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AI search is changing not only SEO and AEO but increasingly also media planning. Brands with long decision cycles, such as insurers, car makers or sporting goods companies, are investing more heavily in brand awareness and upper-funnel activities, because a growing share of research now takes place in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and other AI systems.
This is reported by Digiday on 15 September 2026. State Farm, Mercedes-Benz and Hoka are among the companies mentioned that already take changes in AI-powered search into account in their marketing planning.
AI search becomes a budget argument
The shift is particularly clear at State Farm. Marketing chief Alyson Griffin told Digiday that the possible effects of AI search on customer acquisition are now part of internal discussions about media budgets. The consequence is not just more GEO optimization. The brand still wants to build broad reach and mental availability.
This matches current data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The IAB raised its forecast for US advertising growth on 10 September 2026 from 9,5 to 12,3 percent. The association cites several reasons, including a stronger first half and major sporting events. At the same time, adapting to changed consumer behavior, including AI search, is now the most important investment challenge for 44 percent of the media buyers surveyed.
The view on measurement is even clearer: 86 percent of the decision-makers surveyed by the IAB have already changed their media measurement because of conversational AI and AI agents, or expect to do so within the next twelve months.
Why brand awareness is becoming important again
The logic behind the higher upper-funnel budgets is simple: when users prepare a purchase decision inside an AI system, brands compete to get into the consideration set at all. A late click on a classic search ad is then no longer the only relevant moment.
According to Digiday, Mercedes-Benz is watching particularly closely how AI search affects website traffic and the long car-buying process. Hoka is pursuing similar questions in campaigns focused on brand awareness and consideration. In parallel, agencies are beginning to place new metrics such as "share of model" and sentiment in AI answers alongside classic upper-funnel metrics.
That clicks are actually being distributed differently in AI-powered search is already measurable. A Pew analysis from 2025 showed that users clicking on Google searches with an AI Overview less often click on external results. At the same time, direct referral traffic from AI systems is growing strongly in some industries.
GEO does not replace classic advertising
For marketers, the key is not to treat GEO as an isolated replacement for SEO, paid search or brand advertising. Visibility in AI answers depends not only on technically optimized websites, but also on whether a brand is present in relevant sources, communities and media and holds a clear position in the market.
That is exactly why it is worth looking at our analysis of measuring AI visibility and AEO KPIs. Creators are also starting to use AI citations as additional value in brand pitches. At the same time, automated traffic can complicate measurement, as our article on bot traffic, retargeting and AI agents shows.
For budget planning, this creates a new triangle: brands need to measure visibility in AI systems, continue to build demand through broad awareness, and evaluate performance channels in a way that keeps AI search from falling out of the customer journey as an invisible intermediate step.