Personal AI use is collapsing the customer decision-making process into a single conversation, and most brands aren’t ready for it. The window of influence that once spanned dozens of touchpoints is shrinking to seconds.
What’s more, AI is now selling to AI. Brands themselves are using the technology to market to consumer AI intermediaries before they can ultimately sell to the people behind them. So, what can brands do today to effectively influence customer decisions in this new era?
How AI is changing the game
AI tools are transforming the way people make decisions. A lengthy pre-purchase research phase spanning multiple websites and platforms can now be replaced by a single interaction with an AI assistant. An assistant who understands the individual’s unique constraints and remembers their preferences.
A strong 45% of consumers already say AI-generated recommendations matter more than advertising in shaping their perceptions, according to Omnicom’s Future of Brand Influence report. A strong 70% say they can become an expert in any product or service category just by using generative AI.
Funnel-based planning frameworks that treat awareness, consideration, and decision-making as separate stages are becoming irrelevant as AI enables customers to experience all three simultaneously. Purchasing decisions can be made in seconds, leaving brands with minimal opportunity to connect authentically, build trust, and feel relevant in the customer’s environment.
AI must persuade AI
Then there’s the big question of who’s making the decisions. AI assistants are booking hotel rooms, making medical appointments, recommending purchases, and renewing (and canceling) subscriptions on the customer’s behalf, based on what they’ve learned about individual needs and preferences.
Brands must convince these AI intermediaries before they can influence the people using them. And, with the majority of brands now actively using AI to influence customer actions (according to our 2026 CX Trends report), algorithms are actually doing the thinking on both sides of the customer experience. AI must persuade AI.
Leading as AI rewrites the rules
To succeed in this new age, brands must exert their influence across environments that operate with extraordinary scale, speed, and intelligence. But things like outdated organizational structures, siloed systems, poor-quality data, and questionable data sourcing are getting in the way.
Brands will need to consider which organizational changes are required to facilitate customer experiences shaped by AI. What’s the internal governance structure for AI? Is an AI steering committee required? What role will the CMO and other key stakeholders play in shaping AI strategy?
In addition, brands will need a proactive approach to AI-readiness, building a solid foundation based on four key pillars:
Pillar one: Trustworthy data
Brands are drowning in valuable first-party data. But it’s scattered across teams, channels, and systems. Changing that is simple.
The answer is to unify first-party data across the organization into a single data foundation. First-party insights can be enriched with high-quality second- and third-party data from ethical sources, including demographic, behavioral, and transactional data, to gain a 360-degree view of the customer. Fueling AI solutions with complete data ensures algorithms have all the information they need to make the best decisions and reduces the risk of AI errors.
Pillar two: Data hygiene
Customer lives aren’t static. People move, get married (or divorced), change jobs, have kids, and take up new hobbies. Their data must keep up.
A considered approach to data management, including ongoing data hygiene practices to regularly cleanse, validate, and update customer information, ensures AI is always using the most accurate and up-to-date information. Clean, connected data is a vital ingredient for AI-powered influence.
Pillar three: Identity
When a customer switches from mobile to laptop to in-store, most brands lose the thread entirely. Here’s how to fix that.
A robust solution that resolves identity across environments to recognize customers wherever they interact is vital for connecting data signals and powering AI. Using market-leading, interoperable identifiers to enable a unified view of the customer empowers AI to understand individual customer journeys and influence them through cohesive, personalized experiences.
Pillar four: Privacy and consent
People are more aware than ever of the data they generate as they browse, shop, and socialize, and they want to control how that data is used. So brands must deliver.
Data governance and respect for customer privacy aren’t just regulatory and ethical imperatives; they’re essential to building customer trust. Brands need to establish clear and transparent data privacy practices that support a lawful basis for data collection and give customers full control over their data before it is used by AI.
Turning influence into wins
As AI use accelerates, the entire ecosystem in which brands operate is being reshaped. Today, brands can be present anywhere — across any screen or any platform. But if they aren’t showing up in the environment that matters, in the moment that matters, and influencing both customers and their AI intermediaries with relevant, personalized experiences, they might as well be nowhere at all. A connected and permissioned data foundation fuels the trust, relevance, and consistency brands need to succeed.
In the age of AI influence, invisibility isn’t a branding problem; it’s an existential one.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
