The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström® – Episode #801

Guest: Imri Marcus, CEO and Co-founder of Brandlight
Topic: GEO, AI Browsers, and the New Search Experience
Date: January 21, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode explores the seismic shift in digital marketing, brand discovery, and customer experience triggered by the rise of AI browsers and generative engine optimization (GEO). Greg Kihlström speaks with Imri Marcus, CEO of Brandlight, about how brands must pivot from traditional SEO strategies designed for search engines like Google to proactively influencing AI-driven conversations and recommendations. This new era challenges long-standing marketing models, requiring agility, new measurement tools, and reimagined content strategies to maintain visibility, relevance, and impact in AI-powered customer journeys.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The End of Google Dominance and Rise of AI Browsers

[00:48–02:55]

• Marketers have grown accustomed to optimizing for Google’s search algorithms, but the tectonic shift toward AI browsers (ChatGPT, Perplexity, OpenAI’s Atlas) has upended the traditional discovery, evaluation, and purchase process.
• Imri Marcus:
  • The marketing funnel is collapsing: discovery and consideration now often occur inside black-box AI systems rather than through user clicks and web visits.
  • “You are now actually competing to be the answer… the customer journey is happening inside a black box.” [03:57]
  • AI engines have replaced the familiar list of search results with synthesized, conversational responses—sometimes including actual purchasing pathways integrated into AI environments.

2. Fundamental Changes to SEO and Content Strategy

[05:23–07:48, 13:46–16:05]

• Traditional SEO levers such as keyword stuffing, backlinks, schemas, title tags, and volume-centric content strategies are losing effectiveness.
• Imri Marcus:
  • “[AI search]…doesn't work like traditional search… keyword stuffing doesn't work nearly as well when you have LLMs that really understand semantic meaning.” [06:23]
  • Content must be specifically structured, consistent, regularly refreshed, and relevant at the product-line/job-to-be-done level—not just the brand level.
  • Successful brands will employ data-driven strategies, analyzing how and where AI models source and synthesize information.
• “Think of the AI result page as a new retail shelf… analyzing all content impacting your vertical to understand what the AI ‘picks up’ as influential.” [14:11]

3. Impact on Marketing Budgets and Team Structures

[09:59–12:41]

• AI-driven discovery’s budgetary implications extend beyond SEO departments; CMOs and VPs of Marketing must coordinate cross-functional teams and reassign budget allocations.
• Solutions span across search, social, and partnerships (including how publisher relationships impact AI visibility).
• “You really need to start thinking about it not as a singular practice, but as a marketing channel that’s on the rise…allocate intelligently, because your consumers are moving to this faster than any other marketing cycle we’ve seen.” [11:46]

4. New Metrics: Measuring Influence and Visibility in AI Ecosystems

[16:05–20:06]

• Clicks, impressions, and conversions are insufficient in a world where influence frequently happens without any user ‘click’ at all.
• Imri Marcus:
  • “It's the first time in history where as a brand you can add a piece of content that no person ever sees, but the AI engine saw it and it's now completely affecting entire customer journeys.” [17:00]
  • New KPIs: Share of voice in AI environments, recommendation rate, sentiment analysis, accuracy of AI-generated brand descriptions, and position within AI recommendations.
• Early signals:
  • How often one’s brand appears as the answer to key customer questions.
  • How accurately and positively the AI describes the brand.
  • “These are the first two things every CMO should know about their business.” [19:12]

5. The Next Battleground: AI-Powered Advertising and Monetization

[20:06–23:28]

• AI platforms are experimenting with monetization, with models likely starting similar to sponsored answers but expected to evolve into novel ad formats.
• “We have a new material… the first phase, you build the same type of house, but then you understand, oh, I can do totally different things.” [21:15]
• For CMOs, the switch to AI-centric ad models (including “AI Ads” in Google, Perplexity, etc.) is coming fast—likely within the year.
• “This is going to be one of the more violent changes CMOs will experience if they are unprepared… That probably will happen in 2026.” [22:18]

6. Embracing Agility in Leadership

[23:40–24:33]

• Imri Marcus on staying agile:
  • Reject assumptions, analyze from first principles, and base decisions on current realities—not past marketing models.
  • “I think that in this category, agility is a requirement now. It's no longer a mindset that you get to choose to have.” [23:51]
  • Agile, data-driven CMOs will be the ones who thrive amid rapid industry change.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the new power dynamic:
  “You are now actually competing to be the answer… the customer journey is happening inside a black box.” — Imri Marcus [03:57]

• On traditional SEO’s obsolescence:
  “Keyword stuffing doesn’t work nearly as well when you have LLMs that really understand semantic meaning.” — Imri Marcus [06:23]

• On content strategy:
  “Think of the AI result page as a new retail shelf… you start to see almost a heat map of the Internet and within that, what type of content works.” — Imri Marcus [14:11]

• On measuring influence:
  “It's the first time in history where as a brand you can add a piece of content that no person ever sees, but the AI engine saw it and it’s now completely affecting entire customer journeys.” — Imri Marcus [17:00]

• On the evolution of AI advertising:
  “The first phase, you build the same type of house, but then you understand, oh, I can do totally different things [with new materials].” — Imri Marcus [21:15]

• On agility as necessity:
  "I think that in this category, agility is a requirement now. It's no longer a mindset that you get to choose to have." — Imri Marcus [23:51]

Important Timestamps

• [00:48–02:55]: Setting the stage – Google’s past dominance, AI browser disruption
• [05:23–07:48]: Why old SEO tactics now fail, and the GEO paradigm
• [09:59–12:41]: Budget & team structure implications for CMOs
• [14:11–16:05]: Rethinking content for AI-driven visibility
• [16:05–20:06]: New measurement tools and early signals for success
• [20:06–23:28]: The road ahead: AI-native advertising
• [23:40–24:33]: Leadership, agility, and staying ahead of change

Summary prepared for: Listeners seeking a comprehensive, practical distillation of Episode #801 of The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström, featuring actionable insights into the future of AI-powered marketing, SEO/GEO, and the evolving customer journey.