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AI Upends the Marketing Funnel as Brands Compete for Machine-Led Discovery
Sylvie Schnaier, Fractional Head of Marketing and former Senior Director at Johnson & Johnson, explains how brands can get seen by machines.
Key Points
Large language models are replacing search engines as the main way consumers discover brands, forcing marketers to rethink visibility.
Sylvie Schnaier, Fractional Head of Marketing and former Senior Director at Johnson & Johnson, explains how brands can adapt by treating algorithms like customers.
She outlines a three-part framework of people, process, and platforms to help organizations become machine ready while keeping humans focused on strategy.
Treat LLMs like a customer. Think of it as a new customer in town that happens to be a machine and read algorithms. It doesn't respond to charm or beautiful imagery, it responds to structure, signals, and consistent sources. The job is to teach this customer who you are in clear, machine-readable language so you actually show up where decisions begin.
Sylvie Schnaier
The way consumers discover brands is changing fast. Large language models are overtaking search engines as the primary gateway to information, rewriting the rules of visibility. At Adweek, one question dominated the conversation: how do you get noticed when your first audience isn’t human but a machine?
Sylvie Schnaier knows what happens when technology turns marketing on its head. A Fractional Head of Marketing and longtime leader in digital media and AI transformation, Schnaier previously served as Senior Director and Global Media & Communications Strategy Lead at Johnson & Johnson, where she helped shape the company’s approach to emerging technologies and data-driven marketing. From her perspective, brands must reinvent their presence in this new era of discovery or risk being overlooked altogether.
So how can brands prepare? Schnaier's answer is to reframe the challenge with a shift in perspective. "Treat LLMs like a new customer in town that just happens to be a machine that can read algorithms. It doesn't respond to charm or beautiful imagery, like humans do. It responds to structure, signals, and consistent information sources. Now the job is to teach this customer about your brand in clear, machine-readable language. That's how you actually show up where decisions begin," she says.
To do so, Schnaier proposes a simple framework of people, process, and platforms—a strategy designed to advance cultural change and technical transformation in parallel.
Hearts before hardware: Every successful AI transformation should begin with the 'people' pillar, Schnaier says. The foundation is cultural, acknowledging the human element and fostering a spirit of curiosity from the top down. "People are rightfully scared. Jobs are being lost, and there's so much going on from a macroeconomic perspective that's contributing to that. But leaders have to lead with curiosity and build teams that use AI to accelerate good work. The goal is not to replace people, but to accelerate the strategies and core tenets of marketing."
Silos vs. systems: Next comes the 'process' pillar, the operational rewiring of the organization. For Schnaier, redesigning how work gets done means moving beyond automation to mirror how machines operate and breaking down long-standing departmental barriers. "Machines think in systems, not in silos. But organizations are structured in silos, not systems. The rise of AI will only accelerate the need to collaborate," she explains.
A tale of two websites: The last pillar, 'platforms,' is where the technical work begins. While pursuing cultural and process changes, brands also need to address the technical issue of discoverability, Schnaier continues. "We’re heading toward a world where every brand has to be machine-ready. I attended one Adweek panel that suggested we may even have two websites one day, one for people and another built entirely for LLMs, code-based with no images. Whether or not that happens, the point remains: brands need to start designing for both humans and algorithms right now."
While talk of AI wiping out agencies continues to swirl through the industry, Schnaier rejects the idea. She views AI not as a threat but as an opportunity to refocus human talent on higher-order strategy, while redefining the agency’s role from executor to strategic interpreter and advisor. "A crucial part of the process will be freeing up people’s time so humans can focus on the strategy, the 'why,' and let the machines handle the 'what' and the 'when.' The goal isn’t to replace people but to accelerate the strategies and core tenets of marketing. AI should amplify good work, not erase the people behind it."
To Schnaier, AI isn’t just another tool in the stack. It’s a mirror held up to how organizations really think and work. She believes the companies that thrive will be the ones that stop operating in silos and start connecting people, data, and decisions as one intelligent system. However, to be seen by the machine, an organization must first learn to think like one, she concludes. "Brands should begin to use their agencies differently. Have them become the strategists who talk to the algorithms, the LLMs, or your own agents. Their value isn’t just in execution anymore but in shaping the conversations that help your brand show up where it matters most."
