How AI Is Transforming Digital Marketing

AI is rapidly transforming marketing, but it’s not a silver bullet - and it’s not without risk. As brands grapple with the ways AI adoption is changing consumer behavior, the key question isn’t if they should be using AI, but how to use it wisely and strategically to maximize marketing performance. So, what are the practical ways you can stay on the cutting edge of changes in consumer behavior?

Adapting to Disruption

While the buzz around AI is relatively new, this isn’t our first time navigating significant ecosystem changes that are impacting marketing strategy. Just as mobile reshaped digital marketing strategies a decade ago, AI is redefining how people search, engage, and convert. That’s why our team is staying at the forefront of how AI is impacting digital marketing, testing AI tools, and staying focused on what matters: driving measurable results.

In Q2 2025, our team saw AI sessions captured by our clients’ websites increase by more than 2,000%. While the raw numbers of visits coming from AI platforms is still relatively small (less than 0.5% of total website traffic), it’s having an outsized impact: organic website traffic fell 5.2% in Q2. That’s due in part to consumers shifting towards large language model (LLM) platforms, but also to an increase in AI summaries that are now answering 10-20 percent of queries without requiring someone to visit a website (called zero-click searches).  

What You Need to Compete

Gone are the days when brands can rely on a single channel to fuel their growth. Smart marketers who take a multi-pronged approach to their marketing will stay competitive in a world of AI-powered search engines, voice search, and generative content.

1. Audit Your AI Visibility

As consumers adopt AI technology at increasing rates, you need to be part of the conversation happening in AI systems. That means the branded content on your site must be AI-friendly. Proper semantic markup allows the LLMs to consume and categorize your content, enabling your brand to be included in AI-generated answers.  

2. Rethink Your Content Strategy

To successfully reach audiences through AI, you need to go beyond standalone blogs or isolated keywords. Identify your brand’s high-value questions and phrases though an AI lens, develop topical keyword clusters, and deploy a network of content supporting a theme to establish your expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness on that topic (E-E-A-T). Once your content is covered, have a plan to amplify it – and by extension, your brand – across channels like YouTube, TikTok, and Meta.  

3. Unlock Insights from Your Data

You probably feel like you’re collecting more data than you ever have before – and you’re probably right. But is that data working for you? Bridging the gaps between your data platforms and evolving your KPIs can reveal patterns, allowing you to extract actionable insights that fuel smarter marketing decisions.  

This isn’t about replacing metrics. It’s about expanding what we count. GA4 data goes a long way to understand performance on your website specifically, but third-party tools will now be mandatory if you want to see what's happening in LLMs and AI agents.

What’s Coming Next

The next wave of AI will be more autonomous, more integrated, and more customizable. Expect to see:

• AI agents that manage parts of your campaign automatically
• Real-time optimization across multi-channel media buys
• Hyper-personalized customer journeys based on dynamic data inputs
• Vertical-specific AI copilots built for regulated sectors like healthcare and finance

These tools promise big value, but also complexity. AI won’t replace strategy, creativity, or human insight. That's why we’re staying at the cutting edge of AI technology and how organizations can wisely adapt, accelerating every aspect of marketing performance.