This week at Conductor’s C3 Conference in New York, I joined leaders from the Boston Globe, Datadog, and Uberall to explore one of the biggest shifts in digital marketing today: how brands earn visibility in the era of AI search. What became clear is that the rules have changed. Ranking isn’t enough—brands must now focus on representation. AI doesn’t just crawl your content, it interprets your identity.

OpenAI is shaking up the world of e-commerce by integrating a full checkout system directly into ChatGPT, allowing users to complete purchases within the chat itself. This bold move challenges the dominance of Google search ads and Amazon’s marketplace, signaling a shift from traditional browsing to AI-driven shopping. As online behavior evolves, businesses must adapt to stay visible in this new conversation-based economy.