Interesting article from Forbes, which you can read here

We've written before about the transformation that is taking place as buyer move from using Google to using AI to search

Forester recent said

"The overwhelming majority, 89% of buyers in Forrester’s Buyer's Journey Survey, 2024, reported that they were using genAI in at least one area of their purchasing process

What was even more surprising was that buyers reported genAI as one of the most impactful sources of information across all phases of the buying process

They weren’t just using genAI to discover new vendors but also to evaluate the differences between them and to justify their purchase commitment."

So reading the Forbes article it did not surprise me, afterall who look at ads anyway?

Forbes say

"Artificial intelligence is (AI) is beginning to change the ways consumers find and trust information

A striking finding from the 2025 Consumer Adoption of AI Report reveals that nearly 41% of consumers trust Gen AI search results more than paid search results, while only 15% trust AI less than search ads

The study is based on two multi-market surveys of 5,000 consumers aged 18-67 residing in the US, UK, Canada and Australia

This shift in consumer trust represents a major change for digital marketers who rely on paid search as a major part of their customer acquisition and sales strategy

How Is AI Search Different?

Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot offer new ways for consumers to research products and services

Unlike traditional search engines that return a list of links, these AI tools provide conversational, natural language responses synthesized from multiple sources

According to the report, 43% of consumers would trust information given by an AI chatbot or tool, up from 40% just last year

Among those who already use Gen AI tools, that figure jumps to an impressive 68%, with 14% saying they trust AI-provided information “completely”

The Disruptive Power of AI Search

Right now, Gen AI search tools don’t offer pay-to-play opportunities, meaning brands cannot buy ads or pay to be mentioned

The democratization of search results based purely on relevance and helpfulness means brands need to focus on becoming genuinely useful sources of information

Or, they at least need to create content that AI models find relevant and helpful

The rise of AI search could lead to the most significant disruption to digital marketing since the introduction of Google Ads"

How Should Marketers Respond to AI Search?

It's clear that the most human company wins in an AI world

Marketers must empower their teams to be on social media, to connect and build relationships and trust, think of it as a digital territory with the people they are trying to influence

As mentioned above they need to change their content from brochure and brochureware to offering read insight

Better still, marketers need to empower their team(s) to create their own authentic content, as it is this that buyers will actually read 

 

Can you drive revenue from social media?

Social selling is about spamming people or inmails or connect and pitch

Our definition of social selling is 

"Using your presence and behavior on social media to build influence, make connections, grow relationships and trust, which leads to conversation and commercial interaction"
 

And the results?

For an AE, we can shorten sales cycles by 30%

And the average SDR will get 1 x ICP meeting a day

Which should increase your revenue by 20%

You can get these results by using our social selling methodology, that is certified by Institute of Sales Professionals (ISP)

 

"social selling techniques to influence buyers and changemakers - 2nd edition".

In this brand new edition, I have updated all the text, I have also got 15 practitioners, so people who are doing this already to explain how they are get (practical) business benefit. From the CEO that has been running a digital business for over 18 months to sales leaders and sales people who use social selling every day to drive revenue growth. 

Articles on how these business have and are implementing digital, from Mercer, Telstra Purple, Ring Central, Cyberhawk, Namos, Ericsson, DLA Ignite and more.

What does Mark Schaefer, Marketing guru think of the book "social selling - techniques to influence buyers and changemakers - 2nd edition"? watch the video here

It's available on Amazon worldwide.  Link to Amazon.com here and Amazon.co.uk here.