Coexisting with AI: How new tools redefine marketing

With online infrastructure being the new frontier, every business tries to adapt to new technological booms and cultural sensations. Artificial Intelligence is the newest political buzzword that can be read as friend or foe. The blanket umbrella term obscures its usage, as it pervades every pipeline, completely restructuring how marketers interact with and observe the buyer’s journey. New tools like AI Assistance, AI Overviews, and Visual Searches will influence marketing strategies for years to come.

How does AI affect Brand Awareness?

Voice Search and AI-Search Assistance

AI tools are present at the very start of the buyer’s journey. With different AI-Assistant tools like Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa, there’s been an increase in voice searching. According to Demandsage, nearly 1 in 5 people actively use voice search; “In the U.S., alone, 153.5 million people rely on voice assistants, with Siri leading at 86.5 million users. From daily tasks like checking the weather to shopping and customer service, voice search is deeply integrated into consumer behavior.” Demandsage investigates why voice search is so popular and reports the following breakdown below.

These findings will push digital marketers to evaluate keyword research, keyword-based SEO practices, and incorporate more conversational language in their strategy. This can include “focus[ing] on natural language content, question-based queries, and featured snippets.” (Peterson).    

How does AI influence consumer considerations?

From Zero Click Search to AI Overviews 

Voice searches, “the Zero Click Searches”, feed into Search Generative Experience, more popularly known as AI Overviews.  By using an AI assistant for question-based queries, generative AI tools like Google’s AI Overview shortcut the need to scroll the search results, which directly impacts SEO practices for organic traffic. According to ScaleStation’s Karishma Bhatnagar, Google AI “changed the way ranking factors are considered…[bringing] more focus to content relevance, context, and understanding user intent…this puts more importance on the quality and depth of content rather than simply matching keywords.”  With the power to compute nuance, context, and conversational queries, digital marketers need to elevate their content to meet those needs and answer those queries in the search results. This can be optimized by having content based on frequently asked questions. By using natural language, the AI Overview can analyze your intent, understand your context, rank your relevancy, and direct a user to you.  

How does AI change the search results?  

Visual Search Optimization 

AI tools transform how we search for everyday questions, facts, and curiosities. Google Lens and Pinterest Lens are two AI image recognition tools that empower users’ cameras to search with images and pictures.  Search results on Google have been transformed with more images in the SERPs. Today, I used Google Assistant, asking, “What do I need to make mango salsa?”  My results were a carousel of manga salsa pictures with links to relevant sites and blogs.  According to ScaleStation in 11 Key Digital Marketing Trends…, “search is becoming all about visuals, with platforms moving past plain text results to include videos, image carousels, and map packs. It’s a shift aimed at grabbing attention and opening new doors for brands to boost visibility.” This would push digital marketers to produce quality images, using metadata and tags to make visuals searchable and address users’ pain points effectively.

Work Cited

Bhatnagar, Karishma. (29, October 2024). AI Overviews: What They Are and Their Impact on SEO. ScaleStation. https://scalestation.io/blog/ai-overviews

Kumar, Naveen. (4, April 2026). 53 Latest Voice Search Statistics [Trends  & Data]. DemandSage. https://www.demandsage.com/voice-search-statistics/

Petterson, Andrew. (19 February 2025). 10 Digital Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2025. Tech Research Online. https://techresearchonline.com/blog/digital-marketing-trends/   Porwal, Dharmesh. (6, January 2025). 11 Key Digital Marketing Trends Shaping the Future of Your Strategy. Scale Station. https://scalestation.io/blog/digital-marketing-trends