A brand can rank on Google, have a polished website, and still vanish when a consumer asks an AI assistant what to buy. That's the new visibility problem facing marketers, according to Duncan Egan, vice president of enterprise marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan at Adobe.
Speaking at Adobe Summit in Singapore in late July, Egan described how a luxury handbag brand appeared prominently when consumers asked AI how to care for their handbags, but became nearly invisible when the questions shifted to shopping for the best handbags. The example captures a core challenge: it's not enough for AI to know your brand. It needs to know your brand at the right point in the customer journey.
Adobe data from a June 2024 report shows why this matters. AI traffic to US retail sites increased 1,324% between October 2024 and May 2026, while AI traffic to travel sites rose 2,215% over the same period. AI is moving from a tool for finding information to a system consumers use to research, compare, and make purchasing decisions.
The new search battlefield
Egan compares the rise of AI to the early days of Google. "This is the new frontier much like when Google Search came out. You were missing the boat until you thought about SEO and paid search. Now with brand visibility, it's really around how you show up to agents. What is your content strategy?"
The handbag example shows why being mentioned is not the same as being recommended. A brand can have strong visibility when someone seeks information, then disappear when that consumer moves further down the funnel and asks AI what they should actually buy.
To stay competitive, marketing leaders must adapt their AI search strategy and analytics frameworks for AI-mediated discovery. That means optimizing content for AI comprehension, building citation authority through credible sources and user-generated signals, and implementing structured data that helps AI systems interpret brand information accurately. It also requires new measurement models that track AI mentions, citation quality, and assisted influence across the emerging AI customer journey. For those looking to build these skills, AI for Marketing courses cover the fundamentals of adapting content strategy for AI-driven discovery.
Traditional search is not disappearing. AI is adding another layer to discovery, one where a consumer can ask a question, receive a recommendation, ask a follow-up, and narrow down options without ever browsing a conventional search results page.
Content volume is not the answer
Marketers might be tempted to flood their channels with more content to stay visible. Egan argues the opposite. "We can't keep up with this content explosion. We have to apply our products and our AI to allow us to scale."
Across B2B and B2C, teams in different markets often commission similar assets without knowing the work already exists elsewhere, duplicating effort. AI can untangle that mess by adapting existing content for different markets, formats, and audiences.
For creative teams, that means spending less time on mechanical work and more on work that requires human judgment. "It's going to allow teams to do what they're really good at, which is create brand-defining creative, and not spending 90% of their time resizing assets or recolouring assets," Egan said.
"Whoever uses the most AI is not going to win this," he added. Marketers need to understand where AI fits into the customer journey and how their brands appear within it.
Humans still define the brand
As AI takes on repetitive work, the marketer's role becomes more strategic, not less. "It's so important now for marketers to know the business, not just their business," Egan said. That means understanding the wider sales and marketing strategies, the markets the business operates in, and the reasons behind its decisions.
AI can help marketers surface information, spot patterns, and work faster. But Egan does not see that as a substitute for judgment. "We humans bring the strategy. Humans bring the context."
That distinction is central to the AI era. "It's not replacing a marketer, it's defining marketing," he said. The marketer's job is no longer simply to produce content or optimize for search rankings. It is to decide what the brand stands for, what it needs to say, and where it needs to be seen - while AI increasingly shapes what consumers see along the way. Professionals seeking to adapt their workflows can explore AI for Marketing Managers training focused on campaign optimization and digital strategy.
Why this matters for marketers
The practical takeaway is to start experimenting with AI tools now, not after the competition has figured it out. Test how your brand appears across different AI platforms and question types. Audit your content for the information AI systems need to recommend you, not just mention you. Track AI citations alongside traditional metrics.
"It's about going into this with a growth mindset," Egan said. "In time, we will look back at this as redefining how we do our jobs, and what the technology can do to help us do that."
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