Will brand no longer matter because of AI?

Brand Isn't Dying. You're Just Looking at the Wrong Part of the Funnel.

Every few weeks, somebody declares brand dead because AI is going to handle the discovery, the research, and the decision for the user. Convenient theory. Also one that conveniently ignores about 80% of how marketing actually works.

Mordy and Miruna take this one apart. The "brand doesn't matter anymore" argument only holds up if you pretend the funnel ends at the first interaction — no research, no comparison, no loyalty, no retention, no unconscious association. None of that disappears because the search interface changed.

A few things that break the theory in practice. AI summaries aren't neutral oracles — they're a mirror of how the internet already perceives your brand. Ask an LLM what Verizon is like to deal with and you'll get hidden fees, aggressive sales culture, inconsistent customer service. That's not an AI visibility gap. That's a brand problem leaking into a new channel. And if the future really is agents talking to agents? Agents will still evaluate brands on the same things humans do — satisfaction, support quality, trust. Every one of those is brand equity in a different outfit.

Anthony Barone, Co-Founder & Managing Director at StudioHawk UK, joins to push the conversation somewhere most AI-vs-brand debates never go: loyalty and retention. AI might one day influence acquisition. It doesn't keep customers. Brand does.

Clearly Saying

Brand will still matter at whatever level — and the vibe-y stuff companies were doing in the name of brand was never brand to begin with.

Transcript

Mordy Oberstein (00:01)

You hear that? Of course not. That's the whole point.

Welcome to Say It Anyway, where we say the things about digital marketing you're supposed to kind of keep to yourself and—wait for it—we say it anyway.

Mordy Oberstein (00:20)

Each week, we're taking an honest, maybe uncomfortable look at something marketers need to know but might be too afraid to say anyway.

I'm your host, Mordy Oberstein, Head of SEO Brand at SE Ranking, and I'm joined by someone I haven't seen in what feels like two weeks. My life has been seriously lacking rants, venting, and insightful takes. The CMO of Planable, Miruna Dragomir. How are you? What's going on?

Miruna Dragomir (00:42)

Good. Exhausted. But what's your rant? Rants come in very handy when you're exhausted. You're ready for them.

Mordy Oberstein (00:52)

First of all, we haven't seen each other in two weeks, and this is literally our first meeting. We're completely out of sync. I also completely botched the intro.

Today we're taking on the question: Will brand no longer matter because of AI?

I botched it just like Claude might.

Can I say that on a podcast? Am I allowed to critique AI on a podcast?

Miruna Dragomir (01:10)

I don't know if that's going to make you popular these days.

Mordy Oberstein (01:13)

That's fair. I also love AI at the same time. Does that make it better?

Anyway, where have you been?

Miruna Dragomir (01:22)

I've been at our leadership offsite, then on a trip. Two weeks of traveling for work, vacation, family—everything. Intense.

Mordy Oberstein (01:33)

You sound exhausted. You need another vacation.

Miruna Dragomir (01:36)

It took me two days just to catch up with Slack. I even used Claude to help me and I still haven't gotten through my email.

Mordy Oberstein (01:43)

Okay, now the audience is hearing us genuinely catch up because we really haven't spoken in a while.

The Slack thing is bonkers. I don't know how people keep up.

Miruna Dragomir (01:52)

I actually have a podcast setup for that.

I commute to work, so Claude creates a script and reads me a summary of everything that happened in Slack during the last 24 hours. It gives me all the context before I even open the messages.

When I tried asking it to summarize the last two weeks, though, it basically gave up.

Mordy Oberstein (02:25)

You broke it.

Miruna Dragomir (02:27)

I broke it.

Mordy Oberstein (02:29)

Great story.

I go for a walk after lunch like an old person who needs it for digestion, and I was trying to catch up on Google's I/O announcements. I asked Claude to read me an article from Barry Schwartz.

My phone turned off, and when I turned it back on, I said, "Continue reading."

It somehow heard, "Can't breathe."

And immediately replied:

"Seek immediate help right now."

Miruna Dragomir (02:52)

Oh my God, that's hilarious.

Mordy Oberstein (03:03)

Another good one: Claude sometimes reads "SE Ranking" as "Southeast Ranking."

...

Mordy Oberstein (05:40)

People are saying that brand won't matter anymore because AI agents will do all the searching and decision-making for us.

Google just announced more advanced agentic search experiences. You'll be able to ask AI to plan a vacation, compare options, gather information, and return with recommendations.

So the argument goes: if AI is doing the searching, who needs brand anymore?

And I think that's nonsense.

Miruna Dragomir (06:13)

I agree.

Mordy Oberstein (06:15)

Even if an AI agent comes back with recommendations, you're still going to interact with brands at some point.

You'll still research. You'll still compare. You'll still form impressions.

Miruna Dragomir (07:17)

And even if the interaction happens through AI, it's still an interaction with the brand.

The AI is reflecting your brand, your reputation, your positioning, and what people are saying about you.

Mordy Oberstein (07:29)

Exactly.

AI will know whether people like your company, whether your support is good, whether your reputation is positive.

All of that still matters.

At its core, marketing is communication.

Nothing about human psychology has fundamentally changed because AI showed up.

People still want connection.

That's what a brand is.

...

Mordy Oberstein (12:09)

To get another perspective on this, I asked Anthony Barone, Co-Founder & Managing Director at StudioHawk UK:

What ultimately happens to brands that forget about brand-building and get sucked too far into the AI rabbit hole?

Here's what Anthony had to say.

Anthony Barone, Co-Founder & Managing Director at StudioHawk UK (12:22)

What I think ultimately happens to brands that forget their story, who they are, and what makes them special—and instead go all-in on the AI-content rabbit hole—is simple:

They become just another run-of-the-mill brand.

How is Google, or AI Mode, supposed to differentiate your content from everyone else's if you're all producing the exact same thing?

Brands need to remember that their customers are still human.

Yes, some interactions may happen through AI systems, but the same principles that have always applied still matter.

What makes your content unique?

What makes your tone of voice distinctive?

What makes your product pages, collection pages, and customer experience different?

If you lose those things, you might still generate sales in the short term.

But in the long term, you'll struggle to build loyalty.

You'll struggle to retain customers.

You'll struggle to create a community around your brand.

Customers like brands because of what makes them different.

If you replace that with generic AI-generated content, you're removing your own uniqueness.

You'll attract a different kind of customer—often one that simply shops based on price.

That's the risk.

Brands need balance.

Use AI to scale and improve efficiency, absolutely.

But don't lose the elements that make your brand recognizable and memorable.

Otherwise, you become interchangeable.

And interchangeable brands are much easier to replace.

Miruna Dragomir (14:03)

I love that he brought the conversation back to loyalty and retention.

Mordy Oberstein (14:08)

He's so good.

Miruna Dragomir (14:23)

We've talked a lot about acquisition.

But retention and loyalty are just as important.

That's the part people often forget.

...

Miruna Dragomir (16:16)

Even if we imagine a future where AI agents make most purchasing decisions, those agents will still evaluate criteria that are connected to your brand.

Customer satisfaction.

Support quality.

Trust.

Reputation.

All of those things are brand signals.

Mordy Oberstein (17:04)

Which brings us to what we're clearly saying:

Brand will still matter.

At whatever level AI evolves, brand will still matter.

So go on social media and say it anyway:

Brand isn't dying.

And with that, I think we've said quite enough for this week.

Join us again next week as we tackle marketing's next big challenge.

Until next time—don't keep quiet.