Daily Marketing News

How 6 Top CMOs Are Working to Optimize Their Brands for AI Platforms

Brands are shifting from classic SEO to AI visibility, building content systems that help them get cited, recommended, and discovered across AI platforms.

Brands are entering a new phase of search. For years, the question was simple: how do we rank on Google? Now the question is broader, less visible, and more strategic: how does a brand show up when consumers ask AI platforms for advice, comparisons, recommendations, and answers?

A recent Business Insider report on top CMOs shows how quickly this shift is becoming a boardroom-level marketing priority. Leaders from brands including American Eagle, Chime, Coach, Bobbie, Fruitist, and Yahoo are no longer treating AI visibility as an experimental side project. They are building new content systems, research habits, and platform strategies around how large language models discover, interpret, and recommend brands.

The change matters because AI search is no longer a niche behavior. Business Insider cited McKinsey research showing that about half of US consumers use AI-powered search to discover or evaluate brands. The same report also referenced Similarweb data finding that people were, on average, 2.5 times more likely to visit a brand website when that brand was recommended by ChatGPT.

For marketers, that is a major signal. AI platforms are becoming part of the discovery layer, the consideration layer, and in some cases the first filter between a consumer and a brand.

AI visibility is becoming the new SEO

Classic SEO is not disappearing. Technical performance, crawlability, useful content, and authority still matter. But the way consumers ask questions is changing.

Traditional search often starts with short keyword phrases. AI search is more conversational, contextual, and intent-rich. A consumer may not search for “best jeans.” They may ask, “What jeans should I wear for a casual date night in New York if I want something comfortable but polished?” A parent may not search for “baby formula ingredients.” They may ask an AI assistant to compare products, explain safety standards, and recommend options based on a baby’s needs.

That shift changes what content needs to do. Brands can no longer rely only on broad keywords or static product pages. They need content that answers specific questions, explains category context, demonstrates credibility, and appears across the sources AI systems are likely to reference.

What top CMOs are doing now

The Business Insider report points to several practical patterns emerging across leading marketing teams.

Some CMOs are investing in tools that measure how often their brands appear in AI-generated answers. Chime’s Vineet Mehra, for example, mentioned using platforms such as Profound and AirOps to understand visibility across answer engines. American Eagle’s Craig Brommers has worked with partners such as Optiversal to produce content designed for LLM-driven discovery.

Other leaders are focusing less on tooling and more on the raw material that feeds great content. Coach’s Joon Silverstein has emphasized deep consumer interviews, spending time with consumers in their homes to understand identity, aspirations, and the specific problems people might bring to AI platforms.

That distinction is important. The best AI visibility strategy is not just about producing more content. It is about producing more useful, more specific, and more human content.

Content needs to live in more places

One of the biggest shifts for marketing teams is distribution. A brand’s website still matters, but it is no longer the only place where brand meaning is formed.

For AI discovery, brands need to be represented across multiple credible surfaces:

• Owned website content that clearly explains products, use cases, values, and differentiators.
• Educational articles that answer real customer questions.
• YouTube and short-form video that demonstrate expertise and context.
• Reddit and community conversations where consumers compare experiences.
• Founder and executive thought leadership that helps define the brand’s point of view.
• Earned media and credible third-party mentions.
• Structured content that is easy for search engines and AI systems to understand.

Specificity matters more than keywords

For years, marketing teams were trained to think in keyword groups. That still has value, but AI search pushes brands toward a more specific understanding of customer intent.

Instead of asking, “What keyword should we rank for?” teams need to ask what questions customers ask before they trust the brand, what comparisons they make before choosing, what objections slow down the journey, and what proof an AI platform needs in order to recommend the brand responsibly.

This is why customer research is becoming a visibility strategy. The more clearly a brand understands real audience language, the better it can create content that matches the way people ask AI systems for help.

There is no silver bullet

The rise of answer engine optimization has created a fast-growing market of tools and agencies promising quick visibility gains. Some of those tools can be valuable, especially for monitoring where a brand appears and identifying content gaps.

But short-term hacks are risky. AI platforms and search systems change constantly. Visibility tactics that work for a few months can be patched, discounted, or overtaken by better information.

The more durable strategy is to build a strong content and reputation system: clear owned content, accurate product and company information, strong third-party validation, active presence on the platforms customers trust, customer research that informs real answers, and consistent brand messaging across channels.

What brands should do next

For brands preparing for AI-driven discovery, the first step is not to chase a new acronym. The first step is to audit the information ecosystem around the brand.

Start by asking where your brand appears today. Search your brand, category, and key customer questions across Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Reddit, YouTube, and TikTok. Look for gaps, inaccuracies, outdated positioning, and missing proof.

Then build a content plan around the questions customers actually ask. Not only top-of-funnel keywords, but also nuanced prompts around comparison, trust, use cases, risk, pricing, integration, and fit.

The brands that treat this moment as a content volume race may get temporary visibility. The brands that treat it as a strategy shift will build a stronger foundation for the next era of search.

Source: Business Insider, “How 6 top CMOs like Coach’s Joon Silverstein are working to optimize their brands for AI platforms,” published July 1, 2026.