Harvard Business Review LogoJune 29, 2026HBR Staff/dorian2013/Getty ImagesAs AI increasingly mediates product discovery, traditional brand-building advantages such as awareness, storytelling, and emotional appeal are becoming less decisive. Instead, brands gainWhen we asked leading AI systems—ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini—for running shoe recommendations, the relatively small brand Brooks appeared reliably. Nike, the world’s largest athletic brand, appeared far less consistently. This pattern reflects a fundamental shift in how brands compete when AI systems mediate product discovery.
How to Get AI to Surface Your Brand
As AI increasingly mediates product discovery, traditional brand-building advantages such as awareness, storytelling, and emotional appeal are becoming less decisive. Instead, brands gain visibility in AI-generated recommendations when their value can be clearly interpreted through measurable attributes, structured product information, and credible third-party evidence. Research across multiple product categories found that AI systems recommend brands based less on popularity and more on their ability to match specific user needs. Brands with clearly defined features, validated performance claims, and strong external endorsements are more likely to appear consistently across platforms. The findings suggest that winning in AI-driven markets requires a shift from symbolic positioning to evidentiary positioning. Companies should focus on making product benefits easier to compare, verify, and connect to customer problems. Success increasingly depends on whether AI systems can reliably retrieve a brand as a relevant solution, not simply whether consumers recognize or remember it.
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