Oleksandr Osmichenko

expert panel

For years, search strategy largely revolved around earning a prominent place in a list of links. AI-generated answers are changing the front door to search: A 2026 Pew Research Center survey found that 60% of U.S. adults say they read the AI summaries at the top of search results, and about four in 10 say they use AI chatbots to search for information. For CMOs, that shift raises a bigger question than where a brand ranks: What will people learn about the company when an AI system assembles the answer for them?That question sits at the center of answer engine optimization, or AEO, the practice of making a brand’s information easy for AI systems to find, trust and cite. These systems rarely rely on a single page. Google explains that AI Overviews and AI Mode can run multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources, identifying supporting web pages as they build a response. As a result, an answer about a company may draw not only on its website but also on news coverage, analyst commentary, reviews and other third-party sources. A polished corporate website establishes what a company says about itself, but in an AI-driven search environment, that story has to be corroborated elsewhere.That puts owned media (the channels a company controls) and earned media (the coverage and endorsements it has to win) on the same team. The challenge for CMOs is to keep core facts, claims and positioning consistent across both so AI systems encounter a coherent picture without forcing every channel to sound exactly the same. Below, members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank, a curated group of leaders with expertise in brand storytelling, digital advertising and the rise of AI in marketing, explore how to bring owned and earned media together to strengthen the authority, consistency and trust brands need in an answer-driven search environment.

expert panel

Customers don’t perceive marketing, sales, service and digital touchpoints as separate departments; they experience one company. A brand can look and sound polished in every interaction and individual channel and still feel fragmented as a whole. For some leaders, as long as everyone on a team is communicating “professionally,” this fragmentation may not seem important, but it is: A consistent, seamless experience across channels can help keep customers engaged while building trust in a brand.That makes branding much more than a creative or aesthetic concern. As more teams contribute to customer-facing messages and experiences, small differences in how a company’s representatives interpret the brand can accumulate into something customers notice—particularly when the lines between marketing and communications start to blur across an expanding range of platforms and touchpoints. For marketing leaders, the challenge is creating enough shared understanding across the organization that a brand remains recognizable without requiring every team, channel or interaction to look and sound exactly alike.Members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank have extensive experience shaping brands, connecting with customers and guiding marketing across an increasingly complex mix of channels and technologies. Below, they highlight mistakes that can cause a brand to lose coherence and explain how marketing leaders can keep teams and touchpoints aligned.