We've been putting our thinking out there because we believe the whole industry gets better when people share what's actually working (and what's not). Thank you for the mention, Martyn Etherington. So happy to see that our work is resonating, and even happier to see it being built upon.
There is a growing narrative that AI will diminish the role of brand. I believe the opposite is happening. In the AI era, brand may become one of the most valuable strategic assets an enterprise possesses. As buyers shift from searching to asking AI for recommendations, the battleground changes from impressions and clicks to trust, authority, discoverability, and recommendation probability. The question increasingly becomes: Will the AI mention or cite you at all? In this article, I explore why customer advocacy, analyst validation, operational credibility, narrative consistency, and proof ecosystems are becoming foundational to enterprise growth in the AI era. My thinking has been heavily influenced by conversations and insights from Tim Sanders, Godard Abel G2, Matt Marschinke, Tammy Tufty, David Lapp, Memsy Price, Seer Interactive, Romain de Saint Périer KKR, Felipe Thomaz, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and many fellow CMOs navigating this shift in real time. The future of the brand is not about shouting louder. It is about being trusted enough to become the answer.
Your work not only resonates, but more importantly delivers results