Welcome to our May 2025 edition of Koozai’s Digital Marketing News Update and this month, we’re diving deep into the impact of AI on digital marketing. With Google having recently confirmed it is expanding the depth of AI Overviews (its generative AI search responses) across the US (with a global rollout shortly to follow) the timing couldn’t be more poignant. This marks a significant shift in how search results are delivered, prioritising AI-generated summaries over traditional organic listings. For marketers, that means the rules of SEO, PPC and online visibility are changing fast – and those who don’t adapt now risk falling behind.
In this AI-focused edition of our digital marketing newsletter, we explore what this acceleration means for your content, your search strategy, and your brand’s presence in a landscape where AI algorithms are deciding what (and who) does (and does not) get seen. From advice on how to start ranking in AI Overview search results and controlling your brand narrative in an AI-controlled world to using AI to enhance your PPC, SEO, PR and marketing strategy – our specialists in AI marketing have broken down the headlines and provided their advice to help you stay ahead of the curve.
Marketers Sound the Alarm: Are Brands Over-Relying on AI for Strategy?
Despite the rise of AI-powered marketing platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and DeepSeek, new research reveals growing tensions between AI and automation on the one hand and ownership of digital marketing strategies on the other. A recent CMO Council survey shows that 67% of marketing leaders feel AI still lacks the nuanced understanding required for long-term brand strategy. While AI can be great for supporting various marketing tasks, it doesn’t yet have the accuracy or full enough critical thinking skills to make effective-enough decisions regarding marketing strategy.
While AI excels at spotting patterns and crunching data, it simply can’t replicate emotional intelligence, market intuition, or long-term brand vision. Over-relying on AI for strategy could result in campaigns that fail to connect on a deeper level — and brands are starting to notice. You can read more about our thoughts and insights on AI in digital marketing strategy.
Google Launches ‘AI Max’ Ads Platform – But Is It Really A Game-Changer for Paid Search?
AI is also impacting paid search, with Google officially launching AI Max, its latest AI-driven advertising tool which has been designed to take Performance Max one step further. Unveiled at Google Marketing Live, the platform uses generative AI to build entire PPC campaigns — generating headlines, descriptions, creative assets, and even keyword targeting strategies from just a landing page and a few brand prompts.
Google positions AI Max as a faster, smarter way to launch high-performing campaigns with minimal manual input. It promises better efficiency, quicker time-to-launch, and predictive performance insights powered by AI. For marketers under pressure to scale quickly, it could be a major advantage.
However, it comes with a big but. The rollout has raised questions around control and quality. While the tool is powerful, many advertisers are cautious about handing over too much creative and strategic control to automation – with many brands still wanting to control more of the brand narrative themselves. Concerns remain about brand consistency, messaging accuracy, and the ability to optimise beyond what AI Max suggests. Want to find out more?
Check out our latest article on the pros and cons of using AI Max for your ads.
Brands Scramble For SEO Visibility in An AI Search World
The AI shift in search is creating a search visibility issue — and marketers are racing to adapt. As Google, Bing, and other platforms increasingly serve AI-generated summaries in place of traditional search results, brands are already seeing a 15–30% drop in organic traffic on average for informational queries, according to one new study published in April.
Koozai’s recent blog explores how marketers can remain “unmissable” by focusing on building content authority, topic clusters, and focusing on optimising content for semantic keywords. With AI now acting as a content gatekeeper, visibility depends on whether your content is deemed worthy of inclusion — not just whether it ranks.
Interested in finding out more? Read about what this means for your marketing and what to do about it in our latest blog.
AI Is Now Shaping How People Perceive Your Brand — And They’re Trusting It
AI isn’t just curating content — it’s actively shaping brand perceptions. One recent study reported on in one of our latest articles on the impact of AI on brand and PR shows that nearly 40% of people now trust AI-generated answers as much as (or even more than) those from humans. That means when users ask AI tools about your brand, they’re likely to believe what the algorithm says.
Tools like Google’s AI Overviews and Bing Copilot mean that AI responses are now often the first touchpoint for brand discovery too — meaning AI is effectively building brand narratives based on whatever data they can find. If that data is outdated, inconsistent, or poorly structured, then AI may misrepresent you — and users may not question it.
To stay in control, brands need to ensure their digital presence is accurate, consistent, and easy for machines to interpret – not just on their own website, but on others’ websites and in the news too. This makes not just quality content production, but also effective brand PR activity, more crucial than ever in shaping how customers perceive your brand. That means regularly updating content, earning authoritative mentions, using structured data, and aligning messaging across all platforms.
Not Ranking in Google’s AI Overviews? Here’s What You Need to Know
AI search results, such as Google’s AI Overviews, are fundamentally changing the game for organic visibility. These AI-generated summaries pull together the most relevant content into an answer-style snapshot, pushing traditional search results further down the page. Early data from Search Engine Roundtable suggests that some organic CTRs have dropped by as much as 45% for queries with AI Overviews.
Insights in our latest blog explain how to get started with influencing AI Overview search results, and explain why E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) signals are now more important than ever. Content must now be more than just optimised for keywords, it must also be credible enough to be sourced and quoted by AI. Brands that showcase real-world expertise and use structured markup (like FAQs, How-Tos, and Author profiles) are also more likely to be cited in AI Overviews.
What’s Next For AI?
AI is no longer something on the horizon — it’s actively shaping marketing in the present-day. With Google doubling down on AI-generated responses in search, and generative tools reshaping how content is discovered, created and trusted, marketers must move quickly. From enhancing visibility to impacting reputation, the brands that act now will be the ones benefiting from their investment tomorrow.
Need help navigating the shift to AI in your digital marketing? Feel free to get in touch to explore how we can help you with influencing your brand, search results and ad spend in the age of AI.
Leave a Reply