🍰 Cake’s Take on Getting on AI’s good side

There’s a lot of talk about how WE use AI but I’ve also been having conversations with organisations who need help understanding how AI is affecting their ability to reach their target audiences.

Our little AI friends are shaking up decision-making so understanding AI usage and its influence has to now be part of any audience insight.

I’ve read some fascinating articles that underline that as much as we need to keep on top of AI in our own day-to-day, the audiences we are researching are also changing dramatically:

- Over 80% of AI searches are "zero-click”, by which they mean the users get the answer they need from AI and never go on to visit the website. Which means a direct and measurable brand connection is lost.

- Shoppers find AI’s input decisive and say it increases their confidence in their purchase decisions.

- One US report found that in a non-profit context, AI-driven visitors give more on average, although less frequently.

- Princeton University and IIT Delhi researchers found that traditional search rankings are becoming a poor predictor of AI recommendations. Essentially a brand's visibility in AI answers doesn't depend on their Google rank.

- Adding specific statistics and credible citations to your content can increase the likelihood of an AI recommending your brand by up to 40%.

All of this means there are a couple of important things to add to the to-do list:

- Whatever the sector, organisations need to see AI as a meaningful touchpoint in its own right and understand it as such.

- Organisations need to optimise their content in a way that maximises their probability of being found and recommended by AI.

So, do you know how your audience is using AI and how it’s affecting your reach? Is your content up to scratch and are you on AI’s good side?

I’ll leave you with another fact which I hope will encourage those not engaging with AI to get more involved: it took Facebook more than four years to reach 100 million users. It took Instagram two and half years. It took ChatGPT just two months.

Sources: Clickvision / Similarweb Data 2026; Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey; Brand Discovery in the age of AI Report by Blue State; GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (feel free to message me for links).