Why visibility now requires AI-aware strategy, not just good marketing
- Alexandra Tonderski
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
How people discover products and services is changing.
Not overnight, and not in a way that replaces everything that came before. The shift is quieter than that.
More business owners are now using AI platforms like ChatGPT alongside traditional search engines to sense-check decisions, understand options and short-list suppliers.
Visibility is no longer just about being found. It is about being understood.
This is where most marketing strategies are starting to fall behind.
AI marketing visibility strategy; why it now matters for SMEs
For years, visibility meant rankings, reach and traffic.
Those things still matter, but they are no longer the full picture.
Research from Bain & Company shows that more than 40 percent of B2B buyers now use AI tools during early research and planning stages, particularly when decisions feel complex or high-risk.This happens before supplier contact and often before search behaviour becomes specific.
At the same time, analysis from McKinsey & Company shows that generative AI is increasingly being used to support knowledge work and decision-making, especially in professional and service-led sectors where trust and judgement matter most.
This early stage shapes:
Who feels credible
Who sounds experienced
Who makes the shortlist
If your business is not visible at this point, it often never enters the conversation properly.
How AI platforms change the way clients discover services
AI platforms do not behave like search engines.
Google retrieves pages.
AI tools synthesise viewpoints.
When someone asks an AI platform for guidance, it is not scanning for ads or keyword density. It is drawing from patterns of authority, clarity and consistency across the web.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, traditional search engine volume will decline significantly as users increasingly rely on AI assistants for decision support rather than browsing results pages.
What surfaces in those answers is not tactical activity. It is strategic positioning.
What AI tools prioritise when surfacing suppliers
Across multiple studies from Gartner, Semrush and SparkToro, the same signals appear again and again.
AI platforms tend to surface businesses that demonstrate:
Clear points of view
Consistent messaging
Well-articulated expertise
Explanations of why decisions are made
Content that helps people think, not just click
This is not about “optimising for AI”.
It is about being clear enough to be understood.
What strategic visibility looks like in an AI-led landscape
This is where many businesses misinterpret the shift.
AI marketing visibility strategy does not mean:
Creating content for machines
Chasing tools or trends
Adding AI language to service pages
Producing more content for the sake of it
It means strengthening the foundations so your expertise translates across any discovery environment.
Semrush analysis shows that AI-generated answers consistently pull from long-form, explanatory and opinion-led content rather than generic service descriptions.
McKinsey reinforces this by highlighting that generative AI amplifies existing signal quality; strong thinking becomes more visible, weak thinking becomes easier to ignore.
In practice, strategic visibility looks like:
Clear positioning
Joined-up messaging
Thoughtful, explanatory content
Consistent points of view
Credibility built over time
AI does not create authority. It reveals it.
The foundations that carry across search, social and AI
Good strategy travels well.
When positioning, messaging and structure are right, they work across:
Search engines
Social platforms
AI assistants
Referrals and word of mouth
This is why strategy matters more than tactics in the current landscape.
Where Lucky Number 13 fits into AI-aware marketing strategy
This is the space Lucky Number 13 operates in.
LN13 is not an AI agency.
We are a strategy-led marketing partner that understands how AI now fits into modern visibility.
When clients come to us asking for more visibility of their products or services, the answer is never to chase platforms or tools.
The work starts with:
Positioning
Messaging
Structure
Authority
Clarity
AI is considered as part of that mix, not bolted on afterwards.
How Alex approaches AI-aware visibility
As founder of Lucky Number 13, Alex Tonderski brings senior-level judgement to these decisions.
That means asking questions such as:
Where do your clients go to make sense of decisions now?
What signals trust in your market?
How clearly does your marketing explain your thinking?
Would an external platform understand who you are for and why you matter?
AI platforms reward businesses that already answer those questions well.
Our role is to help clients build that clarity deliberately, rather than hoping visibility will take care of itself.
Why SMEs need senior strategy here, not experimentation
For SMEs, visibility mistakes are expensive.
Chasing tools without direction creates more noise, not more trust.
AI has raised the bar. It filters out unclear, generic or poorly positioned businesses faster than ever before.
This is why having a strategic partner matters.
Clients do not need someone to “do AI”.
They need someone who can:
Integrate AI awareness into marketing strategy
Sense-check decisions
Protect brand credibility
Align content with real buyer behaviour
Future-proof visibility without chasing trends
That requires judgement, not automation.
Final thought
AI platforms are changing where visibility begins, not what good marketing looks like.
The fundamentals still win.
Clear strategy.
Strong positioning.
Credible thinking.
At Lucky Number 13, we help clients bring AI into the mix in a way that strengthens those fundamentals rather than distracting from them.
Visibility today is not about being everywhere.
It is about being understood in the places where decisions now begin.
What this means for your business
If your visibility strategy still focuses purely on Google rankings or platform output, it may already be out of step with how clients now make decisions.
AI platforms surface clarity, consistency and credible thinking. They do not reward noise.
At Lucky Number 13, we help businesses build strategic visibility that works across search, social and AI-led discovery, without chasing tools or trends.
If you are questioning whether your positioning, messaging or content is helping clients understand and trust your business, a senior strategy reset is often the right place to start.
References
Bain & Company – How Customers Are Using AI Search
Gartner – Search Engine Volume to Drop 25 Percent by 2026
Semrush – AI Search Report: How AI Search is Changing the Web
SparkToro – Zero-Click Search Study
McKinsey & Company – The Economic Potential of Generative AI
OpenAI – ChatGPT Research hub