AI is changing how customers choose brands

The shortlist can form before the visit

Imagine a family planning a winter break. Instead of opening several travel sites, a parent asks an AI assistant for somewhere warm, with a short flight, a children's pool and enough to do without hiring a car.

The reply might bring together a shortlist, a comparison and a suggested next step. The family may still visit hotel websites, read reviews and speak to someone before booking. But some of the work of choosing has already happened.

For a brand, that changes the job of digital content. It needs to help customers on your website and support the answers they receive elsewhere. Being present in those earlier conversations matters, even when they do not immediately produce a visit.

Your website is part of the evidence

AI answers can draw on your website, other publishers, reviews and information retrieved through connected services. Those sources may disagree. An old description can sit alongside a current policy, and a third-party opinion can carry more detail than your own explanation.

You cannot dictate how an independent AI service describes your organisation. You can take responsibility for the information you make available: whether it is accurate, current, accessible and useful for the questions customers ask.

For the hotel, “ideal for families” is a starting point. Pool opening dates, age restrictions, room options and transfer times help someone decide whether it is right for their family. The practical detail gives the broad promise substance.

Start with questions, not more content

An audit gives you a view of how selected AI systems answer questions about your organisation. Use realistic customer needs, not just your brand name. Compare the answers with your own information and record where the important gaps appear.

An answer that misses your brand is worth investigating. So is one that includes you but describes an unavailable service or sends someone to an outdated policy. Results can vary between systems and over time, so treat an audit as evidence to investigate rather than a universal score.

Before commissioning new content, find out whether the answer already exists. It may be in a product system, a service document or a page that needs updating. Where useful information is genuinely missing, create it and agree who will keep it current.

Useful information needs a way to stay useful

Fixing one page is manageable. Keeping information consistent across products, brands and markets requires a repeatable way of working.

Agree which system owns each fact, who can change it and what needs review. Your CMS may own an explanation, while a booking system owns availability. Connecting them is more useful than asking a content editor to maintain a second version of a changing fact.

Clear content helps people and makes information easier to use. It is not a guarantee of an AI recommendation. Google's guidance for its AI search features, for example, says existing SEO practices remain relevant and no special schema markup is required. [1]

Move from being described to answering directly

There is a further opportunity beyond improving the information that independent AI systems find. Your organisation can provide a direct route to answers through its own Brand Agent, using information and connections you permit.

A customer asking about a room could receive an answer grounded in your current information, with a hand-off where needed. Their own agent could also request information through a supported connection. That is a different relationship from hoping a third-party answer happens to be right.

Kodiac connects these steps: see how AI describes you, improve existing information and create content where needed, then enable direct engagement through your Brand Agent. Start with a useful question and expand at your own pace.

A practical starting point

Choose five questions customers ask before they commit. Check how AI answers them, identify the source your organisation trusts for each answer, and assign an owner to any gap.

The aim is not simply to appear more often. It is to help customers make a better-informed choice, wherever the conversation starts.