The Impact of AI on Digital Marketing

Some years pass with relatively little change to the digital marketing landscape.

In years like 2025, seismic shifts happen.

Last year, the very foundations of successful campaigns were rocked by the enormous impact of artificial intelligence. AI swept onto the scene, redefining how people discover brands and fragmenting how we measure performance.

These changes destroyed the assumption that channels could be optimised independently.

Buyers now move fluidly between searches, paid media costs have risen, and LLM-generated content has surged. The rise of AI tools means that customers often no longer follow a linear buying journey.

But where there’s change, there’s opportunity. 

Now that the tidal wave of transformation is subsiding, a clearer picture has emerged: digital marketing today must be designed as a connected system that supports awareness, consideration, decision making, and learning.

We need to reshape how SEO, content, and paid media are delivered.

Here’s what that means for marketers in 2026.

From Channels to Systems

The fundamental shift is from channel led to systems led marketing.

Online discovery is now interconnected and AI influenced. Where they’d once respond with links to the most authoritative, SEO rich websites, search engines now summarise answers, instantly drawing on thousands of resources. 

Type almost any question into a search engine, and you’ll likely be met with a concise, AI-generated response. AI tools even recommend brands and businesses based on your search.

These changes mean that paid media today supports journeys rather than acting as a standalone growth lever. Marketing now needs to support awareness, consideration, decision-making, and validation as a connected experience.

You can’t rely on one tactic anymore. Digital marketing success comes from aligning your SEO, content strategy, paid ads, and measurement around how people actually choose.

SEO Is Now About Influence

SEO is another element of digital marketing undergoing a revolution. 

Specifically, AI-driven Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) have seen a dramatic reduction in clicks for generic informational content. Now, visibility in AI summaries depends on trust, relevance, and the usefulness of the content at the moment a customer makes a buying decision.

While effective SEO is still crucial to your website, it now shares the stage with Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). 

As people increasingly use AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot for research, it’s becoming increasingly important to appear in GEO environments.

Websites still matter, of course. People will always need a destination to complete their purchase. In that respect, SEO fundamentals haven’t changed. You need quality content, industry authority, and a depth of knowledge.

Creating a content strategy around these pillars supports visibility across both traditional search and evolving AI platforms, where credibility leads to enquiries, and enquiries to conversions.

However, SEO success is no longer measured by website sessions alone. It’s measured through qualified demand, assisted conversions, and influence later in the buying journey. 

Winning Trust in an AI Driven Buying Journey

The shift toward AI driven discovery creates a new competitive reality.

Buyers are no longer starting with search result pages. Increasingly, they begin with answers generated by AI systems. Visibility now comes from being cited, summarised, and recommended, not simply clicked.

This changes the definition of strong digital performance.

• Authority now carries more weight than ranking position.
• Products, services, and expertise need to be structured so AI systems recognise businesses as a credible and trustworthy source.
• Clear proof, practical depth, and well organised knowledge all influence whether a business is referenced during AI led research and evaluation.

The commercial effect is significant.

• Earlier visibility in complex buying journeys means companies can shape thinking before formal sales conversations begin.
• Stronger product credibility builds confidence sooner, reducing friction and shortening the path to decision.

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Create Content That Helps People Choose

Bill Gates once said that “Content is King.” And, while content is unlikely to be toppled from its throne, AI summaries have significantly reduced the value of content created to generate website visits.

An entertaining, informative blog is nice to have. But, more than ever before, your content must help buyers compare products and services, validate their decision, and choose to buy.

Content can no longer solely function as a traffic driver. Instead, treat content as a commercial asset, and create it with intent. Any effective content strategy starts with the question: 

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What decisions do my customers struggle with?

From there, you should create content that answers:

Which option is best?

Why is it right for me?

What do I do next?

Your conversion rate will thank you for it.

But, be warned. Flooding your website with low-effort AI generated content risks damaging your visibility and credibility. Authentic expertise still matters. After all, AI is a predictive, generative tool. It can only remix what already exists. 

Creating and publishing new ideas and real experiences will feed future AI outputs.

Resetting Paid Media Expectations

Arguably, the most visible impact of AI last year was on paid media.

Costs continued to rise across most platforms, while automated bidding via platforms like PMax made it harder to predict performance without a disciplined structure and clear intent segmentation. The measurement waters were further muddied by the introduction of Google’s Consent Mode v2, cookie opt-outs, and changes to Google Analytics.

Today, platforms model large portions of user behaviour, making year-on-year comparisons unreliable.

Additionally, businesses found they needed a presence across multiple platforms, splitting their investment between Google, Meta, TikTok, and emerging advertising channels like Reddit. In many cases, businesses need to increase spend simply to maintain performance. 

With so many factors at play, paid media became a risk-managed investment, rather than a straightforward growth switch.

Attribution has also become less clear cut. Google and Meta apply different conversion windows and definitions of success, so results can’t be compared like for like. The focus is on understanding what each channel contributes, rather than forcing them into identical KPIs.

For now, paid media performance is about resetting expectations. Clarify what each channel is responsible for, and focus on real time results and ROI rather than raw data.

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Adapting to Win in an AI Led Market

Success in this new landscape depends on flexibility and a clear shift away from keyword centric optimisation toward a genuinely user focused approach.

This creates meaningful opportunities.

In high trust, high complexity buying journeys, real expertise still matters. These are the spaces where automation and generic AI responses struggle to replace informed human judgement.

Search behaviour is also evolving.

Users are no longer just typing keywords into a browser. They are asking questions through phones, cars, voice assistants, and AI agents. Discovery is becoming conversational, contextual, and continuous.

To respond effectively, several priorities emerge.

AI tools should be used to improve efficiency, but every output must still be reviewed to protect brand consistency, accuracy, and authenticity.

High quality first party data becomes more valuable, particularly when systems are connected in ways that allow platforms and algorithms to learn from real customer behaviour.

Visibility must extend beyond traditional Google search into a broader mix of channels such as YouTube, display, paid social, and community environments like Reddit, where research and influence increasingly happen.

Traffic volumes may reduce, but intent should rise. The focus shifts toward converting the visitors who truly matter rather than maximising raw sessions.

Encouragingly, early performance signals support this direction.

Recent expansion into Microsoft Bing for those who have previously avoided this arena is already delivering more qualified traffic, supported by improved conversion tracking. Lower competition within the platform is allowing stronger impression share, particularly in the public sector where many use Bing as their default search environment.

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At the same time, Reddit advertising is generating strong return on ad spend, reinforcing the value of reaching users inside research led communities rather than relying solely on traditional search demand.

Together, these signals point toward a clear conclusion.

Growth in an AI influenced market will not come from doing more of the same, but from deliberately aligning trust, data, channel mix, and expertise around how modern buyers actually choose.

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AI Is The New Shop Window

The profound changes to digital marketing in 2025 mean one thing:

Being recommended by AI is the new visibility.

The good news is that digital marketing success is still achievable. With a strong content strategy that features a clear structure, evidence-based answers, and user-friendly information, brands are better positioned to feature in AI summaries and recommendations.

For Dock, helping our clients achieve this means structuring sites and content so AI systems can confidently reference them and making sure historical SEO work supports future AI discovery.

The building blocks of digital marketing may have taken a hit, but with decision-focused SEO, choice friendly content, and a deliberate paid media strategy, the game remains the same.

Design systems that reflect how people find, evaluate, and choose your business.

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