How Brands Can Keep Up as AI Takes Over Content Discovery

For years, brands followed a familiar script, research keywords, create content, optimise metadata, wait for traffic. Whilst this formula built entire content ecosystems, the rules have changed. SEO built visibility, AI will decide who stays visible.

The numbers tell the story. Over 18 million UK adults have used generative AI tools, 7 million at work, and Gartner forecasts traditional search volume will drop 25% by 2026 as users increasingly rely on AI overviews and answer engines. We're witnessing what our Chairman Charles Vallance calls 'the next normal', a discontinuity as profound as the arrival of the World Wide Web or the iPhone.

This shift has sparked what’s now called zero-click anxiety among brands, the fear that content will be scanned or bypassed entirely without a click through to your website.

This concern misses a crucial point, brand influence isn’t dying, it’s evolving. The question isn’t whether you’ll get the click, it’s whether AI will cite you when making decisions on behalf of your customers. That advantage won’t go to the biggest brands with the deepest pockets, it will go to those thinking like challengers, moving with agility to structure content that builds authority where it counts.

Decision ready content wins

In an LLM-driven world, relevance is about what your content says, not just how it’s formatted. Traditional SEO focused on keywords and links, LLMs prioritise intent and context, evaluating multiple sources to decide what to trust. Success is no longer just about ranking, it’s about being cited in answers. A single, clear, authoritative piece with structured intent can outweigh dozens of keyword-optimised posts.

The data supports this shift. 74% of UK GenAI users say it boosts productivity by getting them to critical information faster. And when AI includes references, trust increases, even if the content has minor flaws.

Trust is brand advantage

Here’s the tension, only 42% of UK consumers broadly trust AI, while 72% remain unsure. That uncertainty is not unfounded given GPT-4 hallucinates in more than a quarter of its responses. Let’s be clear, AI models don’t inherently know what’s true, they generate plausible answers based on what they find.

Brands need to build trust through clear, evidence-based content that trains AI models, creating a positive loop, strong content leads to citations, citations build credibility, credibility drives more citations.

Leading brands deliberately structure content to contribute to a knowledge graph, a map that helps LLMs interrelate and prioritise information. Walmart has centralised product information across domains, the BBC linked programmes into machine-readable knowledge graphs and JPMorgan Chase has connected their vast document archive to boost LLM relevance.

The four pillars of decision ready content

Content optimisation now goes beyond keywords and backlinks. It means topic clusters, knowledge graphs and AI-ready markup.

Translating Google’s E-E-A-T principles into a language LLMs can read focuses on two things, how often your content is cited and how well those citations drive users into your ecosystem.

Four foundations matter:

1. Structured Intent: Grouping content around user goals and questions, using evidence to help LLMs map it to genuine decision intent.
2. Machine-Readable Foundations: Doubling down on Schema markup, Q&A formats, citations, and structured data ensure models can extract context by giving every asset a machine-readable fingerprint.
3. Authoritative Evidence: Using verifiable data, named experts, and transparent sources, supported by internal and external links to clearly signal brand authority.
4. Ecosystem Connectivity: Ensuring that every page, post, and social asset feeds your brand graph and consistent structure and cross-linking across touchpoints grows discoverability.

Dual-Design Thinking: People and Machines

Optimising for AI isn’t just about mitigating risk, it's a chance to amplify visibility, strengthen mental availability, and boost both reputation and demand. The challenger advantage is clear, success goes not to the biggest content library, but to the smartest one.

Making the shift requires dual-design thinking, creating content and experiences that speak fluently to people and machines alike. Every signal, from structure to storytelling, must carry meaning that can be read, interpreted, and acted upon. Discoverability isn’t just about being found, it’s about being understood, believed and preferred.

At Bernadette, VCCP’s digital experience agency, we help brands get decision-ready by embedding LLM considerations into every project, from how content is structured and written, to how it’s designed and surfaced across ecosystems. We help clients digitise legacy knowledge, experiment with new formats, measure impact in innovative ways, and increasingly shape how brands design and deploy on-site agent, ensuring content speaks fluently to both people and machines.

The brands that thrive won’t just react to AI, they’ll move first, making content discoverable, credible, and influential in every interaction. If you’re serious about turning AI disruption into advantage, now is the time to act.