The Agentic Playbook - Part 1: Discovery
The rapid evolution and adoption of artificial intelligence has created an undeniable tension for consumer-brand dynamics.
Sounding the alarm, HBR hit the nail on the head: “brands are becoming invisible to consumers”¹. As the saying goes, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
For brands, the risk of inertia is no longer theoretical. The stakes are tangible, financially significant, and pose an existential threat.
The most visible symptom of the shift is the changing nature of search.
We can look to European consumers as the bellwether for what’s to come. With higher trust in AI², they are embracing adoption in their decision journeys, particularly when it comes to learning about a category, getting inspired, and discovering brands.
The majority are using AI to learn about a category or product (55%), and to compare options like brands, models, prices and reviews (63%)³.
Let that sink in: the majority.
More still, it’s not just how but what people are searching that’s changing.
In 2022, the average global Google search contained 1-2 words⁴. Today, a third of AI searches contain 8 words or more⁵.
Consumers are signalling intent upfront, providing more detail, including specific, emotional and personal context, and delegating the next steps to technology.
But with increased delegation to AI systems comes a flattening of traditional purchase pathways. In fact, HBR found that information that previously required 15-20 website visits is now delivered in a single LLM-generated response⁶.
TLDR; consumers are paying fewer visits to native brand content online, but arriving more educated, better equipped, and closer to purchase.
The downstream impact is undeniable. A 2026 study⁷ on global shoppers showed that two in five purchased an AI-recommended product in the past six months. A quarter said AI introduced them to products they later researched further.
Branding is moving from paid persuasion along a linear funnel to a collapsed, AI-mediated interaction of education, evaluation and recommendation.
Ensuring your brand is visible on LLMs - to both humans and the autonomous AI agents that serve them - is now the primary mandate for relevance and growth.
However, visibility is no longer purchased evenly. Brand mentions and share of voice are earned through relevance, authority and machine-legibility.
AI is not just a channel; the algorithm has become a primary audience to influence.
To secure competitive advantage in this landscape, brands must redefine their approach to discovery:
Decoding dynamics:
Start with the people. Brands must seek to understand consumer attitudes, behavior and wider category dynamics: how their customers are actually using AI, what prompts they are asking LLMs that could (or should) surface the brand, and how competitors stack up.
Brands must also navigate the ever-changing AI ecosystems to understand how visibility and advocacy are earned on different LLM platforms, from structured data and native content to PR and strategic partnerships.
Diagnosing gaps:
Brands must continually audit their position to assess when, why and to what extent they - and competitors - are surfaced to users and agents across platforms to identify blindspots and opportunities for momentum.
Designing agile strategies:
From restructuring native content to building authority signals, brands must find a nuanced balance of tactical adjustments, ongoing optimization and longer-term, dynamic strategies to stay on pace with algorithm and market shifts.
In this new landscape, advantage is secured not only by moving fast, but by continually monitoring and adapting as behaviors change, ecosystems evolve and competitors catch up.
References
1. HBR (2026). LLMs are overtaking search
2. Klaviyo (2026). AI Consumer Trends Playbook
3. McKinsey (2026). Europe’s agentic commerce moment
4. Semrush (2022). The state of search 2022
5. Klaviyo (2026). AI Consumer Trends Playbook
6. HBR (2026). LLMs are overtaking search
7. Klaviyo (2026). AI Consumer Trends Playbook
