By Collins Oforgu
For years, businesses have invested heavily in getting their brands in front of the right audience. They have paid for advertisements, hired public relations agencies, worked with influencers, improved their websites and spent money trying to rank higher on Google. The objective has largely remained the same: attract attention, generate interest and convert that interest into sales.
But the way people discover businesses and make purchasing decisions is changing. Increasingly, consumers are turning to artificial intelligence tools to research products, compare services, seek recommendations and find answers before deciding where to spend their money.
This shift has important implications for marketing. A business can have a well-designed website, an active social media presence and a substantial advertising budget, yet still be overlooked when a potential customer asks an AI assistant to recommend a product or service.
The question for businesses is no longer simply how to attract attention. It is how to remain visible, relevant and credible in an environment where AI is becoming part of the customer journey.
Marketing is moving beyond traditional search
The rise of AI-powered search is changing the relationship between consumers and brands. Instead of opening several websites and comparing information themselves, people can now ask tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini to explain their options, compare alternatives and make recommendations.
For businesses, this introduces another layer of competition. Being visible on Google and social media remains important, but brands must also consider how they appear in AI-generated answers.
Dara Treseder, chief marketing and commercial officer at Autodesk, captured the significance of this shift in an interview with Fortune in July 2026. “AI discovery has turned everything on its head,” she said, referring to the growing role of AI platforms in how consumers discover information and brands.
Her observation reflects a change that marketers cannot afford to ignore. If consumers increasingly use AI to narrow their choices, brands need to understand what information these systems draw upon, how their businesses are represented and whether credible sources support the claims they make.
This is where generative engine optimisation, commonly called GEO, becomes relevant. Similar to search engine optimisation, GEO involves improving a brand’s chances of being referenced in AI-generated responses. It requires useful website content, clear information about products and services, credible third-party mentions and consistent brand information across relevant platforms.
For a real estate company, for example, visibility may depend not only on its website and property listings but also on whether reliable online sources explain its locations, projects, track record and services. A professional services firm faces a similar challenge when a prospective client asks AI to recommend reputable providers.
The opportunity is significant, but businesses should understand that AI visibility is not guaranteed by publishing more content. Accuracy, relevance and credibility matter.
AI is becoming a business tool, not just a marketing shortcut
One of the most common mistakes businesses make when discussing AI is reducing its value to content creation. Generating social media captions, drafting articles and producing advertising ideas are useful applications, but they represent only part of the opportunity.
AI can support customer research, audience segmentation, campaign planning, lead qualification, customer service, performance analysis and sales follow-up. It can help marketing teams identify patterns in customer behaviour, test different messages and make better use of the information they already collect.
For companies operating with limited budgets, these capabilities are particularly important. A small marketing team can use AI to handle some repetitive tasks more efficiently, allowing its members to concentrate on strategy, customer relationships and creative decisions.
However, efficiency should not be confused with effectiveness. Producing 100 social media posts in the time it previously took to create 10 does not automatically produce more customers. If the message is wrong, the audience is poorly selected or the offer is unattractive, AI may simply help a business make the same mistake faster.
The real value lies in connecting technology to commercial objectives. Businesses should be asking whether AI is improving the quality of leads, reducing customer acquisition costs, increasing conversion rates, improving retention or helping them understand their markets more accurately.
These are the outcomes that justify investment.
What global marketing leaders are telling us
The challenge facing marketing leaders is not a lack of enthusiasm for AI. It is the difficulty of turning that enthusiasm into measurable business results.
In its May 2026 CMO Spend Survey, Gartner found that marketing leaders allocated an average of 15.3 per cent of their marketing budgets to AI initiatives. Yet only 30 per cent reported mature or fully developed AI readiness capabilities.
Ewan McIntyre, vice president analyst and chief of research in Gartner’s Marketing practice, warned that organisations risk investing in technology without the foundations required to benefit from it.
“CMOs recognize AI’s potential as a force multiplier for growth, efficiency and transformation, but most marketing organizations are not yet built to capture that value,” he said.
This is an important lesson for businesses of every size. Buying access to AI tools is not the same as building an AI-enabled business. Companies need reliable data, clearly defined processes, trained employees and a way to measure whether the technology is delivering results.
The same principle applies to content and brand communication. Jing Mertoglu, global vice president of insights and analytics for marketing excellence at Suntory Global Spirits, made the case for balancing technological progress with responsible implementation in NielsenIQ’s CMO Outlook: Guide to 2026.
“[Companies] that aren’t laggards in tech and are able to maximize the upsides while responsibly navigating the limitations of AI will be the winners of the day,” she said.
That balance is essential. AI-generated information can be inaccurate, generic or inconsistent with a company’s identity. Publishing it without proper review may save time initially but damage customer confidence over time.
Businesses still need people who understand their customers, can recognise a good idea and know when a machine-generated answer is wrong.
The opportunity for African businesses
For businesses in Nigeria and across Africa, AI presents an opportunity to compete more effectively without necessarily matching the budgets of larger competitors.
A growing company can use AI to conduct preliminary market research, develop customer-specific campaigns, analyse advertising results and improve communication with prospective buyers. It can also use AI to support customers outside normal business hours, provided the systems are properly configured and monitored.
For marketing agencies, the opportunity extends beyond offering AI-generated content. Agencies can help clients integrate AI into their existing marketing processes, improve their online discoverability, analyse customer journeys and connect marketing activities to sales outcomes.
Public relations professionals must also adapt. Media coverage, expert commentary, credible articles and consistent brand information can contribute to the information available about a business online. As AI-assisted discovery grows, the quality and credibility of a company’s digital footprint become increasingly important.
This does not mean abandoning traditional marketing. Advertising, public relations, search engine optimisation, social media and personal recommendations remain relevant. The task is to understand how these channels work together with AI, rather than treating each development as a replacement for everything that came before it.
The brands that win will still understand people
Despite the excitement surrounding AI, the fundamentals of marketing have not disappeared. People still want products that solve problems, services that deliver on promises and brands they can trust.
AI may help a business reach a customer more efficiently, but it cannot compensate for a poor product, an uncompetitive offer or a disappointing customer experience.
My view is that businesses should stop asking whether they need AI and start examining where it can make a meaningful difference to how they operate and grow. That means identifying specific problems, testing practical applications, training teams and measuring results before committing substantial resources.
The companies that benefit most will not necessarily be those using the greatest number of AI tools. They will be those that understand their customers, use technology with purpose and remain willing to change how they work.
Marketing has always rewarded businesses that understand where attention is moving. In the AI era, however, attention is only the beginning. Brands must also be discoverable when customers ask questions, credible enough to be recommended and capable of delivering the experience their marketing promises.
That is the real challenge facing businesses today, and it is one that no amount of automated content can solve on its own.
