Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights.
Marc Andreessen's 2011 prediction that "software is eating the world" has proven prophetic, but nowhere has the transformation been more complete than in marketing. At this year's Cannes Lions - advertising's equivalent of the Oscars - the technology takeover that's been building for years is now complete.
Walking down the Croisette, the traditional advertising agencies that once dominated have been replaced by tech giants: Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Pinterest, Reddit, Spotify, and Salesforce now command the iconic boulevard. But this shift represents just the beginning of a far more fundamental transformation.
We're witnessing the death of marketing as we know it, replaced by an AI-driven paradigm that's rewriting every rule in the playbook.
IDC predicts that by 2028, three out of five marketing functions will be handled by AI workers, while businesses will spend up to three times more on optimizing for AI systems than traditional search engines by 2029. This isn't a gradual evolution but rather a complete reimagining of how brands and their marketing teams will connect with customers.
For two decades, search engine optimization anchored digital strategy. Companies invested billions in the $90 billion SEO industry, obsessing over Google rankings and keyword strategies. That playbook is becoming obsolete.
Search is rapidly migrating from traditional browsers to AI platforms. Apple's integration of AI-powered tools like Perplexity directly into Safari represents just the beginning of Google's declining monopoly on discovery. What's emerging is what venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz calls "Generative Engine Optimization" - optimizing for AI-driven answers instead of clickable links.
The implications are staggering. Instead of ranking high on search results pages, brands now need to be featured directly in AI responses. Traditional SEO tactics become worthless when AI models synthesize answers from multiple sources while maintaining context across conversations.
"How you're encoded into the AI layer is the new competitive advantage," explains Zach Cohen from a16z. Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch recently noted that ChatGPT was already referring 10% of his company's new customers simply by mentioning it in AI responses. This organic referral power represents a glimpse of AI's customer acquisition potential.
Success metrics are fundamentally changing. Page views matter less than "reference rates" - how often AI systems cite your brand when answering customer queries. Companies are already deploying specialized tools to track AI mentions and optimize content accordingly.
The next wave is even more disruptive: autonomous AI agents that act on behalf of both consumers and businesses. Every major tech company is focused on bringing agents to life - from global giants like Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce to Frontier Models like Anthropic, OpenAi, and XAI to AI-native startups like Glean, Sierra and Writer. They are racing to deploy agents that can make decisions, execute transactions, and interact with other agents with minimal human oversight.
A recent PwC survey reveals 35% of companies are broadly adopting AI agents, with another 17% implementing them across nearly all workflows. While still early days, this isn't experimental technology - it's becoming operational reality.
Consider the customer journey transformation: Your customer's personal AI assistant might research products, negotiate prices, and complete purchases without the customer ever visiting your website. Meanwhile, your company's AI agent handles inquiries, provides recommendations, and closes deals 24/7. The entire transaction could happen between two AI systems.
"Previously, marketers would target campaigns directly at customers, but now the shortlisting and decisions are made by the AI," notes a recent IDC report. This represents a fundamental shift in where influence occurs - companies must now market to algorithms as much as humans.
The speed of this transition is remarkable. What took decades with previous technology shifts is happening in months with AI. Companies that don't adapt risk becoming invisible in an AI-mediated marketplace.
AI agents are erasing traditional boundaries between marketing, sales, and customer service. When a customer's AI communicates with your company's AI, it doesn't matter whether the inquiry is about product features, pricing, or technical support - it's all one continuous conversation.
This convergence creates unprecedented opportunities for customer experience optimization. A well-designed AI agent can greet customers by name, recall purchase history, answer technical questions, process returns, and suggest upgrades within a single interaction. The result is more efficient operations and significantly improved customer satisfaction.
However, it also demands organizational restructuring. Companies can no longer operate with siloed departments when AI systems need unified customer data and consistent messaging across all touchpoints. Early adopters are already reorganizing around integrated AI platforms rather than functional divisions.
The employment implications are substantial and immediate. A 2024 industry survey found 78% of marketers expect at least a quarter of their tasks to be automated within three years, with over one-third anticipating more than half their work becoming AI-automated.
Meta's public roadmap discusses fully automating advertising campaigns, where humans only set budgets and high-level objectives. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are developing systems that handle targeting, creative generation, and optimization without human intervention.
But this disruption creates new opportunities for professionals who adapt. As AI handles routine tasks, human expertise shifts toward strategy, creativity, ethics, and managing hybrid human-AI teams. Tomorrow's marketing leaders will be part creative director, part technologist, part data scientist - orchestrating AI systems rather than managing manual processes.
In this AI-driven landscape, two assets become disproportionately valuable: brand strength and first-party data.
Strong brands gain significant advantages in AI-mediated interactions. When AI systems trained on billions of data points make recommendations, they naturally favor well-known, trusted brands. This creates a compounding effect where established brands become even more prominent in AI responses.
First-party customer data becomes the fuel for competitive AI systems. Companies with rich, consent-based customer information can train more sophisticated AI agents that deliver superior personalized experiences. In an era of privacy regulations and disappearing third-party cookies, this data represents a crucial competitive moat.
AI is growing exponentially, like a snowball gaining size and speed. In tasks like language and image generation, performance is doubling roughly every six months, driven by massive computing power, huge datasets, and smarter algorithms. Companies that wait for certainty will find themselves permanently behind.
The strategic response requires three parallel efforts: experimenting with AI tools and agents; retraining teams for hybrid human-AI collaboration; rebuilding systems around unified customer data and experiences.
Most importantly, leaders must recognize this isn't about adopting new tools. It's about reimagining customer relationships in an AI-mediated world. The companies that thrive will be those that ensure their AI agents deliver genuine value; maintain trust; enhance rather than replace human connection.
We're entering a world where billions of people will have trillions of AI agents. The question isn't whether AI will transform customer engagement - it's whether your company will lead or follow in that transformation. The rules of marketing are being rewritten by AI. The winners will be those who write the new playbook.