Brands used to fight for a place on Google's first page. Now there's an entirely different shortlist to worry about.
Oct 27, 2026
Imagine you’re looking for a new set of pans. Nothing particularly exciting, just something that looks lovely on the hob, cooks beautifully, doesn’t require an enormous amount of maintenance and ideally won’t cost the earth.
A few years ago, you’d probably have opened Google, read a handful of reviews, scrolled through John Lewis, perhaps had a little look on Instagram and eventually made a decision. You might have been persuaded by a beautifully designed website, a particularly convincing review or simply a brand you’d seen enough times to feel familiar with.
Today, you might just ask ChatGPT.
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Within seconds, you’ve got a shortlist. A few recommendations, some pros and cons, perhaps a comparison of prices and materials. Someone (or rather, something) has essentially done the research for you.
Convenient? Absolutely… but from a branding and marketing perspective, it’s rather fascinating because what happens when the first interaction someone has with your brand isn’t actually with your brand at all?
The new word of mouth
I’ve spent years talking about the importance of being discoverable online. Search engine optimisation, social media, paid advertising, influencer partnerships, content marketing… the list goes on. All designed, in one way or another, to make sure that when someone starts looking, your brand is somewhere in the mix.
Today, there’s another consideration. AI is increasingly becoming part of the discovery process, helping people research, compare and narrow down their options before they’ve even visited a website. In some ways, it feels like an entirely new version of word of mouth.
Except instead of asking a friend which pans they swear by (which for the record, I still do and will continue to do), which hotel they loved in Italy or where they bought that lovely sofa, generally en mass, we’re asking a chatbot.
And rather than drawing on one person’s experience, it’s piecing together information from across the internet to formulate an answer - which raises quite an interesting question for brands:
If someone asked AI to recommend a business like yours, would yours even get a mention?
And perhaps more importantly, would it understand what makes you different?!
Beautiful branding is no longer enough
As someone who spends a considerable amount of time thinking about brands, I certainly don’t believe this means good design is becoming less important. Quite the opposite, actually - and more so than that, I think it makes the substance behind a brand more important than ever.
We’ve all seen those lovely, minimal websites with beautifully art-directed photography and a few carefully chosen words about considered living, timeless quality or a new way of doing things.
And don’t get me wrong, I love them when done well. But if you strip away the photography, the typography and the overall feeling, how much information is actually there?
What makes the product worth buying? Where is it made? What materials are used? How does it compare with alternatives? Who is it really for? What makes it better, different or more suitable for a particular customer?
These are the questions people have always wanted answered. It’s just that increasingly, they might be asking them somewhere other than your website.
And AI can only work with the information it can find.
Searching for spam
As part of my research for this piece, and what’s really got my knickers in a twist with it’s ‘recommendations’, is that I put it to the test with a particular lamp I’ve been coveting for our entrance hall. I asked ChatGPT to find me something similar, for a little less to see what goods it could come up with.
Its number one recommendation looked ideal. Greatimagery, a great price, exactly what I was after. Except, when I scratched beneath the surface, the website was a complete scam. Full of fake reviews, no real social media presence and very little evidence of a legitimate business.
And yet, there it was, being recommended above countless genuine retailers.
Which raises a rather important question. If we’re increasingly relying on AI to tell us where to shop, how much can we actually trust its recommendations?! HELP.
Because being discoverable and being trustworthy are two very different things.
Circling right back, this means that the brands doing a good job of explaining themselves, answering questions and communicating their value clearly may have a considerable advantage.
Not necessarily the brands shouting the loudest. Or even the ones with the biggest marketing budgets.
But the ones giving people (and the technology helping them) something genuinely useful to work with.
A little less mystery, a little more meaning
On the flip side to these new search engines in our lives, as an eternal optimist, I think there could potentially be something quite refreshing about this.
For a long time, marketing has been rather obsessed with capturing attention. The nstagram grid. The clever campaign. The viral moment. The beautiful brand film.
And while all of those things absolutely have their place, perhaps we’re entering a period where being genuinely helpful becomes just as valuable as being visually appealing.
Think about the independent skincare brand that explains exactly what’s in its products and why. The furniture maker that shares details about craftsmanship, dimensions, materials and longevity. The hotel that tells you what it’s actually like to stay there, rather than relying entirely on atmospheric photographs of rumpled linen and a beautifully poured coffee.
There’s an opportunity here for smaller, thoughtful businesses to communicate what makes them special in a much more meaningful way. Not by producing endless content for the sake of it, but by sharing the knowledge, stories and details that already exist within their businesses.
The things as a customer, you actually want. What you actually ask about. The little considerations behind a product and the decisions that go into making something well. All those seemingly ordinary details that, collectively, give a brand its character, and perhaps most importantly, its credibility.
But what about the feeling?
Here’s where I think it gets particularly interesting.
Because while AI might be able to recommend a beautiful hotel, compare three different moisturisers or tell you which dining table is best suited to a family of four next July in Europe, it can’t entirely replicate the emotional experience of discovering a brand for yourself.
That wonderful feeling of stumbling across a little shop you’ve never heard of. Picking something up because the packaging is irresistible, falling in love with a brand because of its photography, its story, its founder or simply the way it makes you feel.
There is something inherently human about the things we’re drawn to.
And I don’t believe that’s going anywhere.
AI might help us make decisions, but it doesn’t necessarily create desire in the same way that a beautifully considered brand can.
It can compare those lights you fancy on quality, price and practicality, but it can’t necessarily explain why you’ve been thinking about one of them for the past three weeks. That’s the bit I find reassuring.
Because branding has never really been about information alone - it’s about emotion, recognition, trust, aspiration and connection. All those wonderfully difficult-to-quantify things that make us choose one over another.
So, where does that leave us?
I suspect the answer is somewhere between the two.
Brands need to become easier to understand, easier to discover and better at communicating the details that matter. Not just to search engines and AI tools, but to the people they’re ultimately trying to reach.
And at the same time, they need to hold on to the things that make them distinctive.
Their point of view, personality, visual identity, stories and the feeling they leave people with.
Because being recommended is one thing - being remembered, trusted and genuinely wanted is quite another.
And perhaps that’s the interesting challenge for brands over the next few years.
Making sure the machines know enough about you to recommend you, without forgetting that it’s humans you’re trying to win over.
