Advantage
·
Experts warn the opportunity to shape AI perception
is temporary.
·
Early optimization may create long-term positioning
advantages in chatbot responses.
Conclusion
AI chatbots have become powerful new digital
influencers. To stay competitive, brands must adapt marketing strategies from
consumer-focused messaging to AI-optimized, detail-rich content — ensuring they
are accurately represented in the answers millions of users now rely on daily.
In
late 2024, Stacy Simpson, the chief marketing officer of Athenahealth, a health
care software and services provider, started asking artificial intelligence chatbots
like ChatGPT about her company. The results were not ideal.
The
chatbots did not know about some of Athenahealth’s offerings and did not name the
company as an option when asked. They pulled details from insidery
software websites that had not been updated in years.
Ms.
Simpson realized that she had to figure out how to market to A.I. chatbots. “This
is one of the single biggest shifts we’ve seen in decades,” she said in a recent
interview.
Similar
realizations are happening across corporate America as companies grapple with how
A.I. and chatbots are changing not only the way people work but also the way they
consume information. That means businesses can no longer simply promote themselves
to potential customers — they have to win over the robots, too.
“There
is a new influencer you need to reach, and it’s this A.I. model,” said Brian Stempeck,
a co-founder of Evertune, an A.I. start-up that helps
companies analyze what chatbots are saying about them.
Digital
marketing has been in flux ever since the first banner ad appeared online in 1994.
Each new digital format — from video to podcasts to social media — has spawned its
own set of tech tools and self-styled gurus promising killer results, even as just
as many skeptics warned against the hype. Spending on
digital advertising overtook traditional media in 2019 and soared to $350 billion
in the United States last year, according to eMarketer, a research firm.
The
rise of chatbot marketing is happening as A.I. tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini
hit mass adoption. OpenAI has said that 800 million people use ChatGPT weekly, while
Google says its Gemini chatbot has more than 750 million monthly users.
Some
see A.I. marketing as an extension of old-fashioned search engine optimization,
or SEO, which brands have done for decades to try to ensure they show up on the
first page of Google’s results. The new A.I. marketing is called AEO or GEO, for
“answer engine optimization” or “generative engine optimization.” Like SEO, it involves
running test queries, analyzing the results and making
recommendations on how to improve them.
For
A.I. companies like OpenAI, this means a business opportunity. The company has said
it will begin selling ads alongside the answers provided by ChatGPT. (OpenAI did
not respond to a request for comment.)
In
the meantime, companies are trying to influence what the chatbots say. To do so,
they are focused on providing specific information — lots of it — for the chatbots
to soak up. And they are homing in on certain online corners that chatbots view
as trustworthy and authentic, including Reddit, LinkedIn and Quora.
It
is urgent for chatbots to absorb messaging while they are still relatively new and
malleable, experts said. “The first-mover advantage is going to be short,” Ms. Simpson
of Athenahealth said.
The
change has also meant new opportunities for entrepreneurs like Mr. Stempeck, who co-founded Evertune
in April 2024. Since then, the company has raised $20 million and has more than
200 clients.
Health
care and pharmaceutical companies have been quick to adopt Evertune’s
tools, as have automakers, luxury brands and electronics companies, Mr. Stempeck said. His clients ask chatbots a million questions
every month, on average, checking for examples where the models are wrong, out of
date or lacking important context.
Chatbots
are insatiable for detailed information, particularly in areas where there is a
void, Mr. Stempeck said. So businesses
that want to influence what the programs spit out can flood the zone with minutiae.
One luxury fashion brand went from publishing five pieces of content a month to
around 100, he said, while automakers made sure to publish their entire owner manuals.
Athenahealth
spent the last six months publishing 250,000 words of “highly targeted, highly calibrated
content” aimed at “educating” the A.I. chatbots, Ms. Simpson said. The result: The
company is more likely to be cited in relevant queries than it was a year ago.
All
of this spells changes for branding. Chatbots do not need
a narrative hook or a fresh idea to get engaged. Mitch Stoller, a co-founder of
Literate AI, an agency with 25 clients focused on influencing the A.I. algorithms,
said he stressed to clients that the chatbots sought clarity, thoroughness and an
extreme level of detail.
“In
a way, substance has been elevated,” he said. “Vibe is not going to cut it here.”
There
are challenges. Chatbots sometimes cannot gain access to high-quality information
from professional media outlets because it is hidden behind a paywall. Other times,
they regurgitate old information as current fact. Often
they just make things up.
A
single negative post on a message board like Reddit or Quora — even one from years
ago — can also have an outsize impact. Dimitry Apollonsky, a marketer who runs Parse,
an A.I. marketing and data agency, said Reddit was the most cited website across
27 million A.I. responses for “solution seeking” prompts over the last 30 days —
ahead of YouTube, Wikipedia and news sites. More than half of ChatGPT responses
to these prompts cited Reddit, he added.
That’s
driving brands to try to figure out how to navigate Reddit, an internet stalwart
whose users don’t respond kindly to aggressive pitching. Hailey Friedman, a co-founder
of Growth Marketing Pro, an SEO agency that started in 2017, said her firm began
helping brands figure out what to do about Reddit last year after clients kept asking
for help. Now, the agency has more than 50 clients focused on Reddit.
“I
don’t have space on my calendar for all the inbound interest,” she said.
Athenahealth
went on a cleanup spree of all the old content on its website and social media channels.
It was never an issue before because Google’s search engine generally favored newer content in its results. But the A.I. chatbots
will dredge up anything, “even if it was something that was wrong 10 years ago,”
Ms. Simpson said. “You have to be even more vigilant than ever.”