When the Algorithm Becomes the Brand: Marketing in the Age of AI Intermediaries
As AI assistants become gatekeepers of consumer choice, marketers must shift their strategies from persuasion to precision, competing not just for attention, but for algorithmic relevance.
The New Gatekeepers
Picture this: you ask your AI assistant for laundry detergent, and it responds not with a list of brands, but with a single recommendation, one you didn’t request, but that fits your price point, past behavior, and sustainability preferences. That moment isn’t just a transaction. It’s a tectonic shift in the power dynamic between brands and consumers, mediated by artificial intelligence.
For decades, brand equity, built through mass advertising, visual identity, and emotional resonance, helped companies cut through the noise. But as AI platforms like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant mediate more consumer decisions, especially routine ones, the battleground is no longer shelves or screens. It’s the algorithm.
“We’ve entered an age where AI intermediaries don’t just influence consumer decisions, they make them,” says Dr. Niraj Dawar, marketing professor and author of Tilt: Shifting Your Strategy from Products to Customers. “Brands need to rethink what it means to be chosen”.
The Platform Economy Rewires Brand Strategy
AI platforms, once simple voice tools, now aggregate consumer data, filter purchase options, and optimize for convenience, price, and preference. They offer consumers seamless utility, automating repeat purchases, making personalized suggestions, and increasingly, deciding on behalf of users. As this happens, brand visibility is buried beneath layers of recommendation logic.
From a business perspective, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. As traditional advertising declines in influence, platforms become the new arena for competition. But visibility here comes at a cost, literally. Companies are already paying for positioning within AI platforms, similar to buying premium shelf space in retail stores or bidding on Google AdWords.
Amazon, for example, has reportedly explored selling product placement within Alexa, enabling voice assistants to recommend specific brands based on prior queries or purchases.
A New Currency: Behavioral Data
What’s driving this transformation is data, specifically, the intimate behavioral profiles AI platforms develop. They capture not just what consumers buy, but when, why, and how much they’re willing to compromise between price, ethics, performance, or aesthetics.
“AI knows when you’re likely to bend your own rules,” says Emily Chen, a behavioral economist at NYU. “It learns you’ll skip organic food when it’s late and you’re tired. That level of granularity changes the game.”
This is more than personalization. It’s predictive alignment. Platforms begin to pre-empt needs, adapting offers in real time. For marketers, the implication is clear: your customer isn’t just your end user anymore, it’s also the algorithm making the call on their behalf.
Brands as Data Feeders
In this new order, brands must feed platforms, not just with product details, but with contextual relevance. That includes tailoring product design, pricing, and promotion to the platform’s understanding of each customer. Those who do it well gain a competitive edge. Those who don’t risk irrelevance.
Dr. Kimberly Whitler of the University of Virginia Darden School explains: “Marketers must now serve two masters: the end user and the platform’s AI. Success means aligning your offer not just with consumer intent, but with the platform’s incentive to recommend it”.
That means brands need to:
Buy access to consumer data
Understand AI’s selection criteria
Optimize products for algorithmic recommendation
Rethinking Brand Loyalty
The implications for brand loyalty are profound. Consumers may still care about brand values, but in many categories, like cleaning products or packaged foods, they’ll simply accept whatever their assistant suggests, especially if it’s cheaper, better rated, or more convenient.
Over time, “trusted assistant” may become more influential than trusted brand. That’s a shift from emotional loyalty to functional trust, a change marketers must be ready to confront.
As one platform strategist at Google told Harvard Business Review, “Building trust will be the most important thing we do”.
How-To Guide: Competing in an AI-Mediated Marketplace
1. Optimize for the Algorithm, Not Just the End User
Understand how each platform ranks and recommends products. Test your product listings using A/B methods with different metadata, imagery, and price points to see what gets visibility.
2. Invest in Real-Time Consumer Insight
Buy or barter for granular behavioral data from platforms. Use it to iterate your offer, not just seasonally, but weekly or even daily. AI-mediated decisions are dynamic. Your brand must be too.
3. Shift from Push to Pull
Create “pull” for your product not through traditional campaigns, but through relevance in moments of need. Design your marketing around intent signals, searches, queries, and prompts, that AI platforms pick up on.
4. Differentiate Through Utility
If your brand lives on an AI platform, build features that make the assistant’s job easier. Think: packaging that’s easier to reorder by voice, or subscriptions that align with usage data.
5. Rethink Loyalty Programs
Loyalty isn’t just about discounts anymore. Incentivize consumers to keep your brand as the default by syncing with their assistant, offering auto-replenishment, adaptive pricing, or tailored bundles.
In a world where AI filters the marketplace for us, brands must rewire their strategies for relevance in a digital whisper rather than a shout. Marketing isn’t dead. It’s just gone silent, and much, much smarter.
About the Author
Ryan Edwards is a strategic advisor at Camino5. He helps brands align systems, story, and strategy to create meaningful traction with the right audience. Learn more at camino5.com.