Generative AI and Brands: How to Gain Visibility in the Agentic Economy
Generative AI and brands are now inseparable in the new digital economy. Generative AI is transforming the way people discover, evaluate, and choose products and services, shifting decision-making power to intelligent agents and generative engines.
By 2025, generative AI has become the true hidden engine of e-commerce and digital marketing. We're not just talking about speed, but about smarter decisions, personalized recommendations, and purchasing journeys increasingly mediated by conversational AI agents. This is the scenario where Geo (Generative Engine Optimization), the new frontier for brands that want to be visible not only to people, but above all to algorithms.
Today, a new rule applies: if the model doesn't know you, it won't choose you. With one in four consumers already using AI assistants for shopping, brands must learn to communicate with machines as much as they do with people. AI is becoming a true "experience broker," capable of managing choices and interactions so seamlessly that direct contact between consumer and brand is reduced.
Discovery and purchasing decisions are increasingly shifting to conversational and agentic interfaces. The most advanced companies are beginning to integrate generative search and AI agents into their digital ecosystems to maintain customer connection throughout the entire customer journey. In the agentic economy, winning consumers' hearts means, first and foremost, conquering the algorithms that guide them.
Generative AI and the End of Traditional Linear Search
Generative AI And new search engines are overcoming the logic of linear search based exclusively on blue links. Today, search is a complex, dynamic ecosystem, where AI overviews, conversational agents, and vertical digital channels are redefining the rules of the game. There is no longer a single, predictable path from search intent to conversion.
After more than a decade of near-absolute dominance, Google's supremacy in online search is gradually diminishing. According to StatCounter, its global market share fell below 90% for the first time in ten years (May 2025), driven by the growth of new players, vertical engines and alternative discovery channels.
The use of generative AI for shopping queries is set to accelerate. On the one hand, platforms like ChatGPT are introducing shopping-specific features, with agents capable of recommending products, filling out online forms, and managing orders. On the other, Google is announcing the integration of ads into AI Overviews and a new AI mode designed to guide searches from inspiration to purchase.
AI agents represent the next big evolution in digital customer experience. Google's AI mode enables features like "try it on" for testing products and automated "buy for me." ChatGPT's AI operator will be able to handle digital bureaucracy, filling out forms and managing online shopping, while Amazon's agent will even be able to purchase from third-party sites. The result is an increasingly widespread delegation of everyday micro-decisions to algorithms.
Generative AI, search behaviors, and machine-readable content
THE'Generative AI The way people search for information and products is profoundly changing. Searches are becoming increasingly conversational, with complex questions asked in natural language. Visual search is growing thanks to features like Lens and camera-first integrations in social apps, while the places where searches take place are fragmented between general search engines, e-commerce platforms, social media, and voice assistants.
Despite these changes, content remains the driving force behind all search results, whether traditional or generative. However, a shift in perspective is needed: search should no longer be considered a standalone channel, but rather a cross-channel behavior that spans multiple touchpoints. This means that the touchpoints to be addressed for digital marketing are increasing and becoming more interconnected.
Brands must produce high-quality, unique, reliable, and, above all, machine-readable content—that is, easily interpreted by generative models and search engines. This means structuring information clearly, using markup and structured data, and ensuring consistency across the website, product pages, reviews, social media channels, and marketplace. Misaligned content creates confusion for both people and algorithms.
The impact for brands is clear: in the short term, a decline in direct website traffic is likely, as answers are increasingly provided within chats, AI overviews, and assistants. Content will therefore need to live beyond the brand's website to reach consumers on the platforms they use most. Success metrics will change: impressions, presence in AI results, and share of traffic from AI-based search engines will become key visibility indicators.
Research sources such as Kantar BrandZ They show how the strongest brands are those that successfully combine relevance, differentiation, and salience—qualities that today must be recognized not only by people but also by generative models. In this context, the ability to constantly feed the web with updated, structured, and consistent content becomes a competitive advantage.
The New Playbook for Brands in the Age of Generative AI
THE'Generative AI It requires brands to adopt a new strategic playbook to stay visible and relevant. This revolution represents an unprecedented challenge, but also an opportunity to rethink positioning, metrics, and touchpoints, balancing technological innovation and authentic human connection. Winning the hearts of consumers is no longer enough; we must also win the minds of the machines that drive them.
The first pillar is to stand out with a meaningful difference. In a world of virtually infinite choices (and outcomes), blending in is equivalent to disappearing from AI agents' suggestions. We need to cultivate a difference that truly matters: responding to real needs, offering what others don't, creating clear perceived value. Generative models favor brands that can be described with a few, strong associations.
Second pillar: being present and worth every penny. Even the most desirable brand won't be recommended or chosen if it's not available in the right channel or if the price isn't perceived as fair. Today, "presence" means being cited as a reliable source in search engines, appearing on agent-generated shopping lists, and having aligned product assortment, packaging, distribution, and promotions. Every touchpoint, online and offline, fuels AI's perception of the brand.
Third pillar: innovate to stay relevant. Standing still is extremely risky when needs, technologies, and culture change rapidly. The 71% of growth comes from disruptive brands, but the 29% comes from established brands that know how to reinvent themselves (Source: Kantar BrandZ, 100 most valuable global brands, 2025). Disruption isn't just technological innovation: it means entering cultural conversations, experimenting with new formats, and collaborating strategically with communities and creators.
Pillar four: consistency to build trust and memorability. Amid constant change, a brand's identity must remain clear and recognizable. Consistency isn't just creative, but also commercial and experiential: brands with unified customer journeys generate 33% more revenue (Source: Kantar BrandZ, 100 most valuable global brands, 2025). For algorithms, this consistency translates into strong and stable signals, which increase the likelihood of being included in recommendations.
Finally, creativity must be connected across channels and communities. Consumers move between different platforms, often in a non-linear fashion. An integrated narrative is needed that transforms individual touchpoints into a coherent ecosystem, where brand building and performance marketing campaigns work together. This approach increases ROI, recognition, and, most importantly, provides generative models with clear clues about who the brand is and why it should be recommended.
Bringing the brand into the boardroom is becoming essential. The key question for leaders is how to demonstrate brand value in the era of generative AI. The answer lies in shared data and KPIs: market share, future growth, return on marketing investments, and how meaningful, different, and salient the brand is perceived as. Including these indicators in the executive dashboard transforms branding into a strategic lever shared between marketing and finance.
Generative AI: Impact on Marketing and Business
THE'Generative AI It redefines digital marketing and the way companies build relationships and value with customers. Traditional funnels are fragmented into micro-moments managed by AI agents, which filter content, compare offers, and select alternatives before the consumer even lands on the brand's website or social media profile.
For marketing, this means working on two levels. The first is aimed at people, with useful, empathetic, and relevant content. The second is aimed at machines, with structured, up-to-date, and consistent information across all channels. In the era of generative AI, optimizing solely for search engines is no longer enough: we need to optimize for generative engines and the conversational agents that oversee the customer experience.
The customer experience becomes more seamless, personalized, and seamless. AI agents can guide users from inspiration to purchase and beyond, managing post-sales support, reorders, and upgrades. Brands that integrate these agents into their ecosystem, for example through official APIs and automation platforms, can offer consistent conversational experiences across channels such as WhatsApp, websites, e-commerce, and proprietary apps.
From a business perspective, generative AI opens up new opportunities for efficiency and growth. Companies can:
- automate parts of customer service while maintaining high perceived quality;
- personalize offers and messages in real time based on context and history;
- optimize media investments, thanks to more accurate predictive models;
- Quickly test new value propositions and creatives on targeted segments.
The key is to integrate generative AI into a robust measurement framework that connects visibility (including presence in AI results), engagement, conversions, and long-term brand value. From this perspective, conversational channels like WhatsApp become strategic spaces where AI agents can communicate, advise, collect data, and fuel continuous learning loops.
To learn more about how generative models work and their ethical implications, it is also useful to consult the dedicated entry on Wikipedia and reports from institutes such as the OECD.AI, which monitor the impact of artificial intelligence on the economy and society.
How SendApp Can Help with Generative AI and Branding
THE'Generative AI It becomes even more powerful when it's operationally integrated into the channels where customers spend most of their time, like WhatsApp. For brands, this means bringing conversational intelligence directly into chats, where requests, decisions, and purchases take place. SendApp was created precisely to connect AI, automation, and WhatsApp Business in a scalable and compliant manner.
With SendApp Official, businesses can use the official WhatsApp API to integrate AI agents and automated flows into their conversations. They can orchestrate transactional notifications, personalized marketing campaigns, and intelligent chatbots that answer frequently asked questions, guiding users to conversion.
SendApp Agent It allows you to centrally manage WhatsApp conversations between sales and support teams. Combined with generative AI, it becomes a true assistant for human agents: it suggests responses, suggests next best action, and retrieves information from internal systems, reducing management times and increasing customer satisfaction.
For companies that want to push advanced automation, SendApp Cloud offers a scalable platform for orchestrating complex workflows on WhatsApp. You can connect CRM, e-commerce, and marketing automation systems, creating personalized journeys that leverage generative AI to:
- automatically segment contacts based on behaviors;
- generate relevant product recommendations for each profile;
- trigger intelligent follow-ups after key interactions;
- Test message and offer variations to optimize results.
SendApp enables brands to transform WhatsApp into a strategic channel for the agentic economy: conversations become data, insights, and opportunities for continuous personalization. By integrating generative AI and automation, it's possible to build conversational experiences that reflect the brand's tone, increase visibility with algorithms, and simplify the end user's purchasing journey.
To get started, businesses can explore the solutions available on the official website SendApp and request a dedicated consultation on WhatsApp Business, AI, and automation. It's time to rethink your brand presence in conversational channels and prepare for a future where customer decisions will be increasingly mediated by intelligent agents.
