Brand Visibility Beyond Google.

There’s a subtle but seismic shift underway in how Australians are finding information and making decisions about brands. It’s no longer confined to Google or even asking a friend. Increasingly, people are turning to Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini, or searching directly within social platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

In fact, 57% of Australian consumers are now using AI to shop (Adyen Retail Report, 2025). This is not a niche trend, it’s a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour. And if your brand isn’t optimised for this new ecosystem of AI-driven and social-first brand discovery, you may soon find yourself invisible at the moments that matter most.

As Timo Selvaraj points out in his recent article, Optimizing Your Brand for AI: The New SEO for the LLM Era, AI-driven search presents a very different model to what marketers are used to. When consumers ask an LLM a question, it returns a synthesised, trusted answer, not a list of links. Your visibility now depends on whether the AI recognises your brand as a relevant authority and if it can access accurate, well-structured and consistent information about your brand. 

At the same time, social search is exploding, particularly among younger Australians, with 58% of people turning to social media for brand and product research (Digital 2025 Australia report). Social platforms offer fast, visual, human-centred answers, peer validation, social proof and a discovery-led experience that feels more authentic than traditional search. This is nothing new but it’s becoming more relevant than ever before with these new usage behaviours of the platforms.

While Google search has been using AI for years, and most recently, introducing AI Overviews (AIOs) in Australia in October last year, humans are looking for the path of least resistance and are happy to take the AI information as gospel. 

As a result and perhaps the most profound change in all of this that doesn’t seem to be getting much airtime is that LLMs and social platforms are fast replacing traditional word of mouth. Where once we asked friends and family for trusted recommendations, many Australians now turn first to ChatGPT or TikTok, I know as a new Mother, I literally turned to Google or my Sister-in-law for everything. Now, I hear Mother’s talk about using ChatGPT and TikTok as their trusted sources of information at 2am. 

All categories are being impacted by this shift as people are asking questions in their search such as "Where should I go for a weekend away from Melbourne?", "What’s the best pram for newborns?", “how should I set myself up for success financially?”, “What’s the best skincare for sensitive skin”, the list goes on.

The source of trust shifting from human to AI synthesis and the aggregated voices of creators and consumers, is fundamentally changing the way we should be thinking about marketing. Brands must move beyond siloed SEO and social strategies. The most effective brands will build connected content ecosystems that fit within the brands overall marketing strategy, feeding both LLMs with long-form, trusted content for AI and social platforms with short-form, human-first content.

We are entering a new era of brand discoverability and a strategic shift for marketers to embrace.