Enhancing Brand Engagement with AI

The next wave of marketing innovation isn’t about automation alone — it’s about emotion. Which shoe would you get? AI today can recognize tone, facial expressions, and even micro-emotions in voice and text. This emotional intelligence is turning marketing from mass communication into personal connection. 🧠 Data speaks for itself: + 80% of consumers say they’re more likely to purchase when brands show they understand their emotions. (Capgemini Research) + Emotionally connected customers have a 306% higher lifetime value than those who are merely satisfied. (Motista) + 70% of marketers using AI-driven personalization report double-digit engagement growth. (Salesforce) 💡 Real-world examples: + Coca-Cola uses AI-powered creative tools to adapt campaigns to local culture and sentiment in real time. + Netflix’s recommendation engine reads emotional cues in viewing behavior to tailor what feels just right for each user. + Adidas combines AI sentiment analysis with influencer content to sense trends before they peak — turning feelings into foresight. This isn’t marketing as usual — it’s marketing that feels. When technology understands emotion, brand experience becomes unforgettable. #AI #MarketingInnovation #EmotionalIntelligence #CustomerExperience #DigitalTransformation #MarTech #BrandStrategy

Google Gemini’s deeper AI Overviews integration is more than a tech upgrade. Because it’s changing how B2B buyers discover and evaluate brands. As AI summarizes answers directly in search results, decision-makers spend less time clicking through multiple pages. This means fewer lead opportunities on traditional websites. But more importance in owning authority within AI-generated insights. For marketers, this signals a shift from chasing clicks to building trust signals that AI systems recognize & prioritize. Your brand’s visibility now depends on being an indispensable, credible source cited within AI summaries. The question: How do you build pipeline influence when prospects may never visit your site? The answer: Optimize content for AI understanding, ensure data credibility, and align messaging to answer buyer intent precisely. So AI systems highlight your brand as the go-to expert. The evolving landscape is so fast. Is B2B marketing about driving traffic alone now? No, it’s about owning presence inside the AI-powered customer journey. How is your brand coping with this shift?

The next era of marketing isn’t driven by automation — it’s driven by emotion. Which shoe would you get? 👟 AI can now interpret tone, facial expressions, and even the subtle emotions hidden in voice or text. This new level of emotional intelligence is shifting marketing from broadcasting messages to building real human connections. 🧠 The numbers tell the story: - 80% of consumers are more likely to buy when brands show they understand their emotions. (Capgemini Research) - Emotionally connected customers deliver 306% higher lifetime value than those who are simply satisfied. (Motista) - 70% of marketers using AI-powered personalization see double-digit gains in engagement. (Salesforce) 💡 How leading brands are feeling the change: - Coca-Cola uses AI to tailor campaigns to local moods and cultural moments — in real time. - Netflix fine-tunes recommendations using emotional cues from viewing habits to make every suggestion feel “just right.” - Adidas blends AI sentiment analysis with influencer insights to catch cultural waves before they crest. This is more than marketing — it’s storytelling with empathy. When technology learns to understand emotion, brands stop selling and start connecting. #AI #MarketingInnovation #EmotionalIntelligence #CustomerExperience #DigitalTransformation #MarTech #BrandStrategy #AIMarketing #Personalization

I delivered a presentation today to the marketing procurement community of some of the world’s largest brands on how AI is driving brands to become interactive, intelligent entities. My presentation centered around two core concepts that have not entered the mainstream conversation yet: one is an overlooked risk, and the other one is a major opportunity for brand growth. An overlooked risk is that AI defines brands without brand’s input: AI doesn’t see campaigns, it cannot read marketer or agency minds, and most (if not all) websites are blank when viewed by AI. I mean it – literally blank. Most companies put this into the AI search/GEO bucket, but that’s dangerously simplistic. Given how an AI system shapes its response, i.e., it scans thousands of sources from across the internet in a single query (in less than a second), it then brings together unrelated, disconnected pieces of information. It then adjusts to user intent, with no one but that one unique user seeing what that response is. AI fills the gaps using broad patterns from across the internet — and those patterns become your brand. This is already happening at scale, and largely unnoticed. AI defines your brand without you. Your brand – defined by AI – can appear anywhere, even if you never put it there. AI isn’t simply a destination people go to, it’s now being built into everything we use. Phones, email, shopping, maps, media. Protecting brand equity should become a strategic necessity, way beyond GEO. This is one part of the shift. Enabling brand-consumer interaction is the other. Today, brands speak at customers. There’s no mechanism for brands to respond in the moment of audience interest — and brands miss moments that could drive engagement or action. Instead, the only option for advertisers is a costly repetition model, spending more to push one-way messages until someone eventually engages. Now, a brand can become an interactive, intelligent entity that can respond in the moment, anywhere. This is not a chatbot. Think of it as an old brand book with rules for the one-way broadcast age evolving into the Brand itself becoming a growing, living intelligence able to connect with every customer. An interactive brand is built from the brand's tone of voice, products, SKUs, campaign goals, and more – a living intelligence shaped by marketers. Why activate one? An Interactive Brand will unlock growth and in-moment revenue opportunities by being always-on and present in the moment of customer intent. Exciting times! Glad to have connected and reconnected with many marketing procurement professionals. More to come! Thanks Procurecon Marketing Connect and the beautiful Ashridge House.

AI search has changed how ecommerce visibility works. Rankings and keywords still matter, but they no longer determine whether you appear in AI answers. LLMs pull from many sources and validate information across channels, so brands now need a practical strategy to influence what these systems surface. Here is the actionable version of the playbook: 1. Strengthen the brand mention layer These mentions usually come from Reddit, Inc., media coverage, YouTube reviews, and user sentiment. To increase volume and quality: • Seed conversations on Reddit via customer outreach and product education. • Pitch journalists with data, not product claims. • Send reviewers standardized product kits with accurate specs. • Increase review velocity on Amazon, Walmart, and your own site. Goal: create widespread awareness that models can pick up reliably. 2. Win citations by becoming a source of truth Citations influence how the model describes your brand. To increase them: • Publish structured, factual resources. Examples include comparison charts, ingredient or materials breakdowns, and step by step usage guides. • Make your product pages machine readable with flawless schema markup, identical naming, and consistent specs. • Update all your public product data quarterly. Goal: give LLMs clean, verifiable information they can quote confidently. 3. Influence product recommendations This is the highest value layer. To increase recommendation frequency: • Get included in publisher listicles and buying guides through affiliate programs or product samples. • Make sure your product appears in retailer categories with high review counts and strong Q and A sections. • Encourage customers to mention specific attributes in their reviews so AI models learn your positioning. • Publish expert testing results wherever possible. Goal: fit the queries that drive buying decisions, not just general awareness. 4. Build consensus across independent sources Models reward brands whose reputation looks the same everywhere. To create this: • Audit every major source in your category twice a year. Look at Amazon sentiment, YouTube reviews, TikTok results, Reddit threads, niche forums, and publisher guides. • Identify mismatched attributes, outdated specs, or conflicting feature claims. Fix them one by one. • Monitor competitor positioning across these same channels to understand why they appear more often in AI answers. Goal: eliminate contradictions so LLMs treat your brand as the consistent default. 5. Fix consistency across every product feed LLMs cross check your data across Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, Google Merchant, and any structured source. To avoid exclusion: • Standardize SKU names and attribute formats. • Keep pricing aligned within a narrow range. • Use the same dimensions, specs, and materials everywhere. • Remove outdated product copies from old marketplaces. Goal: reduce confusion so AI systems trust your data. (Find Step 6 and 7 in the comment section)

People don't search the way they used to. They're not opening 7 tabs anymore. They're asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude. Getting an answer. Asking a follow-up. Going deeper. And here's the thing: 95% of B2B buyers will use AI tools during their purchasing journey this year. AI is reshaping your brand story right now. The question isn't whether it's happening. It's whether you're guiding it, or letting AI make it up. Here’s what’s really happening: Research from Columbia University shows that leading AI models provide incorrect answers to over 60% of queries. If your site isn’t optimized for AI-driven search, you may not just be overlooked – you might be misrepresented entirely. But here’s the upside: visitors from AI-driven search are 4.4x to 23x more likely to convert than those from traditional SEO. The traffic volume is lower, but these visitors are incredibly qualified. Brands that act now will secure their position in AI search results. What can you do? 1. Prioritize content structure for AI Use clear heading hierarchies (H1, H2, H3). Provide direct, concise answers up front. Create topic clusters with one main piece supported by 5-10 related articles. 2. Focus on answering real questions Understand what your audience is asking. Address queries like “What is…?”, “How does…?”, or “Best tool for…”. Add detailed FAQs to your pages. 3. Get your technical setup in order Implement Schema markup (FAQ, Article, HowTo). Ensure your site loads quickly (under 2.5 seconds). Make sure AI crawlers are allowed in your robots.txt file. 4. Build authority in the right places Engage on platforms like Reddit, Quora, or LinkedIn. Publish original research. Include quotes from industry experts. Regularly update your content with timestamps to show relevance. 5. Test how AI sees your brand Search for your brand on tools like ChatGPT (in web browsing mode) and Perplexity. Review Google’s AI Overviews. Assess where your competitors show up in these spaces. Quick actions to take today: - Add FAQ schema to your key pages - Create an industry, persona specific pages - Start participating in niche conversations on Reddit or Quora - Refresh your top 5 pages with clear structure and updates - Display “Last Updated” dates on all content The landscape is shifting fast. And most of your competitors haven’t caught on yet. Every day you delay is another opportunity for machines to write your story – or worse, your competitor’s. What’s your biggest challenge with AI search right now? #AI #SEO #B2BMarketing #DigitalStrategy

More of your potential customers are turning to AI search tools like ChatGPT to find what they need. To stay visible, your brand needs to show up there on top of your usual SEO efforts. Semrush data shows that traffic from large language models (LLMs) will overtake traditional organic search traffic by early 2028. That means if your brand isn’t optimized for AI search now, you’ll lose visibility where the next wave of discovery happens. Here’s what experts like Alex Birkett from Omniscient Digital and Kevin Indig recommend. Start by tracking and benchmarking your AI presence. Analyze where and how AI tools mention your brand and compare it to competitors. Tools like the Semrush AI SEO Toolkit now show your share of voice across platforms like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode, and Perplexity. They even reveal whether your visibility is framed positively or neutrally compared to others in your space. Next, go deeper. AI mentions don’t always lead to clicks, so you need to identify indirect impact. Look for AI-specific referral sources in Google Analytics like chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai, and use log file analysis to detect bots like ChatGPT-User visiting your pages. Even if analytics don’t show them, these crawls signal whether AI tools can access your site. The next layer is business impact. People may see your brand in an AI response and later visit through another channel. Ask customers directly how they found you, or include “AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity)” as a form option. Then, build brand authority and make your name impossible to ignore. Kevin Indig’s research shows that brand search volume is the strongest predictor of AI mentions, especially in ChatGPT. Strengthen that signal through thought leadership; guest posts on trusted sites, collaborations, original research, and active participation on platforms like Reddit, Inc. and LinkedIn. Look at HubSpot. They created a massive library of expert content mixing opinions, data, and tools. It’s referenced everywhere and even supported by a thriving subreddit with over 14,000 members. The result? HubSpot ranks at the top of AI-generated answers about CRM and marketing automation. You also need to structure your content for AI extraction. Use clear headings, concise sentences, and formats like bullet points or Q&A blocks. Add schema markup to make your content easier for machines to understand. A simple layout can help AI tools accurately lift your answers, just as Semrush’s articles do for topics like Google’s AI Mode. And don’t forget freshness. A study by Seer Interactive found that 65% of AI bot hits target content published in the past year, and nearly 90% go to pages updated in the last three years. Only 6% of old content (6+ years) gets crawled. AI clearly favors recent, relevant information. The playbook for ranking in AI search is evolving fast, but the principles remain timeless: be visible, be accurate, be authoritative, and be current.

The way people discover, research, and interact with products is changing – FAST. With ChatGPT's new Live Voice Mode + Vision, AI can now SEE and interpret the world in real time. As you can see in this video, I tested it with Procter & Gamble's Downy Unstoppables. I showed it the product and asked how to use it. In seconds, it recognized the product and walked me through the instructions. Wow. As a marketer, I thought to myself - this is continued confirmation that the existing marketing playbook is NOT going to cut it. How consumers interact with products is evolving, and brand leaders need to be thinking ahead. Key Implications for Marketers 🔹 Are you creating content that proactively addresses consumer barriers? Consumers will ask AI assistants many questions. If your brand isn’t providing clear, AI-readable answers, someone else will. 🔹 How will AI-powered product interactions influence purchase behavior? If consumers rely on AI for product education instead, are you ensuring AI presents your product in the best possible light? 🔹 Are your product visuals AI-friendly? AI-powered vision means product recognition matters more than ever. Are your images, logos, and packaging optimized for AI-powered interpretation? How to Take Action Today ✅ Test AI’s Understanding of Your Brand Regularly interact with AI assistants as a consumer would. Ask them about your products, compare them to competitors, and analyze their responses. If AI isn’t telling the right story, refine your inputs. ✅ Audit Your Content for AI Readability Review your product pages, FAQs, and brand assets to ensure they contain clear, structured answers to common consumer questions. AI assistants need direct, well-organized information to generate accurate responses. ✅ Think Beyond Traditional Search & SEO The old SEO rules won’t cut it when consumers are showing AI products instead of searching for them. Build an AI-first strategy that ensures your brand is easily understood, recommended, and preferred. Are you actively preparing for AI-driven consumer interactions, or will you be playing catch-up? Kiri Masters Ashley Rozier Retail AI Council #WomeninAI #AIinMarketing #FutureofMarketing #AIConsulting

EiPi Media: 2025 vision board: We’re expanding our offerings to harness AI in every step of the creative and marketing process—especially around video, our core focus. Here’s what we’re working on: 1. Agentic RAGs • Our biggest investment will be building “agents” trained on client datasets and reasoning with LLMs to deliver real-time insights, content, and campaign actions. 2. Auto-Generated Influencer Campaigns & Virtual Influencer Armies • From identifying perfect-fit influencers to generating virtual personalities, we’ll streamline the entire influencer marketing cycle. 3. Automated Video Ads • AI will create and optimize video ads on the fly, letting us tailor messaging for different audiences across platforms. 4. Micro-Segmentation & Hyper-Personalized Email Campaigns • Detailed audience segmentation plus AI-driven emailers means each user gets content that feels uniquely relevant. 5. Human+AI Creative Teams • By training our own RAG models on thousands of scripts and video assets, our creative teams can instantly generate (and refine) pitch-perfect concepts. 6. AI-Driven Vernacular Content • We’ll produce localized content in multiple Indian languages, ensuring deeper engagement with diverse audiences. 7. AI-Generated E-Commerce Catalogs • Automated catalog creation—from descriptions to visuals—will speed time-to-market and improve consistency. Quick Example • Imagine a fashion retailer wanting to launch a Diwali campaign in multiple regional markets. • Our AI “agent” taps into the retailer’s proprietary data (past campaigns, customer feedback, product details), then generates a micro-targeted influencer strategy. • Simultaneously, the system auto-creates 10-12sec video ads in multiple languages for performance marketing, and sends hyper-personalized emailers to each segment. • Finally, an AI-powered catalog is published in record time—complete with engaging product descriptions and on-brand visuals—allowing the retailer to reach every corner of the market before the competition.

AI is influencing purchase decisions. ChatGPT is quietly becoming the internet’s smartest shopping assistant. But here’s the catch: if AI doesn’t know your brand exists, it won’t recommend you. Here’s how to do it step-by-step: 1. Fix your digital hygiene. - Make sure your website is mobile-friendly, secure (HTTPS), and fast to load. - - Implement proper schema markup (like Product, Organisation, and Review) so AI tools can parse your data accurately. - Structure your site logically: clear navigation, updated sitemaps, and crawlable content are key. 2. Entity Building - AI assistants often rely on knowledge graphs (Google Knowledge Panel, Wikidata, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, etc.). - If your brand isn’t a recognised “entity” with clean signals, you’re invisible no matter how optimised your site is. - Simplified way to say this: “Make sure your brand exists in places AI assistants check, like knowledge panels, directories, and data sources like Google Business, Wikipedia, or trusted review sites.” 3. Create content that answers questions. - AI models like ChatGPT thrive on context. - Publish content that educates — FAQs, how-tos, product comparisons, ingredient breakdowns, and customer stories. - Use natural language and answer questions your customers actually search for. 4. Trust & Reviews - AI systems increasingly pull “social proof” into their answers. - Simple framing: “Keep collecting and showing reviews. AI tools weigh trust signals heavily.” 5. Build third-party credibility - Get your brand featured in digital publications, gift guides, or review sites. - Earn backlinks from trusted sources. - Partner with micro-influencers or niche bloggers whose content feeds into AI training data. 6. List your products where AI can find them. - Use structured, high-traffic platforms like Google Shopping, Amazon, or niche marketplaces (like Nykaa, FirstCry, etc.). - These platforms often provide structured feeds that AI tools prefer and index more easily. 7. Keep your brand info consistent and current. - Update your brand bio, contact info, and product descriptions across your site, social profiles, and directories (like Google Business Profile). - Consistency builds trust for customers and for AI algorithms. 8. Monitoring & Feedback - Your playbook ends at “do all this”. But a missing piece is checking whether AI tools are actually surfacing your brand. - Test your brand in AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews). The future of brand discovery is not just based on SEO. It also needs AIO — Artificial Intelligence Optimisation. Let your brand be the one ChatGPT talks about. #Fynd #AIO #ArtificialIntelligenceOptimisation #FyndOutWithRagini #RaginiTalks #ThoughtLeadership #D2CHacks