Brand new research from Graphite reveals a truly startling statistic: over 50% of all articles on the internet are now completely AI-generated. It’s not just proof that the web is already saturated with non-human content, it’s evidence that the content we consume is growing a mind of its own.
But this statistic isn’t the real story. The real disruption isn’t that AI is producing the content; it’s that AI is about to become the audience.
This forces us, business leaders and marketers, to grapple with a critical realisation: very soon, the target audience as we know it will be gone.
Businesses won’t be advertising to consumers anymore, they’ll be advertising to their AI agents. After decades of competing for human attention, they’ll compete for inclusion in the reasoning processes of large language models (LLMs). And, to put it simply, if a brand isn’t encoded into the logic of Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, and others, it’s already out of the running.
The key point here is that this isn’t a trend. It’s a complete collapse of the entire marketing funnel.
Let’s be honest – AI agents are already creeping into decision-making. They’re being used right now to help thousands shop, plan, and act. A good example is OpenAI’s recent launch of its new commerce tool, ‘Instant CheckOut’, which allows users to buy directly from sellers. But this is only the beginning. Soon, smart glasses and ambient interfaces will keep people in constant contact with their LLMs, which will handle the legwork. And, when someone needs a new running shoe, they won’t browse or search; they’ll ask their agent. An agent doesn’t “see” a brand’s paid ad. It will choose a product based on what it knows.
Which means that businesses have one job: ensuring their brand is recognised.
Here’s how brands must adapt to align with the changes coming their way:
1. Content ≠ ads. Content = data
Businesses need to stop thinking in terms of campaigns and start thinking in terms of structured information. A brand’s mission, values, ethics, pricing, ingredients, supply chain, and product compatibility – all of it needs to exist in machine-readable formats that large language models can understand. A brand’s presence in the consumer journey will no longer depend on how catchy its headline is; it will depend on how well it feeds the model.
2. Creator tools become distribution
Generative platforms are enabling all users to produce agency-level branded content. The very best brands won’t create their own campaigns; they’ll preload themselves into the tools. When a creator hits “generate,” all brands want their products to be the one that shows up – perfectly lit, on-brand, and contextually relevant – without a brief. This means that their content must be instilled directly within the generative AI models, ready to be surfaced.
3. The rise of "conversational commerce
We’re already seeing the first wave of this transformation. Platforms like ChatGPT are integrating features that allow users to purchase products or book services directly within the conversation. This will only accelerate. Why? Because it’s a superior user experience. Consumers won’t need to juggle multiple apps, tabs, and logins. They’ll just ask. Their AI agent, which already knows their preferences, size, and budget, will handle the entire transaction. The friction of traditional e-commerce will vanish, and brands that aren’t integrated into these conversational checkouts will be invisible.
4. The web goes dark. The world lights up
As the digital web becomes increasingly transactional and invisible (handled by agents), out-of-home (OOH) will explode. XR glasses will turn every physical surface into an ad slot. These won’t be banner ads—instead, location-specific, interactive, real-time experiences layered onto physical space. Brands won’t buy impressions. They’ll purchase moments in reality.
Brands and businesses need to understand that this isn’t just a hypothetical. Every signal points towards large language models taking up search volume and generative creation, replacing studio pipelines over the next few years.
In the near future, connecting with consumers won’t be about attention, it’ll be about access. If a brand isn’t visible to AI, it’ll be invisible to consumers. But visibility isn’t the focus, brands need to play directly into AI logic, or risk remaining unconsidered and unchosen.
The window for this shift isn’t 2-3 years; it’s now. Brands that fail to re-strategise their approach to reaching consumers won’t just struggle to stay relevant, they’ll find themselves lost between the algorithms and grow invisible by default.
Anders Soenderby Jessen
Anders Soenderby Jessen, Technical Director and Partner at Hello Monday/DEPT.
