On a whim, I recently asked ChatGPT to create an image that would capture the current moment in marketing. Something that would speak to where we are as we look ahead into 2026 and beyond. Here’s what it gave me:

Photo-realistic image of a man and a woman tandem skydiving

It made me chuckle at first. But the more I looked at it, the more I thought: yeah, this captures it perfectly. The past year has felt both terrifying and exhilarating, hasn't it? 

The root of the "terrifying" part is obvious: the front door to your brand has moved. It’s no longer your homepage or your carefully crafted outreach sequence. Today, the front door is a ChatGPT prompt or a Perplexity search. 

But then there’s the "exhilarating" part – we finally have the tools to understand and influence the shadowy corners of the buyer journey that we couldn’t previously control.

In this article, we’ll explore how to navigate this landscape by moving beyond traditional SEO toward a strategy of influence orchestration. 

You’ll learn why your current content strategy might be making you invisible to AI, how to feed the bots with trusted data, and why the CMO is the only person in the organization who can lead this transition.

The buyer journey has fundamentally changed

Let's get grounded in what's happening out there. The buyer journey has completely changed, and the numbers tell a compelling story.

Today, 70% of the buyer's journey is complete before they ever contact you. Even more striking: 85% of the time, buyers have figured out what they require before making contact. And here's the kicker: 84% of the time, the first contacted vendor wins the deal.

You want to be in that 84%. You need to be in that 84%.

But wait, there's more statistical candy for you. These days, 89% of buyers have adopted generative AI tools. 50% of all buyers say they start their search with AI. Half! And 34% say they're more productive with AI search.

Three-panel infographic showing 89% GenAI adoption by B2B buyers, 50% start with AI search, and 34% are more productive with AI search.

These numbers are recent, but I'm keeping a close eye on that 50% who exclusively use AI and that 34% who find themselves more productive with it. I'd bet a deep-dish pizza dinner that the next time you see these stats, they'll be much higher. 

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The emotional reality of marketing today

I just threw a lot of stats at you. Sorry, not sorry. But let's switch gears and talk about feelings for a moment. The feelings I know you have. The things you might be thinking as we navigate this new landscape.

First, the times they are a-changin’. Thank you, Bob Dylan, for that timeless observation. SEO, LLMs, AEO, GEO... It's alphabet soup out there. The pace is relentless. If you think you're caught up, you're not. Nobody is. Your agencies or internal teams might be talking to you about AEO and GEO, which is a great start, but it's not enough.

Then there's the pressure. Many organizations are shaking up the CMO role; some brands have moved it to operations. Plus, there's always that friendly (sometimes not so friendly) rivalry with the CIO. And research from Gartner shows that CEOs are skeptical of CMOs’ AI savviness. It doesn't seem fair, but it's real.

Let's be honest: sometimes we don't help ourselves. Maybe it's because of all this pressure and change, but CMOs often try to control everything. We’re taking on too much. We can't shoulder it all. We have to pick our priorities.

Bottom line: we're all still learning.

The bad news and the good news

Here's the bad news: nobody has written the foolproof, battle-tested manual for how to advance in this ever-changing era. Nobody knows for certain what comes next.

But here's the good news: there's no role better equipped to be acrobatic and evolve than the CMO. Of everyone in the C-suite, we’re in the best position to adapt to these changing times and figure it out.

So, let's seize the moment.

LLMs are now your brand's front door

We have to talk about LLMs. They're the hottest topic since whatever Taylor Swift did last week. But here's why they matter to you: LLMs are the front door for your brand now. 

In our research for a white paper we published last year, we discovered something remarkable. There are 20 million daily prompts in ChatGPT alone that relate to B2B buying – questions like "Who are the top cybersecurity vendors?" and countless iterations of similar queries. Who can help me with this? How does this vendor compare to that one? These questions are coming in fast and furious every day.