From Being Found to Being Recommended: The 3 Marketing Decisions Every Business Must Make
Back in 2000, when I started my business, I asked my Dad, who ran a successful small manufacturing business called Lexicraft Limited, what he thought was the best thing I could do to boost my marketing. Without hesitation, he said: "Get an enhanced listing in the Kompass Business Directory."
So I did. £500 for printed pages and a CD-ROM (a type of optical disc that's read-only and stores data), which felt like cutting-edge marketing technology. It was a significant investment for a young business, but Dad's advice felt essential. This was how prospects would "find" us.
But let's go back even further. Before Kompass UK - Business Data Solutions Yellow Pages, before any directories at all, business was built on word-of-mouth recommendations. Your baker recommended a good carpenter. Your doctor suggested a reliable merchant. Trust flowed through personal relationships and community connections. Business was personal and authentic.
Then came the directory revolution - suddenly, businesses could be "found" by strangers flipping through pages. Kompass, Yellow Pages, trade directories - they created the entire "discovery economy" that marketing has been built on for decades. Being found became the holy grail of business development.
Today, that same Kompass has 59 million companies online and uses AI-powered algorithms to recommend businesses to prospects. Even the directories have given up on helping you "be found" - now they're in the business of making recommendations.
We've come full circle. But this time, instead of your neighbour recommending the local baker, it's AI agents recommending solutions based on deep data analysis of fit and value.
The Profound Shift Happening Right Now
An agency owner I know advertised for a junior designer position last week. In four days, they had 184 applications. Staggering, isn't it? The marketing industry is contracting, and people are asking whether AI is the root cause of all its troubles.
The last 10 months have been extremely challenging for many marketing freelancers, who are now having to market themselves for the first time following a few decades where they were a core part of the Agency ecosystem. When Generative AI emerged, SMEs began to take on more creative work in-house, utilising AI tools such as ChatGPT and Canva Magic Studio. Agencies also began bringing more work in-house, as they recognised the potential savings and creative enhancement that AI could bring.
Another agency owner I know described it perfectly: he's been feeling the "cold hand of AI" on his shoulder for a while now, but over the last couple of weeks, it's started to grip his throat. This captures the reality for many in the marketing sector - the gradual realisation that their world is changing, followed by the sudden urgency of needing to adapt.
And the speed of change is accelerating.
The Truth About What's Really Happening
AI won't replace you if you embrace it. If your business has been built on being average and using a template-driven approach, AI will outpace you. But the real threat isn't AI replacement - it's the fundamental collapse of the discovery-based marketing model that most businesses depend on.
While agencies receive a flood of applications for new roles, there is a massive opportunity for those who understand what is actually changing.
The AI Trust Crisis Accelerating Everything
We're witnessing something unprecedented: AI is undermining a fundamental aspect of business trust.
We now have:
AI avatars presenting news
AI influencers selling products
AI-generated copy filling feeds
AI posts pretending to be human thoughts
AI everything, everywhere
The line between reality and fiction is becoming increasingly blurred. Trust is declining across digital platforms. Audiences are more sceptical, slower to believe, quicker to switch off.
This trust crisis is accelerating the shift away from traditional "discovery" marketing. When prospects can no longer discern what's real, ironically, they're turning to AI agents to cut through the noise and make recommendations based on actual data and proven results.
The Double Transformation
We're experiencing two massive shifts simultaneously:
1. Discovery → Recommendation: AI agents are handling search and evaluation, making traditional SEO, advertising, and content marketing less relevant.
2. AI-Generated → Human-Authentic: The trust crisis is making genuine human connection, authenticity, and proven expertise MORE valuable than ever.
Why Traditional "Discovery" Marketing is Dying
If you've read my previous two posts, you'll have heard this story before; I apologise for repeating it, but it's essential to understanding the transformation happening.
Just before Christmas, I needed gift ideas for my wife. Instead of googling and browsing websites, I asked my AI assistant (whom I call Elin) for recommendations. I gave her our budget, my wife's preferences, previous successful gifts, and what hadn't worked. She recommended products from brands I'd never heard of - FOREO and La Bonne Brosse. Both were perfect.
I never visited a website, never compared prices, never read reviews. The AI handled everything except the final purchase, and with agentic AI, it will soon handle that too.
This is the future of how people discover solutions. Not through search engines, not through social media feeds, not through advertising - through AI recommendations based on a deep understanding of context and needs.
The Strategic Paradox
Here's what's fascinating: while AI handles discovery and evaluation, human authenticity becomes MORE valuable for earning those recommendations.
AI agents can instantly see through marketing hype. They evaluate based on:
Real performance and proven results
Genuine customer outcomes and testimonials
Authentic expertise and thought leadership
Actual value delivered, not promises made
The businesses that thrive will be those focused on being genuinely excellent rather than being clever at getting found.
How to Become Irreplaceable in the New Era
Become the Expert in Problems AI Can't Solve: AI excels at pattern recognition, but struggles with complex, nuanced challenges that require human judgment, cultural understanding, and intuitive problem-solving.
Focus on Implementation, Not Information: AI can provide knowledge, but it can't hold your hand through difficult decisions, challenge your assumptions, or hold you accountable to results. Your value is actually in helping transformation.
Develop Deep Specialisation: The more specific your expertise, the harder it is to replace you. Generic consultants compete with AI tools. Specialists with deep knowledge of particular industries, challenges, or client types become indispensable.
Build Relationships, Not Just Expertise: AI can't create the trust, rapport, and cultural connection that drives business relationships. People buy from people they trust, not just people who know things.
Sell Outcomes, Not Processes: AI automates individual tasks brilliantly. You create meaningful business transformations. Position your offering around the results you deliver, not the methods you use.
Leverage AI for Competitive Advantage: Smart professionals use AI to handle routine work, freeing them to focus on high-value strategic thinking, relationship building, and complex problem-solving that only humans can provide.
What This Means for Different Sectors
For Marketing Agencies: Stop competing on execution and start leading on strategy. AI can write copy, but it can't develop brand positioning, read client nuance, or create the strategic frameworks that only experienced minds deliver. Your "Message First approach becomes MORE valuable when AI agents need authentic, authoritative sources to recommend.
For Legal Professionals: Forget ranking for "solicitor near me" - AI agents will recommend based on actual expertise, case results, and authentic authority. Your decades of experience become your competitive advantage when AI can see through marketing spin to real value.
For HR Specialists: Traditional lead generation becomes irrelevant when AI agents research and recommend HR consultants based on proven results and authentic expertise. Your personal brand and genuine client outcomes become your discovery engine.
For Content and Branding Consultants: The AI trust crisis makes your human creativity, cultural insight, and authentic brand thinking MORE valuable. AI can't replicate the strategic thinking that understands brand nuance, cultural connection, and authentic positioning.
For Business Consultants: Strategic thinking, relationship building, and complex problem-solving become your AI-proof advantages. AI handles discovery, but clients still need human insight for transformation and accountability.
The New Marketing Success Factors
Content Strategy Transformation: From keyword-stuffed blog posts designed to rank, to AI-readable, explicit, authoritative, and contextually rich content. AI systems favour comprehensive, trustworthy sources over SEO-optimised content.
Brand Authority Becomes Critical: AI systems prioritise established, credible sources. Building genuine expertise and authority matters more than gaming ranking algorithms.
Customer Data and Personalisation: My Christmas shopping example shows AI's power in personalised recommendations. Personalisation has always been powerful in marketing, and it's about to become even more powerful. Businesses that understand their customers deeply will have a competitive advantage in AI-driven discovery.
Relationship Over Rankings: Being recommended by AI depends on quality, relevance, and authority rather than traditional SEO metrics. The businesses that thrive will be those that build genuine value rather than optimise for algorithms.
The Human Elements That Become Competitive Advantages
In this AI-mediated world, uniquely human qualities become MORE valuable:
Humour: Wit, timing, cultural references that create instant connection and trust.
Nostalgia: Shared memories and cultural touchstones that AI can't authentically replicate. "Remember when we all carried Kompass directories?" creates bonds that algorithms can't manufacture.
Authenticity: Genuine personal stories, honest vulnerability, individual quirks that signal trustworthiness.
Cultural Connection: Generational insights, local knowledge, and community understanding that demonstrate real human experience.
Creative Originality: Fresh thinking, innovative problem-solving, and strategic insights that emerge from human experience and intuition.
These elements matter because AI agents likely factor cultural fit and trustworthiness into their recommendations. The same qualities that made word-of-mouth recommendations powerful centuries ago remain relevant today.
Three Decisions Businesses Need to Make in the Next 90 Days
Decision 1: Stop Investing Only in Discovery Marketing. If you're pouring budget into SEO services that promise rankings, social media strategies focused on followers, or advertising designed purely for awareness, redirect most of that investment. These tactics are optimising for a world that's disappearing fast.
Decision 2: Start Building Authentic Authority and Expertise. Focus on becoming genuinely excellent at something specific. Develop genuine expertise, cultivate authentic thought leadership, and establish a personal brand that showcases competence and cultural alignment. AI agents will recommend based on proven value, not marketing cleverness.
Decision 3: Develop AI-Readable, Authoritative Content. Your content needs to serve two audiences: human prospects and AI agents evaluating you for recommendation. This means explicit, comprehensive, contextually rich content that demonstrates real expertise rather than keyword-optimised blog posts designed to game search algorithms.
Investment in SGE (Search Generative Experience) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) strategies will become essential. SGE is Google's AI-powered search technology that generates answers directly rather than displaying lists of links. GEO involves optimising your content to be selected and featured in these AI-generated responses. This represents the bridge between traditional SEO and the recommendation economy.
The Clarity Advantage
In my conversations with business owners across creative and professional services, I'm seeing the same pattern I witnessed during the early internet transformation. Those who understood the shift early and positioned themselves accordingly thrived. Those who dismissed it as hype or waited for "proof" found themselves scrambling to catch up.
The businesses that will succeed in this recommendation-based era are those gaining clarity now about:
How their customers will discover and evaluate solutions in an AI-mediated world
What authentic value looks like when AI can see through marketing spin
How to position themselves for recommendation rather than discovery
What new capabilities do they need to develop to remain competitive
How to build trust and authority that AI agents will recognise and recommend
This isn't about implementing AI tools - it's about understanding how AI will fundamentally change customer behaviour and business operations.
The Moment of Truth
We're experiencing the fastest transformation in marketing history. The shift from discovery-based to recommendation-based business development will occur more rapidly than the smartphone revolution, as the necessary infrastructure already exists.
The question isn't whether this transformation will happen. It's whether your business will be prepared for a world where AI agents handle discovery, evaluation, and increasingly, purchasing decisions.
Those 184 applications for one junior designer role aren't just a sign of industry contraction - they're a sign that businesses built on "average" work are becoming obsolete while those focused on strategic value and authentic expertise are thriving and people want to work there.
Are you building for the world that's coming, or optimising for the one that's about to disappear?
The opportunity is massive for those who pivot now. But like my £500 Kompass directory listing, today's marketing strategies will soon look quaint and outdated.
The time to gain clarity about this transformation isn't when everyone else recognises it - it's now.
Feeling overwhelmed by these changes? This is precisely why I created The Intentional Clarity Reset—to help business owners cut through the noise and find strategic focus for transformations like this. When the entire foundation of marketing is shifting, clarity becomes your competitive advantage.
DM me for a chat about positioning your business for the recommendation economy.
