What Is AI Saying About Your Brand—and Is It Right?

By Jeff Su

Categories: Product, Startup

Summary

Two-thirds of Gen Z use AI models for product research, but most brands have no idea what these models are saying about them. Diageo's 'share of model' framework tracks AI brand representation and adjusts marketing copy to align with LLM outputs—a new SEO discipline for the AI era.

Key Takeaways

1. 66% of Gen Z and 50%+ of millennials use large language models for product research, making AI a critical discovery channel brands are largely ignoring.
2. 'Share of model' is the new metric: track how often and how favorably your brand appears in AI-generated answers versus competitors, then systematically optimize for it.
3. Optimize website and advertising copy specifically for LLM training patterns—Diageo adjusted content to correct misclassifications (e.g., Valentine's labeled as mass market instead of prestige).
4. Three emerging AI interaction modes require brand optimization: randomly owned agents, independent consumer agents, and fully autonomous AI systems transacting with each other.
5. In an AI-mediated marketplace, your brand story is being told whether you're managing it or not—proactive prompt engineering and content strategy is now essential.

Topics

• AI Brand Representation Strategy
• LLM Optimization for Brands
• Share of Model Metrics
• Agentic AI Commerce
• AI-Mediated Search Discovery

Transcript Excerpt

If you are a brand leader, here is a slightly unsettling thought. Your next customer might not be human. It might be an AI agent. In 2024, the global splits company Panora, the maker of brands like Absolute, Jameson, and Valentine's, discovered something surprising. Twothirds of Gen Z and more than half of millennials were already using Marsh language models to research products. So, they asked a simple question. What are these models saying about our brands? What they found was messy. Some answ...