At Cannes Lions this year, WPP Global Chief Creative Officer Rob Reilly warned that human creativity is “under fire” as AI rapidly spreads throughout marketing, advertising and content creation.

Fair enough.

If you wandered through enough conference halls, panel discussions and beachside networking events, you could be forgiven for thinking that artificial intelligence had already become the industry’s new religion. Every agency has an AI strategy. Every consultant has an AI framework. Every platform has an AI solution. Every presentation seems to contain at least three references to AI and one image that was probably generated by AI.

The conversation usually revolves around what AI can do. Can it write? Can it design? Can it create videos? Can it build campaigns? Can it replace agencies? Can it replace marketers? Can it replace creatives?

Interesting questions. But I’m not convinced they are the most important ones.

The more interesting question is this: what happens when everyone suddenly gains access to the same tools? Because that’s what is actually happening.

Much of the current AI conversation assumes that the technology itself will become the source of competitive advantage. History suggests otherwise.

Throughout business history, technology has repeatedly lowered barriers to production. The businesses that ultimately won were rarely the ones that merely adopted the technology. They were the ones that figured out how to use it better than everyone else.

The technology mattered. The people mattered more.

AI appears likely to follow the same pattern. The question is not whether AI will make marketers better. It will. The question is whether it will make them different.

Throughout business history, technology has repeatedly lowered barriers to production. The technology mattered. The people mattered more.

We’ve Seen This Movie Before

When word processors replaced typewriters, writing became dramatically easier. Editing no longer required retyping entire pages. Productivity exploded. Most writers became better writers because they could focus more on ideas and less on mechanics.

Overnight delivery transformed business communication. Documents, contracts and proposals that once took days could suddenly move across the country overnight. Business became faster and more responsive.

The internet accelerated everything again. Information became instantly accessible. Communication became immediate. Publishing became nearly free. Businesses gained access to knowledge, markets and customers that would have been unimaginable only a generation earlier.

Then came desktop publishing, digital photography, blogging platforms, social media and content marketing. Each innovation lowered barriers. Each increased speed. Each increased volume.

In every case, the technology improved performance. The important point is that it improved performance for almost everyone.

Technology rarely creates lasting competitive advantage on its own. Once broadly adopted, it becomes table stakes.

AI may be following the same pattern. The winners may not be the people using AI. The winners may be the people who bring something to AI that everyone else lacks.

For Years We Confused Activity with Talent

Marketing has spent years rewarding production: more content, more campaigns, more channels, more reports, more dashboards, more activity. Technology often allowed average performers to appear exceptional simply by increasing output.

AI accelerates this trend to an entirely new level. Presentations that once took days can be assembled in hours. Articles that once required significant effort can be drafted in minutes. Images that once required designers can be generated almost instantly.

Productivity is exploding, which is wonderful. But also dangerous. Because output and talent are not the same thing. They never were.

The winners may not be the people using AI. The winners may be the people who bring something to AI that everyone else lacks.

AI Does Not Democratize Distinction

For a while, I found myself buying into an argument I was hearing from many AI advocates. Perhaps we humans are arrogant to believe our organic neural networks are somehow special. Why shouldn’t synthetic neural networks, supported by enormous computing power and trained on vast amounts of information, eventually outperform us creatively as well? The more I thought about it, the more reasonable the argument sounded.

Then I realized something important. AI is remarkably good at several aspects of what we commonly call creativity. It excels at recombination, mixing existing ideas in new ways. It excels at pattern completion, extending, refining and riffing on established forms. It excels at volume and speed, generating hundreds of possibilities almost instantly. It excels at style mimicry, reproducing the surface characteristics of human creative work with astonishing accuracy.

Those are not trivial capabilities. In many situations they are extraordinarily valuable.

But they are not the same thing as originality.

What appears to be missing is motivation. Human beings create because they want something. Recognition. Understanding. Revenge. Love. Money. Legacy. Connection. Curiosity. Obsession. Every great creative act begins with a human desire.

AI has no stake in what it creates. It also lacks embodiment. Much of human creativity comes from living inside a body, experiencing time, physical sensation, aging, uncertainty and the uncomfortable awareness that one day we will die. AI does not experience any of those things.

Most importantly, AI struggles with genuine novelty. It works by finding patterns, relationships and possibilities within the universe of existing human knowledge. It can create surprising combinations. It can create beautiful combinations. But it cannot easily step outside the boundaries of human-generated experience.  It may come up with a great idea you never thought about.  But that’s probably because you weren’t very imaginative in the first place.

Above average work looks remarkable to average workers.

Then there is taste. Human beings make creative choices that cost something. They risk rejection. They risk embarrassment. They risk failure. They risk looking foolish. Great creativity often requires vulnerability. But AI literally has no skin in the game.

Which leads to an observation that may sit at the center of this entire debate.

AI creativity is less like an artist and more like a mirror. It reflects, refracts and amplifies human creativity at extraordinary scale and speed. But the light source remains human.

The mirror can produce remarkable images. But it generates no light of its own.

The New Premium Is Human Imagination

The widespread adoption of AI will almost certainly make marketers better. It will make writers better. It will make designers better. It will make strategists better.

The problem is that it will make nearly everyone better at the same time. And when everybody has access to the same amplifier, amplification stops being a differentiator.

Human imagination becomes the differentiator. Judgment becomes the differentiator. Taste becomes the differentiator. Originality becomes the differentiator. The ability to connect unrelated ideas becomes the differentiator. The ability to understand people becomes the differentiator. The ability to spot opportunities before everyone else becomes the differentiator.

In other words, the qualities that have always separated extraordinary marketers from average ones may become even more important. Not less.

AI creativity is less like an artist and more like a mirror.The mirror can produce remarkable images. But it generates no light of its own.

The Gap May Actually Get Bigger

Many people assume AI will level the playing field. The opposite may occur.

As routine production becomes easier, truly talented marketers may pull further ahead. And overreliance on AI will make the untalented fall further behind. When everyone has access to the same tools, differentiation shifts to the quality of thinking behind the work.

The gap between exceptional and average may actually widen. AI may not eliminate competitive advantage. It may amplify it.

The organizations that benefit most from AI may not be the organizations with the most AI. They may be the organizations with the most interesting humans using it.

A Different Kind of Creativity Crisis

Rob Reilly may be right that creativity is under pressure. But perhaps not for the reason most people think.

AI is not threatening creativity because it can create. It is threatening creativity because it is exposing the difference between creation and originality.

The easier it becomes to produce something, the harder it becomes to produce something memorable. The easier it becomes to generate content, the harder it becomes to generate distinction. And distinction is where value lives.

The future may not belong to the marketers who create the most content. It may belong to the marketers who bring the most imagination to the machine. Because the tool keeps getting smarter. 

The challenge is making sure the humans do too.

So this happened.

Starbucks Korea, the South Korean operator of the global coffee chain, launched a promotion for a large drinks tumbler called “Tank.” The campaign was called “Tank Day.” So far, so not so good.

Unfortunately, it launched on May 18, the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, when South Korea’s military government violently suppressed pro-democracy protesters.

You can already hear the brakes failing.

Critics connected “Tank” and “Tank Day” to the military vehicles used in the crackdown. They also connected campaign language about putting the tumbler on the table with a “tak” sound to a phrase associated with the 1987 torture death of student activist Park Jong-chol.

Within hours, the promotion was pulled. The CEO of Starbucks Korea was soon fired. Shinsegae Group, the South Korean retail conglomerate that operates Starbucks Korea, publicly apologized. Sales dropped. Government bodies distanced themselves. Starbucks Korea later announced it would close all stores early on one day in June for mandatory training on history and social sensitivity.

All for a tumbler.

Was the outrage fair. Of course not. Haters gotta hate. But I’ll leave that argument for comment sections, panel shows and people with too much time and very strong views about drinkware.

For marketers, PR heads and CEOs, the lesson is simpler and far less comforting. A campaign does not have to be malicious to become catastrophic. It only has to be interpretable. Starbucks did not need to mean harm for the harm to become real.

“We Didn’t Mean It” Is Not a Crisis Strategy

Starbucks said the incident was unintentional. Shinsegae reportedly found no evidence the campaign was deliberate. I believe that. 

Inside the meeting room, “Tank” probably sounded like product language. Big. Solid. Durable. Heavy-duty. A tumbler with shoulders. “Tank Day” probably sounded like a neat retail mechanic. The launch date may have come from inventory timing, app scheduling or a promotional calendar. The slogan may have been intended as harmless product theater.

Nobody in the room was necessarily thinking, “How do we turn a coffee cup into a national wound?”

But that’s exactly the problem. Campaigns live in the real world, where dates have history, words carry baggage, images have echoes and people are very good at connecting dots. The dots in this case were brutal: Tank. Tank Day. May 18. Gwangju. State violence. A global brand. A slogan that critics tied to another ugly chapter of Korean history.

This is the part marketing people often hate, because we still cling to the fantasy that intent matters most. It does not. Not once activists, consumers, politicians, journalists and bored internet prosecutors concoct a narrative.

The outrage economy is not a courtroom. It does not need proof in any real sense. It needs symbols, timing, screenshots and a villain. And nothing makes a better villain than a large brand explaining that it did not mean to do the thing everyone is furious about.

AI Is Not the Adult in the Room

AI didn’t cause the Starbucks Korea crisis. Reporting says Shinsegae claimed marketers consulted an AI tool for the campaign slogan. Reporting also says some managers who approved the campaign had not opened the attachments showing the materials. This suggests AI may have been somewhere in the chain while humans failed to do the one job AI cannot be trusted to do: understand what an idea may awaken in a specific culture at a specific moment.

And let’s be honest. It is increasingly hard to believe that many campaigns today do not pass through AI somewhere. Naming routes. Copy options. Translations. Search prompts. Social captions. Internal summaries. Research shortcuts. Headline drafts. “Just give me ten options.” “Make it punchier.” “Any issues with this?”

The problem is not that marketers use AI. Everyone is using AI somewhere, in some form, whether officially, quietly or through the intern who is now mysteriously 400% more productive.

The problem is treating AI like judgment.

AI can generate options. It can produce a lot of words very quickly. It can summarize, translate, polish and imitate confidence beautifully. What it cannot reliably do is know when a perfectly ordinary phrase becomes toxic because of history, memory, grief, politics, language, timing or local trauma.

At best, AI is a brilliant intern. It is not the grown-up in the room. Not yet.

And if the grown-ups are approving campaigns without opening the attachments, then the chatbot is not the weakest link in the chain. The chain is the weakest link in the chain.

Context Hijacks Campaigns

Starbucks Korea is not the only brand to discover that a campaign can become about something it was never intended to be about.

Zara, the Spanish fashion retailer owned by Inditex, pulled campaign images in 2023 after critics said visuals of wrapped mannequins, rubble and damaged-looking figures resembled images from the Gaza war. Zara said the campaign had been conceived earlier and was intended to show a sculptor’s studio.

That may be true. It also did not matter. The campaign did not have to be about Gaza to become about Gaza.

This is what marketers need to understand. Context is part of the campaign. If the world changes between concept and launch, the campaign needs to change with it. A fashion shoot can become a war image. A product name can become a historical insult. A slogan can become evidence. A model choice can become a geopolitical statement. A joke can become a boycott.

Localization Is Not Cultural Intelligence

There is a lazy version of global marketing that believes every risk can be solved by localization. Translate the copy. Swap the model. Change the currency. Add local hashtags. Maybe use the right flag emoji if no one gets sleepy. Welcome to our world.

But localization asks whether the campaign fits the market. Cultural intelligence asks what the campaign could awaken.

Swatch, the Swiss watch brand, apologized in 2025 after an ad showing an Asian male model pulling the corners of his eyes triggered backlash in China and calls for boycott. The company removed the material globally and apologized for the distress or misunderstanding caused.

Again, perhaps someone saw fashion mischief. A pose. A face. A moment. A little visual attitude. The audience saw a racist gesture with a long history.

The most dangerous campaigns are often not the ones everyone knows are risky. Those get reviewed, debated, legally cauterized and PR-proofed until they have the pulse of a dentist’s waiting area. The dangerous ones are the ones that look harmless to the people in the room. Which is why the people in the room are often the problem.

“People Are Overreacting” Is Not a Plan

Whenever one of these controversies explodes, someone immediately says, “People are overreacting.” Often, they’re not wrong.

Sometimes outrage is sincere. Sometimes it is performative. Sometimes it is political. Sometimes it is opportunistic. Sometimes it is twelve people on X, three journalists, two politicians and a brand team having a nervous breakdown in real time.

But commercially, that distinction is not as useful as people think. Once the backlash is moving, the brand does not get to stop the train by explaining that the passengers are being unfair.

Adidas, the German sportswear company, revised a 2024 campaign for its SL72 sneaker after criticism over the shoe’s connection to the 1972 Munich Olympics, where Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinian militants. The campaign featured Bella Hadid, an American model of Palestinian heritage. Adidas said the connections were unintended.

Again, I can see how this happened. Retro shoe. Global model. Fashion image. Campaign calendar. Nice lighting. Someone probably thought it looked great.

But the public saw 1972 Munich, Israel, Palestine, Bella Hadid and a German brand. Suddenly a sneaker campaign had become a political statement.

Whether Adidas meant that statement is almost beside the point.

The Numbers Don’t Care About Your Intent Either

YouGov found that more than seven in ten consumers across 17 international markets said they would boycott a brand if the company or its leaders acted in ways they objected to. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, YouGov found that 66% of consumers said they had temporarily or permanently boycotted a brand following a scandal.

Kantar’s Brand Inclusion Index found that 75% of consumers say a brand’s diversity and inclusion reputation influences purchase decisions. McKinsey found that 88% of surveyed organizations regularly use AI in at least one business function, with marketing and sales among the most common areas of use.

So we have three forces colliding. Consumers are more willing to punish brands. Brands are producing more content, faster, across more markets. AI is increasingly embedded in the machinery of that production. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything, obviously.

Speed Makes Stupidity Scalable

AI did not invent bad judgment. Marketing departments were perfectly capable of producing stupid ideas long before anyone asked a chatbot to “make this more premium but playful.”

What AI does is make speed feel like intelligence. It can produce a hundred lines in the time it used to take one human to stare out the window and have one useful thought. It can generate campaign names, social captions, slogan routes and localization options with impressive confidence and absolutely no fear of being fired.

And because the output looks finished, everyone starts behaving as if thinking has happened. More output is not more judgment. Sometimes it is just more rope.

Every Campaign Needs a Kill Switch

The answer is not timid marketing. God save us from safe campaigns. Most of them deserve to die quietly in the procurement department.

Brands should still be bold, funny, provocative, fast, strange, distinctive and occasionally dangerous. But bold is not the same as oblivious. Provocative is not the same as handing critics a loaded gun and a Wi-Fi connection.

Every campaign now needs a kill switch. Not a bureaucratic committee that makes the work worse by sanding off anything interesting. Not a late-stage legal review. A real kill switch. Someone with the cultural competence and organizational authority to stop the campaign before it becomes a case study.

That means asking, before launch:

• What date are we launching, and what does that date mean in this market?
• What do the words mean in local slang, politics, history and minority communities?
• Do the visuals resemble current news images, tragedies or conflicts?
• What is the most hostile good-faith interpretation?
• What is the most opportunistic bad-faith interpretation?
• Where did AI touch the work?
• Who reviewed it with actual cultural knowledge?
• Did the approvers actually open the materials?
• What would the headline be if this went wrong?

Those of you who know me, know that last one is my favorite. I often start from the headline and work backwards. It cuts through almost everything. If you cannot bear the headline, do not launch the campaign.

The Adult in the Room

Modern agencies are not just here to make brands more visible. The role of a serious marketing and PR partner is not to say yes more elegantly. It is to ask the irritating question before the public asks it louder. It is to protect the idea from itself. It is to see the second meaning before the internet gives it a lawyer, a hashtag and a moral position.

The adult in the room is not there to ruin the work. The adult is there to stop the work from ruining the company.

Starbucks Korea did not fall to its knees because of a tumbler. It fell because a product name, a campaign name, a date, a slogan, possible AI involvement, unread approvals and national memory collided in public.

Maybe the outrage was excessive. Maybe it was opportunistic. For marketing directors, PR heads and CEOs, that debate is secondary. The outrage economy does not care what you meant.

So. before the campaign goes live, find the adult in the room. And make sure it is not the chatbot.

Sources: Reuters — Starbucks Korea to give staff history training after backlash over marketing campaign; Reuters — Starbucks Korea head fired after “Tank Day” promotion sparks public uproar; Reuters — Shinsegae chairman public apology and reported sales impact after Starbucks Korea backlash; The Guardian — How Starbucks Korea’s “Tank Day” marketing stunt spiralled into mass boycotts; Reuters — Zara pulls campaign after Gaza boycott calls and later expresses regret over “misunderstanding”; The Guardian / People — Adidas apologizes and revises Bella Hadid SL72 campaign linked to 1972 Munich Olympics; Reuters — Swatch apologizes for “slanted eye” ad after backlash in China; YouGov — Global brand boycott survey across 17 markets; YouGov — UAE and KSA consumers boycotting brands following scandals; Kantar — Brand Inclusion Index 2024; McKinsey — The State of AI

Every June, thousands of advertising people descend on the French Riviera to celebrate creativity, drink rosé and compete for a small golden lion that somehow carries the full weight of an industry’s self-regard. I have attended. I have admired the work. I have marveled at the ambition. 

Of course, as the specter of AI has appeared, we are all left to wonder whether some of the work we’re marveling at is entirely, completely, unambiguously real.

Last year, the industry found out the hard way.

The Year the Lions Lost Their Roar

Cannes Lions 2025 will be remembered for three things, none of them a great campaign.

The headliner: Brazilian agency DM9, part of Omnicom’s DDB network, won the Creative Data Grand Prix for “Efficient Way to Pay,” created for Whirlpool’s Consul brand. A whistleblower tipped off Ad Age. Investigators found the case film contained AI-manipulated footage lifted from CNN Brasil broadcasts,  edited without permission to simulate news coverage of a campaign that never generated that coverage. Fabricated real-world events. Simulated outcomes. A jury misled. CNN Brasil filed a formal complaint. DM9 admitted “serious inconsistencies” in not one but three of its entries and withdrew all of them. Grand Prix gone. All associated Lions gone. CCO Icaro Doria resigned. DM9 had won 21 Lions that year, helping DDB claim Network of the Year. That crown now comes with an asterisk the size of the Palais.*

It was not DM9’s first rodeo. A 2001 Ad Age investigation flagged a previous Gold Lion-winning ad for Parmalat ketchup as a possible ghost ad, work that allegedly ran only after the Cannes entry deadline, in an obscure car magazine. Some agencies play a long game.

The supporting act: Publicis agency LePub São Paulo won a Bronze Lion for “Followers Store,” a campaign for New Balance and São Paulo FC. The case study claimed a geo-targeted push notification allowed fans near the team bus to pre-order an exclusive jersey on match day, with 45,000 shirts sold in a single day. Brazilian journalist Demétrio Vecchioli investigated and found no evidence the presale ever happened. Several media outlets named in the case study either never covered the campaign or no longer exist. Influencer content appeared to have been edited without disclosure. New Balance’s statement was short and devastating: all materials were made by LePub “without the knowledge or approval of the brand.” The client had no idea the case study existed.

Then there was the Budweiser situation. Africa Creative DDB won a Grand Prix in Audio & Radio for “One Second Ads”, a campaign deliberately engineered around using ultra-short song clips specifically to avoid paying music licensing fees. Technically within the rules. Morally, a different conversation. AB InBev issued a formal apology. An awards jury gave a Grand Prix to a campaign whose central innovation was finding a loophole to avoid paying artists. The industry noticed.

The Response Was Serious. The Question Is Whether It’s Enough.

Cannes Lions CEO Simon Cook’s response, in full: “Creativity is only valuable if it’s credible, and credibility must be earned, not assumed.”

Which is a remarkable sentence to need to say out loud at the world’s most important creative festival in its 73rd year.

The new Global Integrity Standards, announced July 2025 and effective for the 2026 festival opening June 22, are genuinely substantial. Every submission must now be approved and signed off by a senior leader from both the agency and the commissioning brand.  Meaning no brand can claim it had no idea what was submitted in its name. A dual-layer verification system combines human review with AI-led analysis to scrutinize every claim. A new Integrity Council handles disputes. An annual Integrity Audit will be published. Agencies found to have submitted deliberately false work face bans of up to three years. Cannes published a full Integrity Handbook in November 2025 and has been running support webinars for entrants ever since.

The agencies entering this year are already calling the new process burdensome. Which, translated from agency-speak, means it’s probably working.

This Is Bigger Than One Festival

Here is where it gets interesting. The Cannes scandal is a vivid, industry-specific example of something happening everywhere simultaneously. The technology arrived faster than the guardrails. Now the guardrails are being built in real time, and everyone from advertising festivals to governments to technology platforms is doing it at once.

The EU AI Act’s transparency rules take full effect in August 2026 requiring that AI-generated content be labeled, deepfakes disclosed, and users informed when they’re interacting with a machine. Fines for non-compliance can reach €15 million or 3% of global annual turnover. Italy has already passed its own AI law with prison sentences of up to five years for unlawful dissemination of AI-generated content. The European Commission published its voluntary Code of Practice on marking AI-generated content in December 2025, with the final version expected this month.

The advertising industry is not being singled out. It is simply the most visible, and in some ways the most entertaining, expression of a universal problem: when you give creative people extraordinarily powerful tools and no rules, some of them will use those tools to cheat.

All of this is good news. Not the cheating. The response to the cheating.

The reason Cannes Lions still matters. The reason a small golden statue commands this much attention and generates this much anxiety is that it represents a genuine standard. When that standard is enforced, when fake work gets pulled and careers face consequences, it reinforces rather than undermines the value of the real thing. The agencies who did honest work, who produced results that actually happened and campaigns that actually ran, are the direct beneficiaries of a system that just got considerably harder to game.

The same logic applies to AI regulation broadly. The brands and agencies building responsible AI practices right now, documenting their use, disclosing their tools, making sure their claims are real, are not at a disadvantage. They are building a competitive moat. Trust, it turns out, is not a soft asset. In an era of AI-generated everything, proof that something is real carries a premium that only gets more valuable as synthetic content becomes more indistinguishable from the genuine article.

Simon Cook is right. Creativity is only valuable if it’s credible. After forty years in this industry I’d put it slightly differently: creativity was always only valuable if it was credible. We just spent a few years forgetting that.

Cannes opens June 22. The new rules face their first real test. I genuinely can’t wait to see what happens.

* The Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. The main venue in Cannes where the Lions are awarded.

Sources: Cannes Lions official statement on DM9 entries, June 27, 2025 — canneslions.com, Cannes Lions Global Integrity Standards announcement, July 10, 2025 — canneslions.com, Adweek: “LePub Under Investigation After Cannes Lion-Winning Case Study Draws Scrutiny,” Audrey Kemp, June 27, 2025, Adweek: “Agencies Say New Cannes Lions Entry Rules Are Burdensome But Necessary,” Brittaney Kiefer and Rebecca Stewart, May 14, 2026, Campaign Asia: “Cannes Lions 2025 Controversies Casting a Shadow Over Big Awards,” June 30, 2025, More About Advertising: “LePub Is Third Agency in the Dock for Cannes Entries,” June 30, 2025, EU AI Act transparency rules — digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu, Charles Russell Speechlys: “AI in Advertising: A Regulatory Lookahead for 2026,” January 30, 2026, European Commission Draft Code of Practice on AI Content Marking, December 2025.

I’m a devoted Apple fan. Have been since the beginning. I buy nearly everything they make, I’m a longtime shareholder, I believe in their ecosystem and I’ve defended the brand through thick and thin. But Siri? Siri has been the one embarrassment I couldn’t defend. Clunky, literal, infuriatingly limited. It seems to always be listening but acts more like a toddler than anything resembling a real assistant. And somehow Siri got worse at understanding humans as every other AI on the planet got dramatically better. While ChatGPT was rewriting the rules of human-machine interaction, Siri was still mishearing my alarm settings. It has been, frankly, an embarrassment for a company that doesn’t do embarrassment.

Which is exactly why this announcement feels different.

Apple unveils the new Siri at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8. We don’t know everything yet. The beta follows immediately after the keynote, the full public rollout comes with iOS 27 in the autumn and some details will only become clear once developers get their hands on it. But we know enough. And what we know should be getting every serious marketer’s attention right now.

Apple’s new Siri isn’t a product story. It’s a distribution story. And the distribution is 1.5 billion devices, already in people’s pockets, already trusted, already habitual — about to become the world’s most powerful AI answer engine whether your brand is ready for it or not.

When Siri gives your customer a single synthesized answer about your brand, your product, your category, what will it say? You better find out.

Better Late Than Never. 

Apple promised a genuinely intelligent Siri at their WWDC in 2024. Then missed the target. Then missed it again. The marketing press had a field day. Apple’s stock dropped on delay rumors alone.

None of that matters now. Because what’s coming is bigger than what was originally promised.

The rebuilt Siri runs on a custom 1.2 trillion parameter Google Gemini model on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure. It will live in the iPhone’s Dynamic Island and replaces the current search interface entirely with a “Search or Ask” experience. It opens to third-party AI extensions, meaning users will choose ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude as defaults from a new App Store section.

Monday’s keynote will fill in the gaps. There will be features we haven’t seen yet, capabilities that haven’t been leaked and almost certainly some surprises. But the broad shape of what’s coming is clear and the marketing implications are significant regardless of the finer details.

This isn’t Siri getting smarter. This is Siri becoming a search engine. On the world’s most used consumer device.

1.5 Billion Devices May Be Your New Media Channel

There are now 8.4 billion voice assistants active globally — more than the world’s population — processing over 10 billion queries per day. Siri’s upgrade transforms the quality and intelligence of every Apple interaction within that ecosystem, simultaneously, without a single user having to do anything. No app download. No new subscription. Most significantly, no behavior change required.

When someone asks the new Siri “best luxury hotel in Dubai,” they get one synthesized answer. Not ten links to evaluate. Someone is going to be in that answer. The question is whether it’s you.

The Click Was Dying. Siri Is About to Shoot it in the Head and Bury it in the Desert. 

60% of all Google searches already end without a single click. In Google’s AI Mode that zero-click rate hits 93%. The new Siri will give answers not links. If your brand isn’t in the answer you don’t exist for that query.

This isn’t a future risk. Google search referral traffic to publishers already declined by roughly a third in the year to November 2025. Siri extends that dynamic to 1.5 billion devices and the most valuable consumer demographic on the planet.

Your SEO Budget Has a Blind Spot

If you are following our PR FOR ROBOTS sessions, you have heard us say this before. The overlap between top-10 Google rankings and AI Overview citations has collapsed — from 75% in mid-2025 to between 17% and 38% by early 2026. The content Google ranks highest is increasingly not the content AI systems cite. A brand that spent years and serious budget building search authority can now be completely invisible to Siri while a competitor with more credibly sourced better structured content gets the answer. Rankings and AI visibility are now entirely separate games and most marketing teams are only playing one of them.

Show Up or Pay Double

Brands cited in AI Overviews earn 35% higher organic click-through rates and 91% higher paid click-through rates than non-cited brands on the same queries. AI citation doesn’t just lift organic performance — it makes paid media investment work nearly twice as hard. Being absent doesn’t just cost organic traffic. It undermines the return on every paid dollar running alongside it.

Siri Doesn’t Do Keywords.

Voice search now accounts for 27% of all queries globally and voice queries are not keywords. They’re questions phrased the way people actually think.

“Is Heineken a responsible brand?”

“What’s the best airline for long-haul to Asia?”

“Which hotel in Kyoto do people actually recommend?”

These are reputation verdicts being sought from a machine. The new Siri answers them with authority, in one sentence, to 1.5 billion users.

The Mainstream Just Arrived.

Traditional search engine volume is predicted to drop 25% by 2026 and 50% by 2028, replaced by generative engines. By October 2025 McKinsey reported that 50% of consumers were already using AI-powered search as their primary way to find information and make buying decisions.

That’s before the new Siri. Before 1.5 billion default AI search users who never opened ChatGPT in their lives get a world-class AI assistant answering their questions by default. The mainstream consumer just arrived at the AI search party. They didn’t choose to come. Apple brought them.

First Mover Isn’t a Cliché Anymore

Most enterprise marketing teams now have a GEO — generative engine optimization — initiative underway. Most smaller teams haven’t started. 58% of consumers already use generative AI for recommendations and 48% of B2B buyers use it to discover vendors.

Once an AI system has formed a view of your brand, correcting it is harder than building it correctly from the start. The brands moving now are building foundations that will be harder to dislodge in twelve months. The brands waiting for clarity are ceding ground.

Nobody Gets a Free Pass

Hospitality has seen the worst AI search impact of any industry so far — a 6.7% decline in monthly organic traffic since Google’s AI search rollout, reversing growth that had been building for years. But hospitality is the canary in the coal mine. Every sector is exposed.

A homebuyer asks Siri which developer has the best reputation in their market. A CFO asks which fintech platform is leading in payments innovation. A parent asks which baby formula brand is safest. A procurement director asks which B2B software vendor is most trusted in their category. An entertainment fan asks what’s worth watching this weekend. In every case Siri returns one answer. One synthesized confident verdict drawn from whatever sources it deems authoritative. The brand in that answer wins. The brands that aren’t don’t get a consolation click. They get nothing.

This Is Your Best Traffic. Don’t Lose It.

AI-referred traffic converts 4.4 times better than standard organic search. These visitors arrive already informed, already persuaded and already further along in their buying decision than any visitor acquired through traditional search. The brand Siri recommends inherits that customer. The brand it doesn’t mention loses not just traffic, it loses the highest-quality highest-intent highest-converting traffic in the funnel.

One Interface. Three Judges.

Siri’s new extensions system lets users choose ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude as their default. Your brand may be evaluated by up to three AI systems simultaneously — each with different training data, different source hierarchies and different tendencies in how they characterize brands and categories. Three independent editorial environments, each forming their own view of who you are and whether you’re worth recommending. 

So What Do You Actually Do About It?

Monday’s keynote will tell us more. We’ll follow up with a full breakdown of what the announcement means for marketers once the details are confirmed. But here’s what won’t change regardless of what Apple reveals: the brands that show up well in Siri’s answers won’t get there through technology alone.

They’ll get there because they built genuine authority — through earned media, credible third-party coverage and content that AI systems, like good journalists before them, find worth referencing. PR in the driver’s seat building the credibility and narrative that AI systems draw on. SEO riding shotgun structuring that narrative so AI crawlers can find, parse and cite it correctly. Paid media amplifying both at the moments that matter.

Most marketing teams are running this in reverse. Leading with paid, optimizing for rankings that don’t translate to AI visibility and treating reputation as the last item on the brief. The sequence matters. So does the proper integration of all three disciplines.

That’s the thesis behind PR for Robots, the series we have been building for exactly this moment. Because this moment was always coming. 

Watch this space for our further Siri breakdown. And if you haven’t started thinking about how AI systems represent your brand — start today.

PR for Robots: How Publicity Fuels Sales in a World Run by Machines

PR for Robots: The Hospitality Session

I recently landed on this story about Nike that hit home for me.

Recently, Nike posted on X about tennis player, Jannik Sinner. The line they chose: “This isn’t just history — it’s his story in the making.”

Within hours, a user fires back: “they let a GPT AI-ism through on the main Nike page?? I thought marketing teams caught this stuff by now.” Of course, true or not, hundreds then piled on. Nike says nothing.

That “it isn’t X, it’s Y” rhetorical pivot, is a timeless literary construction, which, of course, is the very reason the algorithm uses it so often.

Generative AI has certain “tells” and the internet has learned to sniff them out. The em dash that lands every other sentence. The “In a world where…” opening what shows up in so many social captions. Or, “The uncomfortable truth is…” trope that leads the most insightful paragraph in so many articles.  Including some of mine. And don’t get me started on The Oxford comma.

The deeply irritating part, and I say this as someone who has been using em dashes for forty years, and who may have, on occasion, opened with something uncomfortably close to “in a world where…”, is that AI didn’t invent these moves. It stole them. From writers. From us. The machines have pickpocketed an entire generation of stylistic habits and industrialized them into the default output of every content team on the planet. And it has left those of us who were doing it first standing in a lineup, looking guilty. I now actively edit out punctuation I’ve used since the nineties. I second-guess sentence constructions that were mine long before they were anyone’s prompt. The machine didn’t just copy our style. It contaminated it.

Even if the accusation against Nike was wrong, it didn’t matter. Nike was tried, convicted, and sentenced in the court of public opinion before anyone paused to check the facts. No evidence required. No response accepted. The copy wasn’t the problem. The suspicion was.

They were guilty by algorithm.

This Is Not a Drill.

This is not a niche internet grievance or a creative community having a moment. The anti-AI sentiment is hardening into mainstream consumer behavior, and brands are directly in the crossfire.

A poll from Stanford University and UC Berkeley found less than half of Americans now think the country should charge ahead with AI innovation. When former Google CEO Eric Schmidt mentioned AI at a University of Arizona commencement speech this year, he was rewarded with a sustained hail of boos from graduating students. He argued that resisting AI meant “surrendering your agency.” The students’ response, several hundred people in caps and gowns loudly jeering one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful figures, was the agency. And it was remarkably well-organized.

Then Merriam-Webster named “AI slop” its word of the year for 2025. Think about it.  The f’n dictionary, the institution that formally decides which words deserve to exist, added a phrase whose entire purpose is to describe your content department’s output as low-grade, machine-produced garbage. That means we are well past early warning signs. We are at the stage where the warning signs have their own warning signs.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

The uncomfortable truth (see what I did there?) is sitting in the data, and it ain’t subtle.

Only 7% of consumers say visible AI-generated marketing content makes them trust a brand more. 31% say it makes them trust the brand less. That is already a four-to-one negative ratio, a losing trade on its face. But here is where it stops being a reputation problem and becomes a revenue problem: 52% of consumers say they would stop buying from a brand after an inauthentic experience. Not post a complaint. Not write a review. Stop. Buying. And 58% say they trust brands less simply for using AI-generated content, not for doing it badly, just for doing it.

Meanwhile, 77% of senior marketing decision-makers plan to shift budgets away from traditional creator marketing toward AI-generated content. The industry is accelerating toward the cliff its customers are running from and calling it strategy. This is a controlled demolition being carried out by very confident people who don’t know how to read the room.

The Glitch That Stole Christmas

This is not a budget problem. It is a judgment problem. There is a meaningful difference, and confusing the two is how brands end up repeating the mistake.

McDonald’s Netherlands produced an AI-generated Christmas ad. They titled it, “The Most Terrible Time of the Year”.  It was pulled within days. Viewers called it “AI slop.” Many said it “ruined the Christmas spirit.” The studio behind it described, in a since-deleted post, a seven-week production involving up to ten in-house AI and post-production specialists, with each shot going through extensive iterative refinement.

McDonald’s response? They called it “an important learning.” That is corporate for: we spent a significant budget discovering what common sense would have told us for free. 

After significant backlash for AI-generated holiday ads in 2024, Coca-Cola released another set of AI-generated holiday ads in 2025. Their global VP of Generative AI explained the spots were guided by “human storytellers” to ensure “authentic and emotionally resonant” content. The internet looked at the AI-rendered polar bears, the trucks with shifting wheel counts, the otters in a winter cabin, and not so politely disagreed.

Coca-Cola owns Christmas in the global imagination. The red trucks. The original polar bears. Thirty years of emotional equity built one human feeling at a time. They chose, for the second consecutive year, to replace all of that with something that looked like a prompt.  The lesson here has nothing to do with technology. When your most powerful brand asset is warmth, the one thing you must never allow is for your audience to feel the cold.

The Brands Going the Other Way

Here is where it gets interesting, and where strategic intelligence wins.

Brands including Aerie, Equinox, and Almond Breeze launched campaigns in early 2026 explicitly calling out AI slop, positioning themselves as authentic alternatives to machine-generated fakery. Equinox, a gym, made “not using AI” a premium brand signal. Almond Breeze deployed the Jonas Brothers to mock the entire premise of AI advertising. Cheerfully. Effectively.

We have reached the moment where restraint is the competitive advantage. “100% Human” is now a marketing claim. Bottled water once bragged about having no calories. Brands are now bragging about having no algorithms. 

The consumer is not anti-AI. They are anti-cheap. That is actually good news, for every brand smart enough to understand the distinction.

Don’t Get Swooshed

Maybe Nike used AI.  Or maybe they didn’t.  It is just as likely that the line in question was written by a human copywriter doing their job, reaching for a construction that felt sharp and contemporary. It still went viral as an AI artefact. The copy was not the problem. The suspicion was. And after over four decades in the media and PR business I can tell you with all certainty that suspicion travels considerably faster than any clarification you will ever issue.

The question for every CMO and CEO reading this is not whether you are using AI. Everyone is, somewhere, in some form, on some channel. The real question is whether your brand has built enough of a distinctive, recognizable, irreplaceable human voice that your audience knows the difference instinctively, before the mob has a chance to decide for them.

If you are not certain of the answer, open your last ten posts. Read them like a suspicious stranger. Look for the tells. They’re not difficult to find. Just ask Nike.

There was a time when reporters actually called. “Hey John just a heads-up—we’re running something at five. Any comment?”

You had hours…sometimes a full day to get your CEO quote approved, align the talking points and maybe even drop a press release to set the record straight. It wasn’t leisurely, but it was linear. There was a rhythm to crisis control.

Now? Stories break before you know they exist. Someone’s blog post mutates on X, gets summarized by ChatGPT, picked up by Google’s AI Overviews and spat back out to the world with misplaced confidence. You don’t lose control because you got it wrong. You lose it because the machine moves faster than you do. And often without warning.

The New Pace of Chaos

When the U.S. SEC’s X account was hacked last January, a fake post claimed Bitcoin ETFs had been approved. Markets reacted instantly and billions shifted before the SEC corrected the record. One false AI-amplified sentence became the headline.

For communicators, that speed is both a threat and an opportunity. Responding fast isn’t about racing the machine—it’s about preloading clarity so misinformation has nothing to cling to. Building an always-on approval system for sensitive messages now matters as much as media training ever did.

The Bots Replaced the Wire

For decades the newswire was how you controlled the message. You issued a release, journalists picked it up and the story followed a predictable path.

Now AI models are the new wire. In 2024 OpenAI shut down five covert propaganda networks using generative AI to produce fake regional news stories in multiple languages. At the same time, Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, reported that 60% of UK adults now get news via personalized feeds curated by algorithms instead of editors.

That shift means communicators can’t rely on syndication—they need amplification. Instead of pushing stories to reporters, brands must push them into algorithmic ecosystems with clear metadata, structured facts, and consistent tone. The new wire is invisible, but it listens to signals you control—or don’t.

AI Rewrites You Confidently Wrong

In 2024 Google’s new AI Overviews feature went viral for confidently serving up bad advice. When users asked things like “Why won’t my cheese stick to pizza?”, it suggested adding “a bit of glue to help the cheese stick better.” Another query about mineral intake led it to say “eat one rock per day for minerals.” The problem wasn’t malice—it was data. The system pulled the lines straight from Reddit threads, mistaking sarcasm for science. Funny yes—but also proof that these same systems are rewording your brand statements and press releases with the same misplaced confidence.

Wired found that Perplexity AI routinely fabricates quotes and republishes content without attribution. That means every corporate communicator must assume reinterpretation is inevitable. The fix is proactive clarity: simpler phrasing, fact-checkable statements, and direct publication of your own summaries before AI tools write their own.

People May Distrust AI—Yet Listen to It Anyway

The Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2024 found that 60% of global audiences don’t trust AI-generated news. Yet 72% rely on AI-written summaries daily. It’s the paradox of convenience—we don’t trust it completely—but we trust it faster than we trust people.

Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2024 found employees trust Copilot to summarize updates because it “sounds neutral.” Machines don’t hesitate, and hesitation feels like doubt. That illusion of neutrality is what communicators must counter—not by mimicking AI’s tone, but by earning trust through transparency and a recognizable human voice.

The Press Release Isn’t Dead—It’s the Backbone

Some PR pros love to declare the press release obsolete.  And that may be true for soft news or brand storytelling, where press releases should never have been used in the first place. But it is still an essential tool for real news distribution and to satisfy compliance and disclosure obligations of publicly traded companies, highly regulated industries and government agencies globally.

Even when they’re never published, the release still aligns legal, marketing and communications teams on one approved narrative. And that matters now more than ever—because AI doesn’t wait for clarification. If your message isn’t already clear, consistent and searchable, generative systems will fill the silence with guesses. The press release may not win the speed race, but it anchors the truth before the machines start improvising. Use it to set the base note, then adapt that message for the faster channels that follow.

AI Retells Your Story Before You Can

When Tesla announced price cuts in China in 2024, AI-generated summaries on Reddit and X reframed it as a “demand collapse.” Tesla didn’t change its message—the machine did.

A 2024 PRovoke Media survey found that 40% of comms teams now actively monitor how AI tools describe their brand. Not to censor—just to keep up. The best defense is constant listening. If ChatGPT or Perplexity can surface narratives faster than you, your job is to anticipate their spin before it happens and publish context alongside the news itself.

Proof Is the New Persuasion

The EU’s 2024 AI Act requires clear labeling of AI-generated content. Major firms like Adobe and Microsoft now support C2PA metadata to verify the origin of digital media. In communications, credibility isn’t about who says it first—it’s about who can prove they said it.

That’s a subtle but vital shift. The next press release might need both a quote and a cryptographic signature. The communicator’s craft now extends into verification—because proof is what persuades when speed can’t.

Your Own People Are Using AI Too

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) reported that 40% of PR professionals already use AI tools for research drafting or monitoring. The PRCA found similar growth across Europe and MENA in 2023.

The threat isn’t AI—it’s untrained use. When everyone in your company can generate “official” statements, governance becomes storytelling’s new gatekeeper. Communicators who define the rules for ethical use will be the ones shaping how trusted those voices sound.

The Rumor Bots Don’t Sleep

India’s MyGov Corona Helpdesk on WhatsApp reached more than 30 million users during the pandemic. Its success wasn’t the tech—it was the speed. In Brazil the electoral court now uses AI to detect misinformation before it spreads.

AI cuts both ways. The same systems that can distort truth can also defend it. Communications teams that integrate AI monitoring tools into their workflow aren’t surrendering control—they’re reclaiming it.

Transparency Beats Velocity

The Edelman Trust Barometer 2024 found that business remains the most trusted institution globally, but that trust is contingent on clear fast honest communication.

IBM’s candid admission in 2023 about the limitations of its Watsonx AI earned it praise in the Financial Times and among employees. Transparency didn’t make IBM look weak—it made it credible.

The lesson isn’t to fear AI—it’s to out-honest it. Machines will always be faster. People can still be truer.

Final Word

AI didn’t kill PR—it stripped it bare. What’s left is what’s always mattered—timing, tone and trust. Machines may publish faster but humans still persuade better. The challenge isn’t beating AI at speed. It’s staying human enough to be believed when the story breaks.

Sources:

• Reuters: SEC hack and Bitcoin ETF chaos (2024)
• OpenAI: Stopping covert influence ops (2024)
• Ofcom: UK news consumption report (2024)
• Wired: Perplexity AI fabrication (2024)
• Reuters Institute: Digital News Report (2024)
• Microsoft: Work Trend Index (2024)
• PRovoke Media: AI and brand monitoring (2024)
• EU Parliament: AI Act transparency rules (2024)
• CIPR: AI in PR report (2023)
• Economic Times: MyGov WhatsApp bot reaches 30M users (2021)
• Edelman: Trust Barometer (2024)
• Financial Times: IBM Watsonx transparency (2023)

Our agency has run internal comms for some of the world’s biggest companies—tech giants, pharma multinationals, global hospitality brands. The job was always the same: manage the flow of information, prevent leaks and, above all, earn trust. Employees didn’t have to like every message, but if they trusted leadership to tell them first, they stayed aligned.

Now? We’re competing with a new “colleague.” Employees type rumors into ChatGPT, Perplexity or Copilot and get back polished answers before HR has booked a town hall meeting. The danger isn’t just that AI is faster—it’s that employees trust it more than they trust the company. That should scare every corporate communicator alive.

The Rise of the Machine

Remember when company gossip was only spread around the watercooler? At least then you knew who started it. Even when chat groups replaced break room banter, the source of any erroneous info could be rooted out. But today, the loudest voice around the virtual watercooler is a chatbot. Gallup reported in September 2025 that 40% of U.S. employees had used AI at work at least a few times a year, often to summarize emails or gather company information.

At Amazon, after layoffs were leaked to the press, Business Insider reported staff were warned against sharing confidential information with third-party AI tools—not just because of speed, but because employees actively sought company insight and clarity from those platforms.

Speed Kills (and So Does Silence)

The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer highlighted that 77% of employees trust their employer over any other institution as a source for truthful information—yet the #1 trust-building action named by employees is clear, transparent, and honest communication delivered quickly. The biggest erosion happens when official updates lag behind the rumor mill, especially AI-fueled rumor mills.

During the Meta layoffs of 2023, reporting documented how internal Slack groups and leaked information became preferred sources for staff seeking faster, unfiltered news on company changes.

Rachel Botsman, British author and lecturer best known for her work on trust and the “sharing economy,” said it best: “We are seeing a massive shift of trust from top-down institutions to distributed networks and to the interfaces that power them.” Employees assume the algorithm is neutral, even when it isn’t. That means a day’s delay isn’t just bad optics. It’s trust suicide.

The Perception of Neutrality

Recent workplace surveys show many employees use AI to access information quickly, often without deeper vetting. According to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, over 70% of users rely on Copilot for meeting recaps and email summarization, while 62% say it improves communication clarity.

Microsoft Copilot saw widespread adoption in 2024, with over 60% of Fortune 500 companies using it and user satisfaction above 85%. Employees value AI summaries because they cut through what feels like corporate spin, even if that perception isn’t always fully deserved.

Authority Erosion in Real Time

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations reported in 2023 that 40% of PR tasks are assisted by AI, and many professionals express concern over maintaining trust and authority as employees increasingly consult AI first.

Google experienced challenges when Bard launched in 2023, facing backlash over inaccurate information, showing how employees turn to AI for answers before official communication can catch up.

The Psychology of Narrowed Focus

Neuroscience refers to attentional narrowing—under stress, people focus on immediate information without questioning its validity.

During COVID, India’s MyGov Corona Helpdesk WhatsApp bot became one of the nation’s most trusted sources, relied upon for being fast, simple, and confident. Millions used it to access health updates during confusing times. AI doesn’t just provide answers. It changes the questions people ask—or stop asking.

Internal Comms 2.0: Preempt, Don’t React

If AI answers first, you’ve already lost the perception game.

Unilever reported improvements in employee engagement and communication clarity following a shift to FAQ-style internal updates, demonstrating trust gains when leaders anticipate employee questions.

The format wasn’t revolutionary—but by anticipating questions, leadership built trust that AI couldn’t beat.

Monitor the Machine

Sector surveys note a rising trend, with many companies budgeting to monitor AI outputs referencing them to maintain control over organizational narratives.

Salesforce tackled this challenge head-on. In 2023, leadership openly advised staff: “If you ask ChatGPT about Salesforce, verify with official sources.” Communications teams were tasked with auditing AI-generated answers—not as censorship, but to protect trust.

Transparency as the Last Advantage

Edelman’s research confirms transparency as the strongest driver of trust, loyalty, and engagement. Employees say honest communication—even when the news is tough—increases trust and advocacy.

IBM demonstrated this in 2023 with candid internal messaging about Watsonx’s limitations. IBM’s openness earned positive attention internally and in the press, showing that forthright communication beats ambiguity every time.

Richard Edelman famously said: “Trust is the ultimate currency.” Once lost, no memo can buy it back.

Tips for Corporate Communicators in the AI Era

With AI now deeply integrated into business communications—used weekly by nearly 90% of teams according to recent industry research—corporate communicators must adapt fast. The challenge is balancing speed and personalization with transparency and trust to stay ahead of AI-driven rumors and information flows.

1. Prioritize Speed and Transparency
   The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer and recent Gallup data make it clear: employees want information fast and honestly. Don’t let AI-generated rumors set the agenda. Deliver clear, transparent updates promptly to build and maintain trust.
2. Leverage AI for Content Personalization
   AI’s ability to tailor communication to individual preferences is reshaping engagement. Use AI-driven tools to customize messaging for different employee groups, increasing relevance and connection without losing authenticity.
3. Use AI to Monitor and Manage Your Narrative
   With many companies now investing in AI-powered monitoring, keep an eye on how your organization is portrayed by AI chatbots and public-facing algorithms. Proactively audit AI-generated content relating to your company to spot inaccuracies and respond quickly.
4. Blend Automation with Human Judgment
   Automate routine communications and data analysis using AI, but ensure human oversight in crafting sensitive messages. Trust is a human currency; empathy and sincerity cannot be fully automated.
5. Prepare for Rapid Response
   AI speeds information flow and rumor spread. Establish agile communication protocols to respond swiftly to developments, rumors, or misinformation—before the bots shape perceptions for you.
6. Promote Digital Responsibility and Ethics
   Implement Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) to guide ethical AI use in communications. Transparency about how AI tools inform messaging builds employee confidence and wider stakeholder trust.
7. Invest in Ongoing Skills Development
   Equip communication teams with data literacy and AI fluency. Understanding AI capabilities and limits is essential to wield these tools effectively and responsibly.

By embracing these strategies, corporate communicators can harness AI to reinforce, not erode, employee trust—a vital differentiator in today’s accelerated information landscape.

Final Takeaway

Internal comms was always about timing, tone, and trust. AI just made timing non-negotiable. If you don’t speak first, the bots will—and they’ll sound convincing.

But trust is still yours to win. If employees feel you’re straight with them, they’ll read AI summaries as background noise. If they don’t, every chatbot answer becomes gospel. The question isn’t whether AI will shape employee perception. It already does. The question is whether your truth will echo when it does.

Sources: Gallup (2025). “AI Use at Work Has Nearly Doubled in Two Years.”, Edelman Trust Barometer (2023), Business Insider (2023). “Amazon Warns Staff Not to Share Confidential Information With ChatGPT.”, Microsoft 2025 Work Trend Index and Copilot Usage Reports, Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) “AI in PR” Report (2023)., Reuters (2023). “Google Bard AI Issues and Backlash.”, BBC (2020). “India’s MyGov Corona Helpdesk WhatsApp Bot During COVID-19.”, Unilever Internal Communications Reports (2024), Sector Surveys on AI Monitoring Trends (2024–2025), Financial Times (2023). “IBM Watsonx Transparency.”, Salesforce Public Statements (2023).

Many of us are still wrapping our heads around Gen Z—those oat milk-swilling, climate-anxious, TikTok-slinging disruptors of everything from politics to pasta sauce. And just as we’ve figured out how to market to them without sounding like their awkward uncle, we’re told to prepare for Gen Alpha.

Why are they called Gen Alpha? Well, because the alphabet ran out. And because when it came time to name the next cohort, social researcher Mark McCrindle—an Australian demographer—proposed starting fresh with the Greek alphabet, because: “If generations are to be defined by something more than sequential letters, then Gen Alpha should signify a new beginning. The first generation born entirely in the 21st century deserves a label that reflects the shift.”

I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. Gen Z already gets more attention than they deserve based on their actual spending power. So why focus on a generation that, for the most part, can’t even cross the street without holding a grown-up’s hand?

Because time marches on. Because AI doesn’t wait. Because the habits being formed on iPads in backseats and classrooms are shaping the consumer instincts of the next two decades. And because brands that feel like friends in games will win a piece of the future.

This is not about the next customers. This is about customers-in-training—and they’re already making an outsized impact.

The Generation Born Online

Gen Alpha—those born from 2010 to 2024—will number close to 2 billion by next year, with roughly 2.5 million new members born globally each week (Exploding Topics). They’re the first to grow up with AI-generated tutors, personalized content feeds before they can spell, and household tech that responds to their voice.

Already, they shape $300 billion in annual household spending (SuperMomBusiness). In Brazil and the Philippines, over 70% of millennial parents say their children directly influence purchases ranging from food and clothes to mobile data plans.

In India, Gen Alpha has driven the rise of young YouTube creators like Anantya Anand (MyMissAnand), whose channel boasts over 14 million subscribers—more than many global legacy brands. These aren’t future tastemakers. They’re already shaping demand.

Where Gen Alpha Lives—And What They Expect

They’re not on social media. They are social media.

On Roblox—a global online platform where users (mostly kids) can create, play, and socialize in millions of user-generated 3D worlds—brands don’t buy banner ads. They build experiences. The platform sees over 85 million daily users, many under the age of 13 (DemandSage).

Nike, for example, created NIKELAND, a branded virtual world where kids could participate in sports-themed mini-games and earn digital Nike gear for their avatars—encouraging physical movement at home while building brand affinity. Gucci launched Gucci Garden, a surreal, explorable experience where users could try on and buy limited-edition virtual clothing for their avatars. Some virtual Gucci items later resold for more than their real-world counterparts. In China, Roblox developers have collaborated with local brands to create interactive Lunar New Year environments, complete with branded red envelopes, dragon parades, and culturally specific storytelling.

Fortnite, created by U.S. gaming company Epic Games, started as a multiplayer shooter but has evolved into a full-scale digital event platform with more than 650 million registered accounts worldwide (Exploding Topics). The platform now regularly hosts brand-sponsored events, including virtual concerts, movie trailers, and interactive exhibitions.

One of its most famous activations was a live performance by Travis Scott, an American rapper known for blending hip-hop with psychedelic visuals. His 2020 virtual concert inside Fortnite featured a 50-foot digital avatar of himself performing while players floated through kaleidoscopic worlds. The event drew 12.3 million live participants. It wasn’t just a concert—it was branded spectacle aimed squarely at Gen Z-ers.  But for many Gen Alpha players —who were already active on Fortnite—it was their first concert experience of any kind.

Fashion labels like Balenciaga and Moncler have also released custom outfits (called “skins”) for Fortnite avatars, turning high fashion into interactive, wearable gaming content. In this context, Fortnite is no longer a game—it’s a programmable cultural venue where entertainment, fashion, and advertising merge.

YouTube, the Google-owned video platform with over 2.4 billion monthly users (Backlinko), is where Gen Alpha spends much of their passive screen time. It’s both their teacher and entertainer. One of the biggest names in kid-focused content is Ryan’s World, a channel starring Ryan Kaji, a Texas-born child who began unboxing toys on camera at age 3. What began as cute videos for fellow preschoolers has grown into a global brand worth more than $250 million, with licensed products at Walmart, Target, and Amazon (Bloomberg).

But one of the most strategic ways brands are reaching Gen Alpha is in school.

LEGO Education, the learning division of the famous Danish toy company, distributes kits and software that teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts using LEGO bricks. It’s used in classrooms across more than 90 countries. Duolingo for Schools, a free version of the language-learning app adapted for classrooms, is active in over 36,000 institutions. In places like rural Kenya, it’s included on government-issued tablets to help bridge the education gap. Canva for Education, developed by Australian design software company Canva, provides free tools for teachers and students to create everything from slide decks to posters. It’s used by over 60 million students and educators worldwide (BusinessWire).

These companies aren’t sponsoring education. They are integrating with education. For Gen Alpha, brand exposure doesn’t start with a jingle or a cartoon. It starts with tools they use to learn, play, and express themselves—tools provided not by governments, but by brands.

The Household as Focus Group

In the UK, nearly half of families use shared shopping lists their children can contribute to (Numerator). In Egypt, Nestlé ran school-based design competitions where kids created snack packaging that later outperformed the brand’s professional redesign in A/B tests. In the U.S., 61% of parents say their kids regularly influence purchases ranging from household goods to travel plans (Marketing Dive).

This isn’t passive influence. It’s active co-creation. In a world of Spotify family accounts and Netflix profiles, the line between “parent” and “child” preferences is being blurred—by design.

What Marketers Need to Understand Now

Gen Alpha will comprise 11% of the global workforce by 2030 (IMD) and wield over $5.4 trillion in spending power by 2035 (UBS). But their influence starts now—not with their bank account, but with the data trails they leave behind.

Every tap on a school-issued tablet, every Roblox purchase, every Duolingo streak—they all teach personalization engines what this generation finds fun, valuable, and trustworthy. In other words, they’re not just future consumers. They’re shaping the AI models that will predict everyone’s consumer behavior.

If your brand isn’t part of that training set, it risks becoming invisible.

How Is This Different from Marketing to Gen Z?

Marketing to Gen Z meant adapting to a new mindset. Marketing to Gen Alpha means adapting to an entirely new infrastructure—one that’s interactive, predictive, ambient, and always on.

Gen Z switched between apps. Gen Alpha stays inside sprawling platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft—each a world where play, commerce, storytelling, and social interaction are blended into a seamless environment. There’s no “click-through.” There’s no off-ramp. If you’re not in the world, you’re invisible.

While Gen Z watched social media evolve, Gen Alpha was born into algorithmic life. Their viewing habits on YouTube Kids and Netflix Jr., their in-app movements, and their micro-interactions are actively shaping how recommendation engines behave. They aren’t just engaging with algorithms—they’re tuning them. Brands can’t just respond to data—they have to feed it.

Where Gen Z asked brands to be honest and inclusive, Gen Alpha expects them to be useful—immediately. If a brand doesn’t help them create, learn, or play from the first interaction, it gets ignored. They don’t need an origin story. They need functionality. One standout example is Toca Boca, the Swedish app studio that gives kids a digital playground with no goals, no ads, and no adult instructions. Usefulness is the message.

Gen Z grew up in a fragmented internet. Gen Alpha is growing up inside walled gardens—Apple’s child-safe ecosystem, Amazon Kids, Meta’s Messenger Kids. Every action is monitored, optimized, and controlled. They don’t expect freedom. They expect frictionless flow. And any brand that interrupts that flow feels broken.

Where Gen Z shaped culture through memes, activism, and social currency, Gen Alpha is being shaped by the branded environments around them—often before they can read. They’re learning math on tablets preloaded with corporate content. They’re watching bedtime stories sponsored by consumer brands. They don’t differentiate between public and private, platform and product. The brand isn’t the outsider. It’s the scaffolding.

How Smart Brands Are Moving First

The brands winning with Gen Alpha aren’t louder. They’re earlier, deeper, and more embedded. They understand that this isn’t about making noise—it’s about becoming part of the cultural operating system Gen Alpha is building from the inside out.

1. They build spaces, not ads.
   If your brand isn’t explorable, it’s forgettable. Gen Alpha expects immersion—not interruption. Whether it’s a world they can wander inside Roblox, an avatar they can dress in Fortnite, or a branded kids’ section on a streaming platform, the best marketing is spatial. It rewards curiosity, not attention.
2. They offer utility before selling.
   Brand equity is earned by solving a problem, sparking creativity, or making something easier. That could be a drawing tool, a learning shortcut, or a safe space for self-expression. Brands like Epic’s “Creative Mode,” Notion’s student templates, and Osmo’s learning tech don’t scream for attention—they quietly become indispensable.
3. They allow for participation.
   This generation doesn’t just watch—they remix. Brands that open the door to participation—by letting kids co-create product features, vote on content, or express identity through branded tools—become part of Gen Alpha’s self-concept. The brand isn’t a story they follow. It’s something they help shape.
4. They pass the parent sniff test.
   Gen Alpha may drive the desire, but it’s still parents who control the wallet. Winning brands earn intergenerational trust. That means safety without patronizing, learning without boredom, and values without virtue signaling. It also means tools that make parents’ lives easier—think curated modes, privacy settings, or collaborative features.
5. They go global by design.
   This is the first generation that will come of age entirely on a borderless internet. But borderless doesn’t mean bland. It means building with regional culture, languages, and humor embedded from the start. Whether it’s voice actors, local YouTube stars, or in-game events aligned with national holidays, brands that go global through local feel like they belong—everywhere.
6. They stand for something, always.
   Gen Alpha has been soaking in branded values since infancy. They know when it’s baked into a company’s DNA and when it’s pasted on for the press release. The brands they grow up trusting will be the ones whose actions, partnerships, and design decisions reflect what they claim to care about—without exception and without applause.

Don’t Market to the Child. Market to the Future.

Marketing to Gen Alpha isn’t about crafting ads for 10-year-olds. It’s about understanding the world they’re shaping, one Roblox badge and YouTube unboxing at a time. Brands that treat this as “kid stuff” are missing the real story: this is foundational infrastructure for future loyalty in a world where attention is embedded, not bought.

Ignore them, and your brand becomes white noise. Understand them, and you won’t just win the next generation—you’ll shape the one after that.

Let’s start with me: I’ve almost entirely shifted to ChatGPT for answering my questions. Google? I touch it less and less each day. My phone might still think it’s a big deal, but I’m moving on. News? Sure, I still lean on reliable content curators like CNN for headlines and Delish for interesting new side dishes recipes. But will I continue to do so in the future? Dunno.

According to Adobe’s 2024 Digital Trends Report, 73% of consumers are now comfortable relying on AI for product recommendations—up from just 45% two years ago. If AI can curate my news, recipes, and shopping lists better than human editors, what’s to stop me from leaving even trusted sources behind?

Even as I write this, Apple’s new AI tools are growing on me. Siri and Alexa, my digital “sister wives,” already run my home with eerie precision. (I swear sometimes I can hear them gossiping about my receding hairline.)

So, if I’m shifting how I find information and make decisions, how many millions of others are doing the same? And more importantly, how can brands adapt to this brave new world where AI assistants, not humans, are becoming the real decision-makers?

The Rise of AI as Your Next Customer

AI assistants are no longer just helpful tools; they’re gatekeepers to your brand. Today’s consumer might not be asking you directly which smartwatch to buy—they’re asking ChatGPT, Alexa, or Siri. And here’s the kicker: those AI assistants aren’t recommending products based on those catchy slogans my agency gets paid to create or even on our SEO prowess. They’re crunching data, weighing reviews, and factoring in their algorithms’ “opinions.”

According to a 2024 report by Gartner, over 50% of online product searches are now conducted through AI-driven assistants instead of traditional search engines. And it’s not just for shopping: Google recently reported a drop in “how-to” searches as more people turn to generative AI for step-by-step guides. The implications for marketing are seismic.

From Optimization to Persuasion: The New Rules of Engagement

Let’s say you’re selling gourmet dog food. In the past, your goal was to rank high on Google and craft a catchy YouTube clip. Now? You need to convince the AI that your product is worth recommending when someone asks, “What’s the best organic dog food for senior pets?”

1. Structure Your Data Like a Pro
   AI assistants live and die by structured data—metadata, schema markup, and robust product descriptions. If you don’t make your product easy for an AI to “read,” you might as well not exist. For example, Petco’s collaboration with Google ensures its inventory is optimized for assistant-driven shopping queries, putting it a step ahead of competitors.
2. Social Proof Matters More Than Ever
   AI assistants heavily rely on consumer reviews and ratings. Want to land in Alexa’s good graces? Earn glowing feedback. And not just on Amazon—AI is scanning aggregated review sites, social media sentiment, and even Reddit threads. That’s why brands like Warby Parker invest heavily in post-purchase engagement, encouraging customers to leave detailed, positive reviews.
3. Speak Their Language
   No, literally. Many brands are creating voice-activated AI campaigns to build relationships with AI assistants. Nestlé, for example, launched an Alexa skill that recommends recipes using Nestlé products, essentially turning Alexa into a sales rep in your kitchen.

What Happens When AI Predicts Your Needs?

Here’s where things get really interesting. In 2025, predictive shopping is expected to grow by 35% year-over-year, according to a recent McKinsey study. Imagine this: Alexa notices you’re running low on coffee pods and automatically reorders your preferred brand before you even think about it.

For brands, this means one thing: becoming the default choice.

Take Procter & Gamble’s Tide. By partnering with Amazon, Tide became the preferred detergent for Alexa’s auto-reordering feature. That’s a coveted position because once AI locks in on a recommendation, consumers rarely question it. It’s the ultimate “set-it-and-forget-it” strategy.

Ethical AI: Building Trust with Machines and Humans

But with great power comes great…well, ethical concerns. Who decides which brands AI assistants recommend? Pay-for-play models risk alienating consumers, and algorithmic biases could harm smaller or minority-owned businesses.

Consider the backlash Amazon faced when users discovered Alexa was nudging them toward Amazon Basics products over competitors. Consumers want transparency—if they think an AI assistant is “rigged,” trust evaporates. For marketers, this means being proactively transparent about how and why your product earns top AI recommendations.

Marketing to Machines—and People—Simultaneously

Here’s the paradox: while AI is becoming a dominant decision-maker, humans still value emotional connection. Brands that find ways to resonate with consumers and appeal to AI will win big.

Spotify uses AI to curate personalized playlists, but it doesn’t stop there. By encouraging users to name their playlists and share them on social media, Spotify taps into emotional engagement while optimizing for AI-driven discovery.

Walmart’s integration with Google Assistant lets customers add items to their carts via voice commands, simplifying the shopping process. But behind the scenes, Walmart ensures its product data is meticulously structured, so Google knows exactly what to recommend.

The Big Question: Are You Ready?

If you’re not thinking about how AI assistants interpret, rank, and recommend your brand, you’re already behind. The future of marketing isn’t just about capturing human attention—it’s about winning over the algorithms shaping their choices.

After all, if Alexa and Siri can be trusted with our biggest secrets (they know…they KNOW!), they can certainly decide what coffee, detergent, or new Brussel sprouts recipe ends up in my life.

Are you ready to sell to the machines? Because they’re already shopping for us.

I first experienced the magic of visual search when I wanted to identify a bottle of wine I enjoyed at a dinner party. Using Vivino, I snapped a photo of the label and instantly found reviews, ratings, and stores that carried it. Since then, I’ve used visual search for everything from comparing prices on electronics, to finding replacement parts for broken machines, and learning about architectural landmarks.

These everyday examples reflect how visual search simplifies complex tasks, enhances convenience, and integrates seamlessly into modern living. It’s no wonder the global visual search market is expected to grow from $35.51 billion in 2023 to $150.43 billion by 2032.

The Surge in Consumer Demand for Visual Search

Studies show that 74% of consumers find text-based searches inefficient. That’s why they are increasingly turning to visual search as a powerful tool that bridges the gap between discovery and action. Unlike traditional text-based searches, which often require precise wording and frustrating trial-and-error, visual search provides an intuitive, efficient, and visually engaging alternative.

Why struggle with keywords that produce irrelevant results when, with a quick photo, we can receive instant relevant information or price comparisons from multiple retailers?

This demand for visual search is particularly strong among younger generations. Millennials and Gen Z, who are more visually inclined and tech-savvy, are leading the charge. 62% of millennials report preferring visual search over traditional methods, with this trend especially pronounced in Asia. Platforms like Taobao’s FashionAI in China cater directly to these preferences, offering seamless product discovery for everything from clothing to electronics. By snapping a photo of a dress or gadget, users can instantly access similar or exact matches, turning inspiration into action with minimal friction.

Visual search is also gaining traction in the luxury market, where personalization and convenience are key. Farfetch, a UK-based global luxury fashion platform, has integrated visual search into its e-commerce experience to meet the expectations of a younger, tech-savvy clientele. By allowing customers to upload images of clothing or accessories they admire, Farfetch provides seamless access to similar or exact luxury items from its catalog, elevating the online shopping experience and matching the exclusivity of high-end purchases.
The rise of visual search is more than a technological trend—it’s a response to consumers’ desire for immediacy, simplicity, and a visually engaging way to explore products. As shoppers increasingly expect brands to provide this capability, businesses that fail to adopt visual search risk losing relevance in a fast-evolving marketplace.

The Role of AI and Technology in Visual Search

AI and machine learning have propelled visual search from an intriguing concept to an essential tool for everyday life, making searches faster, smarter, and more accurate.

The technology’s ability to identify objects, understand context, and deliver precise results has fundamentally changed how we find and interact with information.

One of the most transformative tools I’ve personally used is Google Lens. Whether identifying a plant on a hike or comparing prices on a new laptop, Google Lens has consistently delivered quick and reliable results. With over 10 billion searches processed every month, its versatility extends far beyond simple identification. Its recent Multisearch feature, which allows users to combine visual and text inputs, feels like a natural extension of how we think—mixing visuals with descriptive details to narrow down exactly what we need. This evolution underscores the immense potential of visual search to adapt to how we process the world around us.

For inspiration-driven discovery, Pinterest Lens has carved out a niche in the e-commerce world. Its ability to recognize over 2.5 billion objects allows users to seamlessly transition from browsing to buying. Imagine spotting a mid-century modern chair in a design magazine and, using Pinterest Lens, finding an affordable replica online? Platforms like Pinterest show how AI can merge aesthetic exploration with actionable results, opening up possibilities for creative shoppers.

In China, Taobao, powered by Alibaba’s FashionAI, has redefined the role of visual search in e-commerce. Instead of scrolling endlessly through product pages, users can snap a photo of an outfit or gadget and instantly find matches. This feature has become a cornerstone of Chinese online retail, where efficiency and immediacy are key. The platform’s seamless integration of visual search into the shopping journey reflects the sophisticated use of AI to enhance user experiences on a massive scale.

Apple’s Visual Lookup is a feature integrated into iOS devices that allows users to identify a wide range of objects, such as landmarks, animals, and plants, simply by tapping on a photo. This tool makes it easy to quickly gather information about various items, enhancing the way we interact with our surroundings. While primarily focused on identification, it serves as a handy tool for expanding knowledge through images without needing to manually search.

These advancements in AI-driven visual search aren’t just technological marvels; they’ve become deeply embedded in daily life. Whether helping me identify a replacement part for my robot vacuum cleaner or finding the perfect home decor item for my living room, the technology delivers a level of convenience and immediacy that feels indispensable. AI’s ability to continually learn and adapt means the future of visual search will only become more intuitive, making these tools an ever-present ally in our digital interactions.

How Brands Use Visual Search

Visual search is revolutionizing how people shop, learn, explore, and engage with the world. Its intuitive, image-based functionality makes complex tasks simpler, more accessible, and highly engaging. Here are 15 real-world examples illustrating how brands are capitalizing on this revolution and leveraging this technology across industries:

1. Product Discovery
   Platforms like ASOS enable users to upload photos of clothing to find exact or similar items. This feature is particularly popular among fashion enthusiasts looking to replicate celebrity or streetwear styles without knowing specific brands. By removing the guesswork from shopping, visual search bridges inspiration and purchase, driving both customer satisfaction and sales.
2. Price Comparison
   Google Lens allows shoppers to snap photos of products and instantly compare prices across multiple retailers. This feature empowers consumers to make informed decisions, particularly for high-ticket items like electronics or furniture.

3. Recipe Suggestions
   Apps like Samsung Food use visual search to analyze photos of pantry ingredients and suggest recipes tailored to what users have on hand. This tool is invaluable for home cooks who want to reduce food waste while exploring creative meal ideas. For example, snapping a photo of spinach, eggs, and cheese can yield numerous breakfast or dinner recipes within seconds.
4. Healthcare Assistance
   SkinVision is a mobile app that uses visual search and AI technology to help users assess skin health. By allowing users to take photos of skin spots or moles, SkinVision analyzes the images to evaluate potential risks, such as whether a mole may be indicative of skin cancer. The app provides users with a risk assessment and recommendations on whether further medical evaluation is needed, offering a convenient and accessible way to monitor skin health. This technology plays an essential role in early detection and empowers users to take proactive steps towards maintaining their skin health.
5. Educational Support
   Students are using apps like Photomath to solve equations or understand diagrams. By scanning a handwritten or printed problem, these tools offer step-by-step explanations, making complex subjects more accessible. This functionality is especially useful for visual learners and has become a staple for students tackling challenging homework assignments.
6. Travel and Exploration
   Travelers rely on Google Lens to identify landmarks, attractions, or cultural sites while on the go. For instance, snapping a photo of a historic building reveals its history, significance, and nearby points of interest. On a recent trip to Chile, I used Google Lens to learn more about a stunning cathedral, turning my curiosity into a richer cultural experience.
7. Automotive Repairs
   At NAPA Auto Parts, users can photograph car parts to match them with the correct inventory. This tool has a 90% success rate, helping customers quickly locate even obscure components. This technology eliminates the frustration of manually searching for hard-to-find parts, streamlining the repair process.
8. Art and Culture
   The Google Arts & Culture app allows users to identify artworks simply by photographing them. This feature provides detailed information about the artist, period, and context of the work, making museum visits more interactive and educational. Art enthusiasts can delve deeper into their favorite pieces without relying on external research.

9. Beauty and Cosmetics
   L’Oréal’s Style My Hair app enables users to upload selfies and receive personalized beauty product recommendations or tutorials. Whether matching a specific hairstyle or recreating a makeup look, this tool enhances the shopping experience by tailoring it to individual preferences.
10. Sustainable Fashion
    Platforms like Vestiaire Collective are exploring how users may find second-hand or eco-friendly alternatives to luxury fashion items. By uploading an image of a designer product, shoppers will be able to discover pre-owned versions or similar styles, aligning with their sustainability goals while saving money.
11. Furniture Shopping
    Wayfair’s app allows users to photograph furniture or decor to find matching pieces in its catalog. This tool is perfect for homeowners who want to recreate a specific aesthetic or complete a room design with complementary items. By bridging inspiration and action, Wayfair makes interior design more accessible.
12. Luxury Retail
    The Dubai Mall App incorporates visual search to enhance the in-store shopping experience. Users can upload images of products they’ve seen online or in other stores to locate similar options within the mall, making shopping more convenient and tailored to their preferences.
13. In-Store Purchases
    In the UK, Argos has integrated visual search into its app, allowing customers to snap photos of products they’re interested in and locate them in-store or online. This innovation reduces the time spent browsing aisles or catalogs, ensuring a seamless journey from discovery to purchase. By linking visual search with its real-time inventory system, Argos makes in-store shopping faster and more convenient for busy consumers.

14. Grocery Shopping
    Snapchat’s visual search feature identifies food packaging and wine labels, providing nutritional information, reviews, and pairing suggestions. This tool simplifies grocery decisions, making shopping more efficient for busy consumers.
15. Social Media Shopping
    Pinterest Lens connects users from visual inspiration to actionable shopping options. By uploading images of decor, fashion, or other items, users can discover where to buy them directly, eliminating the gap between desire and acquisition.

How to Begin and Find Success
Successfully implementing visual search requires a strategic approach, blending focused planning with technological and customer-centric execution. Here’s how businesses can effectively leverage this technology:

Start Small and Targeted
Begin by applying visual search to a specific, high-impact category where it can provide immediate value. For example, in the fashion industry, enabling users to upload photos of clothing or accessories can lead directly to sales, as demonstrated by platforms like ASOS. Starting small allows businesses to refine the technology, address challenges, and gather data on user behavior. Expanding into broader categories becomes easier once the initial implementation proves successful.

Invest in the Right AI Partnerships
Collaborating with established AI providers like Google Vision API, Amazon Rekognition, or Alibaba Cloud ensures access to cutting-edge visual recognition technology. These partnerships reduce the need to build solutions from scratch, accelerating the development process and minimizing costs.

Educate and Engage Users
Even the most sophisticated visual search tools require consumer education to drive adoption. Businesses should create intuitive onboarding experiences and marketing campaigns to demonstrate the technology’s ease of use and benefits.

Ensure Seamless Integration
To build trust and retain users, visual search should be seamlessly integrated into existing platforms without disrupting the customer journey. Testing and optimizing the feature across multiple devices—mobile apps, websites, and in-store kiosks—ensures consistency and usability. For instance, Pinterest Lens integrates seamlessly into its platform, allowing users to transition from inspiration to action without leaving the app.

Analyze and Iterate
Visual search technology improves over time with use. Collect and analyze data on how customers engage with the feature, including drop-off points and common searches. Use this feedback to refine algorithms, enhance accuracy, and expand functionality. Success stories like Google Lens show how iterative improvements, such as the addition of Multisearch, can significantly elevate the user experience.

Leverage Industry-Specific Opportunities
Customize visual search for your industry. For example, in retail, focus on product discovery and price comparison, while in healthcare, prioritize symptom identification. Tailoring the technology to meet specific customer needs increases relevance and engagement.

By starting strategically, investing wisely, and prioritizing user engagement, businesses can position themselves at the forefront of visual search innovation, driving both adoption and revenue growth.

History is filled with examples of individuals who took the punch, learned from it, and came back stronger. The next time you face rejection, don’t let it stop you. Let it fuel you. Because in the creative process, every punch you take may bring you one step closer to brilliance.

Sources:
• Zion Market Research
• Think with Google
• Social Media Today