Are Customers the New Influencers?

Key Takeaway: Generative AI is rewriting brand discovery, surfacing what people say about your brand more than what you pay to promote. In this new world, customers are the influencers, and visibility comes from authentic reviews, cultural chatter, and clear brand authority—not just ad spend.


Feeling a little marketing-strategy whiplash from the break-neck pace of AI? Grab an ice pack, because generative AI (gen AI) is now also upending how brands get discovered.

Search is no longer a clean list of links where paid ads jockey for position against SEO-optimized sites. Instead, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are becoming the first stop for consumers.

Now when consumers search for “the best supplement for energy” or “baby monitor that tracks breathing”, they are served up gen AI summaries, distilling what the internet says about your brand, competitors, and category into a few, authoritative-sounding paragraphs. And it has huge implications for how people shop: One recent report from consumer research platform Attest found that 41% of consumers trust gen AI search results more than paid search results.

This shift is flipping marketing strategy on its head. Suddenly, visibility and trust aren’t just about how much you spend on ads or how clever your campaign copy is. They’re also about what other people are saying about you. In other words, in the age of generative AI, your customers may very well be your most powerful influencers.

From Paid Reach to Earned Trust

Paid advertising isn’t going anywhere. Ads still drive awareness and can introduce your brand to new audiences at scale. But in an AI-driven discovery landscape, paid can no longer carry the whole weight of visibility and trust.

LLMs are trained to pull in the most credible, referenced, and contextually relevant information. They prioritize signals of trust—authentic reviews, credible media mentions, cultural conversations, and expert perspectives—not your ad spend.

That means the battle for brand presence is shifting. A glowing customer review on Reddit or thoughtful product breakdown on YouTube may hold more weight in AI summaries than your most polished campaign. And unlike traditional influencer marketing, these aren’t always sponsored or staged. They’re organic, and that’s exactly why they feel authentic.

It’s wise to remember that AI is not neutral. It’s trained on the cultural conversations that dominate the internet. That means your brand’s cultural relevance directly affects whether you show up in generative AI results. In other words, how often you’re talked about, how authentically you’re embedded in communities, and how much you’re part of the zeitgeist.

If your brand is absent from the cultural record, AI may not recognize you as relevant. On the other hand, if you’re consistently part of organic conversations, you’re more likely to show up when someone asks an AI model about your category.

A New Age of Influencers

For years, influencer marketing has been about tapping into someone else’s credibility and reach. But AI doesn’t necessarily care how many followers someone has, and your customers—ordinary people who are motivated enough to write a review, share a story, or post on social—are becoming as powerful as the Instagram creator you paid five figures to.

That’s because AI models treat them both as data points. And if your customers’ voices show up again and again across platforms, that chorus can outweigh a single glossy campaign.

In some ways, this is a return to marketing’s oldest truth: word of mouth matters most. But the difference is scale. In the AI era, a single customer’s opinion doesn’t just influence their friends and family—it can end up training the models that shape how thousands of people first encounter your brand.

An Opportunity for Brands

For decades, visibility in search and media has been something brands essentially bought—whether through SEO investments or ad spend. Generative AI has cracked that open. Now, smaller brands with passionate customers can punch above their weight. If your product solves real problems and your customers are vocal about it, AI may treat your brand as more relevant than a giant with deeper pockets.

This is particularly true in categories where trust is paramount, like women’s health. Here, customer voices don’t just add flavor to the convo, they add to your credibility.

The bottom line: invest in being worth talking about. Great products, authentic relationships, and cultural resonance are what AI amplifies. Advertising can still open the door, but it’s your customers who will invite others inside.


6 Ways to Set Your Brand Up for Generative AI Success

So what can brands do to adapt? Here, six strategies to future-proof your marketing in the age of generative AI:

  • Cement Your Brand Messaging: Even though customer reviews and cultural chatter are organic, brand messaging can act as a prompt, helping ensure your customers are telling the story you want told. 

    People mirror what they hear. Strong, sticky messaging means reviews and testimonials reflect your strategy. If your value prop is clear and repeated—across your site, ads, social captions, and even customer support scripts—it gives customers a vocabulary to describe you.

  • Invest in Customer Experience: The best way to generate authentic reviews and word of mouth is to create products and services people love. No amount of ad spend can replace genuine enthusiasm. Think of every customer interaction as a potential data point that might one day show up in an AI summary.

  • Prioritize Earned Media: Pitch stories, build relationships with journalists, and look for opportunities to be covered in trusted outlets. 

  • Nurture Communities: Don’t just market to people—create spaces where they can talk about you and with you. This could mean a vibrant Reddit presence, a branded Discord, or a loyal following on niche platforms where your audience gathers. Tip: Bringing on a social media manager could be the best hiring move you make right now. 

  • Encourage User-Generated Content: Make it easy (and rewarding) for customers to share their experiences. Whether it’s hashtags, review prompts, or highlighting customer stories on your own channels, UGC creates the authentic content AI is hungry to amplify.

  • Blend Paid and Organic Thoughtfully: Paid campaigns still matter, but think about them as catalysts for earned content. Can your ad spark conversations? Can it drive people to share? The best campaigns now are those that create ripple effects beyond their initial impressions.

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