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Ciaran O'Kane has been sketching again. This time, he takes a look at the impact of AI and chatbots on the search landscape, and what that means for the marketing funnel...

Despite a London Underground and DLR strike, we had over 650 attendees at our recent ATS London event. It’s a testament to the grit and resolve of European ad tech to congregate. Kudos to you all. ATS is the bleeding edge of the industry, and AI dominated much of the conversation.

There is so much noise and bubbly chatter about AI, it’s hard to cut through the endless sheeple narratives on LinkedIn. Are we all about to be disintermediated by LLMs? Will agentic AI make us obsolete? Do we need some UBI to make ends meet? 

I don’t think so. 

Stepping out of the echo chamber, one thing is for sure: consumer behaviour is being forever changed, specifically around search. This has far-reaching implications for the ad tech and media industries. In this sketch, ExchangeWire presents the idea that chatbots/search AI could collapse the lower funnel of advertising (traditional search ads, retargeting).

In that instance, the upper and mid-funnel become more critical in a shortened marketing funnel. The irony of brand building becoming existential in an AI-first world is not lost on us. Mid-and upper-funnel advertising is now more data-driven and accountable than ever.

As ever, this is (non-AI-produced) opinion.  Ads still matter - ultimately, something needs to push you to the “prompt”.  Cheeky prediction: OOH should easily reach $100bn by the end of the decade.