Winning the platform shift by Kevin Wang

Identify traffic-stealing competitors Find untapped keyword opportunities Create content that ranks higher sel logo search icon PPC » Article Share Grappling with innovation and changing consumer attitudes is second nature to marketers, who have already lived through many technological shifts over the past two decades. But forecasting where things are going is especially hard when it comes to modern AI, which has such unusual, non-deterministic properties. You can’t just extrapolate from the state of AI today to understand where AI is going to be in five years (or one…); during this sort of a platform shift, you need to take a deeper first-principles look.

Some things won’t change. Consumers will always want products, services and experiences that resonate and meet their needs. Marketers will always want easier, faster and more effective ways to connect with consumers. But the technologies that mediate that relationship are primed to shift in the coming years in major, unprecedented ways — impacting how marketers do their work, and the customer experiences they’re able to deliver.

This development reflects ongoing changes in how search engines evaluate and rank content, with implications for organic visibility strategies.

The history of marketing is built around constant evolution. But the scale and complexity of the change triggered by the rise of modern AI may test even seasoned customer engagement teams.

To thrive, marketers need to open themselves up to new skills, perspectives and capabilities that will allow them to do more with less. This change is already underway. As marketers take advantage of AI, they’re spending less time on rote tasks (like manual message creation) and more on strategy and creative work — from brainstorming innovative campaigns to deepening their testing and optimization strategy. These efficiency gains will grow as AI becomes a more prominent part of the customer engagement process, allowing brands to set goals and guardrails, then empowering their AI solutions to independently consume context, make decisions, and act on marketers’ behalf.