The Future of AI and Marketing: What’s Coming and How to Prepare

Do you feel overwhelmed by the rapid pace of AI development and how it might impact your business stability? Are you wondering how autonomous software might fundamentally change the way customers find and buy from you?

In this article, you’ll discover what AI agents are, how they will reshape the customer journey, and how to position your business for an AI-first future.

What Are AI Agents?

While many marketers are still getting used to generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude, the technology is already shifting toward agentic AI.

Unlike standard large language models (LLMs) that primarily generate text or chat with you, AI agents are designed to complete tasks. They function as virtual workers that can operate autonomously to achieve a goal.

According to Jeremiah Owyang, a true AI agent performs four distinct functions:

• Sense: It perceives the world around it, whether that is inside a software application or via physical cameras.
  
  
• Decide: It determines the best course of action based on its inputs.
  
  
• Act: It completes the action (e.g., booking a meeting, purchasing a product, or updating a CRM record).
  
  
• Learn: It improves its performance over time based on outcomes.

For small- and medium-sized businesses, this technology offers the potential of a 24/7 staff, and while we are currently in the experimental phase, agents are quickly evolving to handle complex workflows.

For example, a travel-focused agent could research flights, negotiate prices, and book tickets without human intervention. In a marketing context, agents can already autonomously handle tasks like competitive research, content creation, or CRM management.

Despite the automation of tasks, the human element becomes more valuable, not less.

If AI native companies can automate repetitive labor and back-office operations, they free up resources to invest in the customer experience. This creates a premium on humanity.

When the chores are handled by software, you have more time to greet customers, tailor experiences to their specific needs, and provide high-touch service. In an AI-saturated world, the businesses that use automation to enhance—rather than replace—human connection will ultimately win.

#1: Five Organizational AI Cultures: Where Are You?

As businesses adapt to this technology, distinct cultures are emerging. Understanding where you sit on this spectrum—and where your competitors are—can help you navigate the changes ahead.

Jeremiah Owyang identifies five levels of AI adoption in business:

The AI Resistor Business

This culture actively resists or thwarts AI adoption. Similar to the Luddites of the Industrial Revolution or companies that resisted the internet and social media, these organizations often operate out of fear or a desire to protect legacy models.

The AI Follower Business

Followers are not first movers. They may belong to highly regulated industries like healthcare, banking, or government, where compliance prevents rapid adoption. Alternatively, they may simply prefer to wait for proven ROI and best practices before investing resources.

The AI Forward Business

This is common among established companies where the work-family culture is strong. Leadership encourages the use of AI to increase efficiency but emphasizes collaboration. The message is often: “We are using AI, but it won't take your jobs.”

The AI First Business

This culture is often found in traditional tech companies pivoting to the new era. Being AI First is not just a slogan; it is a specific operational methodology for problem-solving.

When an AI First company faces a business challenge, it follows this strict order of operations:

1. Buy: Check if an off-the-shelf AI solution exists to solve the problem.
   
   
2. Build: If no solution exists, build it (often using no-code tools).
   
   
3. Hire: Only if the first two options fail, do they hire a human to do the work.

The AI Native Business

These are typically young startups (under 3 or 4 years old) built entirely on generative AI foundations. Because they automate heavy lifting from day one, they achieve incredible efficiency.

Data shows that top AI-native startups generate $2 million to $3 million in revenue per employee, compared to the $200,000 to $400,000 typical of traditional small businesses.

To understand what AI Native looks like in practice, look at these startups that are redefining efficiency:

• Midjourney: With only 40 employees, this image generation company generates approximately $12 million in revenue per employee.
  
  
• Mercor: A marketplace that uses AI to vet and hire topical experts to train AI platforms.
  
  
• Gamma: An AI-native tool that autonomously builds presentations.
  
  
• ElevenLabs: A leader in AI voice cloning and synthesis capability.
  

• AIO: A restaurant-tech startup that places devices on tables to sense when a customer has finished a drink or meal, automatically signaling staff to improve turnover and service.

#2: Three Ways to Embrace AI Forward or AI First Business Culture

If you are ready to adopt an AI Forward or AI First mindset, Jeremiah recommends three specific strategies to improve accuracy and efficiency.

The Triangulation Strategy

Avoid relying on a single AI model for critical research or decision-making. Different models have different strengths and biases.

To get the most accurate results, run your query through all three major foundation models: Google Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s Claude. By comparing the outputs, you can see where the answers align and where they differ, giving you a more complete and verified picture.

Consolidate Your Ecosystem

To maximize the power of AI agents, you need to lean into the network effect of data. AI works best when it has access to your emails, calendar, documents, and files in a single, integrated environment.

For example, Jeremiah recently transitioned his entire venture firm exclusively to the Google ecosystem. While this creates a lock-in effect, it unlocks massive productivity gains because the AI can see and act across your entire business stack.

Prepare for Decoupled Content

Marketers must mentally prepare for a future where the presentation layer (your website's visual design) is separated from the content layer (your actual data).

AI agents do not need to see your website’s design; they need to read your data.

You don't need to overcomplicate this technical shift—most CMS platforms already store data as text. However, you must ensure your content is structured clearly so that agents—whether from Google, OpenAI, or Perplexity—can easily scrape, understand, and surface your information to users.

#3: Two Ways AI Agents Will Disrupt the Marketing Funnel

The rise of AI agents will fundamentally alter the traditional marketing funnel.

Historically, the customer journey involved a human searching on Google, visiting a website, reading content, and clicking a “Buy” button. In the near future, personal AI agents will handle much of this top-of-funnel work.

Bill Gates predicted that whoever dominates the personal agent market will disrupt search engines, productivity sites, and even Amazon. Why? Because your personal agent will do the research, compare products, negotiate pricing, and execute the purchase for you.

AIO: Optimizing for AI Agents

Just as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) became a critical industry, a new field is emerging: AI Optimization (AIO).

Platforms like BrandRank are helping companies understand how they are perceived by major large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. These tools analyze what the AI thinks about your brand by scraping its training data, which comes from sources like Wikipedia, Reddit, and consumer reviews.

To stay competitive, you will need to ensure your brand's data is structured in a way that AI agents can easily consume and verify it.

KYA: The Know Your Agent Protocol

As agents begin making purchases, businesses will need to verify that these bots are authorized to spend money.New protocols like Know Your Agent (KYA) are emerging to parallel the banking industry's Know Your Customer (KYC) standards. Services like Skyfire allow users to create verified agents tied to their government ID.

In the future, your CRM won't just track human leads; it will track authorized AI agents acting on behalf of humans. You may even deploy your own sales agents to negotiate directly with buyer agents, turning ads into dynamic offers.

Other Notes From This Episode

• Connect with Michael Stelzner @Stelzner on Facebook and @Mike_Stelzner on X.
• Watch this interview and other exclusive content from Social Media Examiner on YouTube.

Where to subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Music | YouTube | Amazon Music | RSS

✋🏽 If you enjoyed this episode of the AI Explored podcast, please head over to Apple Podcasts, leave a rating, write a review, and subscribe.

---

Stay Up-to-Date: Get New Marketing Articles Delivered to You!

Don't miss out on upcoming social media marketing insights and strategies! Sign up to receive notifications when we publish new articles on Social Media Examiner. Our expertly crafted content will help you stay ahead of the curve and drive results for your business. Click the link below to sign up now and receive our annual report!