How AI Recommends Brands - And What Marketers Can Do
- Patricia Hintermayr
- 7 hours ago
- 5 min read
Google AI Overviews now reach more than 2 billion users each month (Google, 2026). That shows the scale of how AI is already shaping everyday search behaviour. And for marketers, that changes the game: instead of browsing hundreds of search results, consumers are increasingly turning to AI to help them find the best product. In this new AI discovery era, the central question is clear: How do we make sure AI understands, cites and recommends our brand to consumers?
That was the focus of our recent webinar with James Maley, Group Commercial Director at EMNA AI, and Jodie Millward, Sales Director at Tradedoubler. If you missed it live, keep reading - we have gathered the key insights and action steps here.
And if you want the full conversation - including James’ commentary, the myth-busting Q&A and audience questions - you can watch the recording on YouTube below.
What changes in an AI-led journey
The way people discover brands is changing fast. Consumers are increasingly turning to AI tools to help them find the best product for their needs. That shift is already visible in the numbers: 67% of Millennials have already replaced traditional search engines with GenAI tools as their go-to source for product recommendations (Capgemini, 2025), and 62% of consumers trust AI to guide brand decisions (Yext, 2025).
And this is where the challenge becomes very real for marketers. In an AI-led journey, the click disappears because AI condenses research across multiple sources into one curated answer. The quote disappears too, because content is often summarized, blended and rewritten, rather than carried over word for word. In other words, brands may still influence the answer, but not always in a way that is visible or easy to track.
“Instead of are we ranking, the question becomes does AI have enough information to understand, compare, and recommend your brand? And that is really important because what we are seeing is a lot more information, a lot more variables, a lot more data points are being collected and the search net is becoming much wider.” - James Maley, Group Commercial Director at EMNA AI.
Why content needs to work harder
Content used to need to rank, educate, convert and build authority to achieve good search rankings. Now it still needs to do all of that, but it also needs to work across three new layers that AI adds: prompts, context and sources. That means content has to be useful for people, structured enough for AI, and credible enough to influence the answer.
Prompts are the questions people ask when they are researching, comparing or choosing. They are intent signals that show what a consumer is really trying to find. If a brand is not present for the commercially important prompt groups in its category, it is unlikely to be part of the answer.
Context is how AI describes, positions and compares a brand. A brand can appear in an answer and still not be the recommendation, which is why context matters so much.
Sources are the websites, publishers and articles shaping the answer behind the scenes. AI answers are influenced by the wider web, which means third-party content often matters just as much as owned content.
With all of this in mind, what can marketers actually do to make sure their brand shows up in AI answers?
How brands can influence AI recommendations
The starting point is not to publish more content for the sake of it. Instead, marketers should focus on the prompt groups, answers and sources that actually shape how their brand shows up in AI-generated recommendations.
In the webinar, we broke this down into three steps:
1. Map the prompts
Start with the commercially important prompt groups in your category. What are people asking when they are researching, comparing or choosing? Which questions matter most to your brand, product and audience? The goal is not to track thousands of prompts or keywords, but to focus on the ones that influence discovery and decisions. Good starting points for mapping your prompts are SEO queries, reviews, support tickets and affiliate content.
2. Check the answer
Once the prompts are clear, brands need to understand what AI tools actually return. This is where visibility becomes more nuanced. It is not enough to know whether the brand appears. A brand also needs to understand whether it is recommended, how it is positioned, who it is compared with and whether the information is accurate.
3. Follow the sources
The next step is understanding which sources influence the answer. Owned content matters, but AI-generated answers are often shaped by the wider web. That means brands need to look at publisher coverage, comparison content, reviews, buying guides and other third-party sources.
That is where EMNA AI fits in: it helps brands understand where they stand, identify the prompt groups that matter commercially and activate content through trusted partner environments - so brands can improve how they show up over time.
“The first thing you should do is take a health check on how you are appearing in the LLM because it is such an important thing to do. I guarantee you it will bust some myths and it will challenge you as a brand on where you really think that you are.” - James Maley, Group Commercial Director at EMNA AI
Start with your AI footprint
AI discovery is still evolving, but the direction is already clear: brands need to think beyond rankings and clicks, and start asking how they show up in AI answers, how they are described and which sources shape the response. That is why understanding your AI footprint - and the commercially important prompt groups behind it - is becoming an important starting point for marketers.
If you missed the webinar, you can watch the full recording here. And if you would like to explore what AI discovery could mean for your brand, James and Jodie would be happy to continue the conversation.
TLDR: Our FAQ summary
What is AI visibility?
AI visibility is about how your brand appears, is described and is recommended in AI-generated answers. To show up in AI answers, marketers need to make sure LLMs have enough clear, credible information to understand the brand and recommend it at the right moment.
What should brands focus on first?
Start with the commercially important prompt groups in your category, then check what AI actually returns and which sources shape the answer. In the webinar, we framed this as three steps: map the prompts, check the answer and follow the sources.
Why does content need to work harder now?
Because content still needs to rank, educate, convert and build authority — but it also has to work across three new layers: prompts, context and sources. That means it needs to be useful for people, structured enough for AI and credible enough to influence the answer.
How can brands improve their AI visibility?
By focusing on the prompt groups, answers and sources that actually shape how they show up in AI-generated recommendations. EMNA AI helps brands understand where they stand, identify the commercially important prompt groups and activate content through trusted partner environments.