In 2026, marketing is no longer just a conversation between a brand and a human; it’s a
handshake between a brand and an AI Agent. With personal assistants (like Gemini and
others) vetting everything from grocery lists to energy providers, the “customer journey” has
fundamentally changed.
- The Shift: Success is no longer about “ranking #1” on a search page; it’s about being cited by an AI agent.
- The Strategy: Marketers are shifting to Machine-Readable Brand Data. If your pricing, values, and service details aren’t structured for AI to digest, you won’t even make the agent’s shortlist.
- Key Metric: “Citation Authority”—how often AI models reference your brand as a trusted source.