Let’s face it, fellow marketers. Your job just got a lot harder.
You used to build marketing plans around SEO. You optimized your content for Google, climbed the rankings, and called it a day. Now, thanks to generative AI and answer engines, the rules have changed. Forget single keywords. Forget link chasing. Welcome to the world of AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), where brand visibility depends on whether an algorithm thinks you’re the best answer.
At a recent Index 2025 panel, I joined Sydney Sloan, CMO of G2, and Mandy Dhaliwal, CMO of Nutanix, to unpack what’s actually happening out there, and more importantly, what CMOs can do about it. The conversation was elegantly moderated by Vamshi Sriperumbudur of Pepper Content. Spoiler: You don’t need a new buzzword. You need a new mindset. [Special thanks to the team at Pepper Content for producing a fabulous virtual event.]
Here are 10 things you can do right now to future-proof your brand and stay relevant in the AI age. [Please take a look at the video for the entire conversation.]
1. Stop chasing clicks
"Stop chasing clicks and fight for the citations." — Mandy Dhaliwal, CMO of Nutanix
Clicks are from the old world. Citations are what LLMs use to decide if your brand is credible. If you're not showing up in sources like TrustRadius, G2, Reddit, Wikipedia, or other trusted sites, you're invisible. It’s not about who’s loudest anymore. It’s about who shows up where the machines are listening.
2. Think AEO, not SEO
Sydney brought the receipts. According to G2’s buyer survey, 50% of buyers now start their journey on an LLM, up from 29% just four months earlier.
That’s not a trend. That’s a shift.
SEO helped you win the click. AEO helps you win the answer. It's a fundamental change in how buyers find and trust brands. If you're not creating content that answers complex, multi-part questions, you're not in the game.
3. Own your narrative
"You can’t let others make it up for you. Don’t let the LLMs make it up. Be very deliberate." — Mandy Dhaliwal
You can't afford to let the internet—or worse, an AI—make up your brand story. This isn't about polish. It's about clarity. A brand that shows up consistently and unmistakably across sources, channels, and formats is a brand that machines can recognize. The fuzzier your positioning, the more likely you'll get filtered out.
4. Reframe ROI
"If we go in asking for $120K for AEO, we’ll lose. But if we talk about pipeline, profitability, and perception—we win." — Drew Neisser
One of the biggest traps CMOs fall into is getting lost in the weeds when talking about ROI. You’re not going to win executive support by asking for another $120,000 for “AEO projects.”
Instead, tie your investments to what boards actually care about—pipeline, profitability, and perception. Are you bringing in qualified leads? Are you helping close deals faster at higher value? Is your brand showing up credibly in AI-generated answers?
Marketing isn’t a gumball machine. You don’t put in a dollar and get a deal out. As John Miller once said, the minute you treat marketing that way, the CMO loses.
5. Treat community like a strategic asset
"Consensus signal amplification. That’s what LLMs are looking for." — Sydney Sloan, CMO of G2
Community used to be the cherry on top. Now it’s the whole sundae.
Whether it’s review sites, peer networks, Reddit, or influencer amplification, community-driven consensus is shaping how LLMs determine the “right” answers. These engines are looking for signals of consensus across trusted voices. If your community isn’t talking about you, you’re not part of the answer set.
6. Upskill your team or fall behind
Mandy has made it her mission to make the Nutanix marketing org AI-enabled by Q1. That’s not a gimmick. It’s a strategic necessity.
Sydney’s team is building digital twins and investing in prompt literacy. These aren’t side projects. They’re foundations. You can’t rely on your old SEO team to figure this out on their own. Train them. Hire specialists. Bring in experts. Don’t wait for the change to happen around you.
7. Add an AIOps lead
Many CMOs are stuck in experimentation mode because no one on their team knows how to integrate AI tools, build automations, or connect data flows.
Some of the most successful orgs I know have someone who started in engineering and now serves as the “AI operator.” They're building internal tools, creating workflows, and making real progress while others are still trying to figure out which tool to buy.
You need someone who can bridge strategy and execution. If you don’t have that person, find them.
8. Ditch the funnel fantasy
That neat little funnel we all drew on whiteboards? It never really existed. Brent Adamson’s latest book The Framemaking Sale makes a strong case for this, and I agree. The buyer journey has always been messy. Now it’s a spaghetti chart drawn by AI.
Buyers may be arriving later in the journey, but they’re also more informed and ready to act. When you show up in the top answers to a complex query, you’re getting shortlisted fast. But don’t expect a neat handoff to sales anymore. You need to think about intent, validation, and acceleration, all at once.
9. Get ready for bot-to-bot buying
We’re not there yet, but we’re getting close. Mandy mentioned her team brought in a 24/7 AI agent called OneMind that can handle inbound queries and schedule appointments. That’s not a tool, it’s a frontline rep.
The future might look like this: your AI agent talking to your buyer’s AI agent. The handoff between marketing and sales won’t just be seamless; it’ll be invisible. The winners will be the ones who make that journey easy, fast, and frictionless.
10. Don’t use AI as an excuse to cut headcount
No, AI is not going to replace your entire marketing department. And no, your CFO shouldn’t be asking you to cut your team in half just because ChatGPT exists.
You can’t send a bot to an event and expect a conversation. We need creativity, strategy, orchestration, and human connection more than ever. AI can make us more efficient, but it doesn’t replace the marketer. It enhances them.
Mandy’s approach? Stay cost-neutral while funding transformation. That’s the sweet spot. You don’t have to spend more, but you do have to spend smarter.
Final thought: Be the penguin
"In the AI era, don’t try to out-hack the algorithm. Stand out like a penguin in a flock of pigeons." — Drew Neisser
In a world of AI-generated sameness, the brands that rise to the top won’t be the noisiest or the flashiest. They’ll be the ones that are unmistakable.
Your job isn’t to feed the machine. It’s to be the answer. And that starts with brand, clarity, and community.
Let’s go.
Want more conversations like this? Join the community of courageous, generous, and sharp-minded B2B marketers at CMO Huddles. We meet weekly. We share openly. We solve problems together.
Because it’s lonely at the top—unless you’re a CMO in a huddle.