The Future of Marketing Institute is more than a research think tank. We’re a community.
And we keep in regular contact with past and current interns.
Each summer, we host a reunion where we come together to catch up and of course, talk about the future.
As we head into fall, here’s a recap of some key future of marketing topics that came up in our reunion and that we’re watching.
Five Future Facing Trends
1. Impact of GEO on Search
SEO isn’t going away, but advancements in generative engine optimization (GEO) are lessening its importance. Marketers now face a new challenge: How do you get your brand mentioned by models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Claude? While we are currently seeing the rise of new AI optimization firms, there are limited best practices or strategies to ‘crack’ the AI discovery code. As the landscape shifts, new research is emerging almost daily offering marketers fresh insights into how to navigate and solve this discovery challenge. One early finding is that most AI engines give a high GEO ranking to content on Reddit and Wikipedia.
2. AI Agents
AI agents are autonomous systems that not only answer your questions but also proactively take actions on your behalf. For example, if you want to book an airline ticket, you provide the agent with your specifications regarding travel dates, cost, and so on, and they find the most suitable option — and purchase the ticket for you! Right now, AI agents are in their infancy and the models often get stuck. But major technology companies, including Salesforce, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google, are going ‘all-in’ on their respective AI agents. As AI agents increasingly make decisions on users’ behalf, marketers must learn to deal with this new intermediary. And develop strategies to influence these agents and align them with their brands.
3. Life Recording Devices
We’re witnessing the rapid emergence of smart glasses and other devices that can see, hear, and record everything that occurs in a person’s daily life. These include the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, the Bee computer pin (recently purchased by Amazon), the Plaud Note pin, bracelets, pendants and other wearables. While consumers purchase these devices to get a perfect memory of an event, lecture or any encounter in their daily life, they all collect vast streams of data that can be incredibly useful for marketers. Many companies that gather this data promise the information will not be used for advertising and will be kept strictly confidential. But we are not so sure. Given past practice, should anyone trust Meta with your data?
4. AI Companions
New research shows companionship is the number one use for chatbots. People are treating them as friends, therapists, intimate partners, sounding boards and sharing their deepest thoughts and desires with these machines. These details are, in fact, what marketers have always wanted to find out. If we learn that someone wants to buy a luxury car to ease their insecurities, that insight would be invaluable to automakers. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently stated that chatbots should be afforded the same confidentiality protections as doctors and lawyers. However, right now, the private information you provide to them is at risk.
5. Advancements in Multimodal AI
Multimodal AI gives models the ability to process more than one type of data, and produce high-quality images, audio, video, music, code and other types of media. Improvements in output quality are occurring at an exponential pace. In the past six months, we’ve seen an all AI Kalshi Superbowl ad, a AI model in a high-end photoshoot for Vogue Magazine, and an AI band, Velvet Sundown, achieve over a million plays on Spotify. This further blurs the line between what’s real and what’s synthetic and could impact brand reputation and trust.
How will these play out in the future of marketing?
You can ask your favourite chatbot or check back with FMI for our reporting and analysis of trends.
This post was written by FMI Executive Director and Professor David Rice and FMI Associate Director and Professor Martin Waxman.
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