Marketing in the Age of AI
How AI is Reshaping Attention, Personalization, and Brand Visibility, and Why Most Marketers Are Missing It
(In-depth article only available on Anusha’s newsletter)
I see a ton of articles & videos- heck, even I have made videos & posts on “AI in Marketing”. I’m working on two huge projects covering just that. What really gets to me is how few marketers care to understand how AI actually works.
Let me explain…
You see, when computers became a HUGE part of a marketer’s life, we immediately started understanding psychology- how to gain attention, what messaging worked, how to stand out.
But there’s a MAJOR shift in how we did things then vs now, and as much as everybody is normalizing this as just another tech leap like from “TV to Netflix”. It’s deeper this time. And, it’s changing everything
What is different this time?
a. We don’t all watch the same thing anymore
Back when I was growing up, we all knew the same TV shows, the same ads & same few celebrities. Now?
Everything is ‘Niche’!
You love horror genre? There’s a YouTuber for that.
Your friends don’t love that genre? You join a subreddit or Discord where only horror is of interest
You’re only into pop culture memes? That’s all your Instagram shows you.
The algorithm feeds you what you already love, and filters out the rest.
b. People didn’t monetize their interests.
‘Regular’ people did not try to monetize everything they consumed; it was merely just entertainment.
Now? Everyone wants to monetize everything they are good at, because why not?? Which means just like how early adopters fought for space in Newspaper Ads, TV ads, Facebook ads, or Instagram views, now we’re fighting for AI visibility (AEO).
Here’s the problem,
This time around, the competition is high, your knowledge of psychology + messaging + positioning + aesthetics + using AI to produce vast amounts of content is not enough to be extraordinary.
People do not care as much anymore… because they know how it works. They know:
You can make money online
What hooks & templates are
How ads work
How messaging works
The 4Ps, the 7Ps, story arcs, carousels…all of it.
This time we’re not just adapting to a new “format” like TV or Instagram…
We’re fighting for fragments like tiny slivers of real estate in a conversation happening basically inside a black box!
Think about this, with SEO, you had rules like
Use the right keywords
Backlinks
How many headings, bold, italics, this or that, and then BOOM you rank!
But with AI? People can ask questions in any language, in any tone, and still expect an intelligent & personalized answer.
So, how do you train a model or signal to a model to surface your brand in that mess??
It’s no longer just about how to optimize for a keyword, it’s how the heck do you optimize for how someone might think, speak & feel in the exact moment they’re asking for a solution. (That experience will be WILD)
That’s pure cognitive, conversational & computational marketing.
And most people aren’t ready for that.
So, what can set you apart?
AI will not replace GREAT marketers. However, being ‘great’ in 2025 and beyond means being techinically fluent (at least to an extent)
Just like how you adapted from
TV Ads to Facebook Ads,
Learned how to bid, top up ad wallets, and optimize ROAS
You now need to understand:
How does AI rank?
Why does it rank one over the other?
What’s happening under the hood when AI platforms respond?
Mainly: What kind of customer query would surface your brand?
For example: Let’s say, a customer asks ChatGPT something..
What would make it respond with your brand’s name? (Of course, you don’t stop the questioning there, you still think very wisely about the customer journey experience by personalizing + retention) But strictly from an AI standpoint…what kind of working mechanism does this whole thing hinge on, and how much have you prepared your marketing teams for that?
That’s the big rabbit hole I have been in as I write my book. If you’re a marketer who’s been brushing off AI as “just another tool,” I am here to tell you: this ain’t that.
AI is a system that is literally rewriting how people find, ask & choose. You just cannot afford to stay surface-level. That’s why I’m putting together my big engineer & marketing brains to write this book.
Exploring questions like
How does AI decide what brand to mention?
How can your messaging show up in a fluid, multi-language, non-linear query world?
What does it mean, like really mean, to design for tokens & not just keyword stuffing?
Until that’s out, I will share more about this primarily on my newsletter (Context Switch), on LinkedIn, my podcast & any platform that doesn't algorithmically stop me from reaching my kinda people :)
If you want just one place to follow along, make it the newsletter (Sign up below)
WHO AM I?
In short, I am an IT Engineer & Analyst turned Marketer. I am the pod host of The 360° Marketing Show & Pivot with Anusha Kannan. I live in Boston, MA & spend a lot of time just writing or reading or analyzing something.
