The Gist
- AI in marketing. Shifting from keyword-based strategies to contextual, intent-driven approaches is essential in an AI-driven world.
- From SEO to AIVO. Marketers must focus on content relevance, trustworthiness and diversifying their digital footprint to succeed in AI visibility optimization.
- Tech stack optimization. Orchestrating content supply chains and AI-driven workflows maximizes content value and collaboration.
- Experimentation mindset. Success in AI-driven content discovery demands learning, testing and adaptability to engage specialized bots.
Luis Fernandez, executive director of technology at VML, is a leader in AI-driven marketing and digital experience innovation. As one of CMSWire’s 2024 Contributors of the Year, Luis explores strategies for adapting to AI’s impact on marketing, content and customer personalization.
This Q&A highlights his forward-thinking approach to visibility, optimization and collaboration in an ever-changing digital world.
Editor’s note: Luis is the fifth profile in our CMSWire Contributor of the Year series. Stay tuned for more industry insights this week.
Table of Contents
AI’s Impact on Search and Marketing Strategies
CMSWire: How do you envision the role of AI evolving in search and marketing, and what steps should organizations take to adapt their strategies to this new landscape?
Luis: The core need of marketing and search strategies remains the same: to be noticed and to drive traffic to their digital properties. The way to achieve this will shift from keyword-based strategies to more contextual and intent-driven approaches.
As search tools evolve from search boxes to conversational and recommendation engines, AI models will prioritize content relevance, authority and context over keyword matches. Generative AI tools are changing how users discover information, often delivering direct answers and recommendations rather than a list of links. This shift may reduce the effectiveness of traditional SEO tactics. Companies will have to rethink how they ensure their content is visible and trustworthy to AI bots.
To adapt, companies will need to put a higher emphasis on content strategies that align more with AI-driven algorithms. How this will take shape will involve trial and error, as it is still unclear how AI bots will evolve and what will be relevant to them.
What we know, though, is that in this new era, there won’t be just a single bot to please (as it was in the Google era) but an increasing number of bots that will allow for customization and personalized tastes, bringing better matches for users.
Transition from SEO to AI Visibility Optimization (AIVO)
CMSWire: With the shift from traditional SEO to AI Visibility Optimization, what are the key challenges and opportunities that marketing leaders should be aware of?
Luis: A key challenge will lie in understanding how AI models evaluate content. The traditional SEO toolset of focusing on keyword optimization, backlinks, etc., will no longer suffice. AIVO will focus more on relevance, intent and context. This means that the result set for a bot looking to buy computers for elementary schools will be fundamentally different from that of a bot looking to buy a top-notch computer for a web developer.
This highlights a fundamental shift: bots are not about search results; they will use search results to provide insights, and they will attempt to find the correct information for the specific insights they are seeking.
Another challenge will be measuring the effectiveness of a company’s content strategy. Since no links may be clicked, traffic might not even come. Companies may remain unaware that their content appeared on a bot. Also, it is unclear what level of transparency AI bots will provide or how companies can leverage that information.
On the flip side, this is a great opportunity for brands to enter this space early and start crafting strategies to create content that is more likely to be trusted and consumed by AI bots. Expanding a content footprint beyond owned digital properties — into places like reviews, forums or expert analysis — can make content more authoritative for bots.
The shift to AIVO is a chance for marketers to move beyond tactics that have remained relatively static for decades and embrace a more strategic, value-driven approach to digital visibility.
Related Article: Are Marketers Prepared for AI Search Disruption?
Navigating the Digital Experience Tech Stack
CMSWire: What best practices do you recommend for organizations looking to optimize their digital experience tech stack in the face of rapid technological advancements?
Luis: Every organization is at a unique stage in its digital journey; however, with the advent of AI, most organizations face pressures to evolve: there are more needs for content, and there is more noise. This new reality emphasizes the importance of the digital content supply chain. To deliver best-in-class experiences, companies need to create the best content possible, which requires investing in tools that improve the content supply chain.
Then, they have to set up the infrastructure that enables them to get the highest return on that content that was expensive to create. To increase the value of content in its lifecycle, brands have to architect a model that enables AI tools to re-use that content, discover it and deliver it at the right time in the proper channels.
Finally, organizations should invest in tools that facilitate seamless collaboration, streamline workflows and enable real-time updates across teams. It’s about orchestration and mixing data and content, which requires a lot of collaboration, testing and combining the art of content with the science of data.
AI-Driven Marketing Personalization
CMSWire: In what ways can AI enhance marketing personalization, and how can brands effectively implement these technologies to deliver individualized customer experiences?
Luis: To deliver truly individualized customer experiences, brands need three key elements in place.
- First, the content to be delivered.
- Second, the data that increases the chances of engagement by delivering content via the right channel at the right time.
- And finally, the orchestration of systems to enable this delivery.
It’s simple to say but can be expensive and complex to implement. AI is making it more feasible and effective across all three fronts.
Given the importance of consumer-centric data, a good starting point is a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to help create a single view of each customer. CDPs often integrate mature AI tools to understand customers better and enable systems to orchestrate and deliver the right content.
Related Article: What Is a Customer Data Platform (CDP)?
Adapting to AI in Content Discovery
CMSWire: As AI transforms content discovery, what strategies should content creators and marketers employ to ensure their content remains visible and engaging to their target audiences?
Luis: As this transformation progresses, the biggest takeaway for marketers and content creators is to shift their mindset. It’s no longer about being noticed by generic search engines but rather being trusted by specialized bots. This mindset shift will require learning, experimentation and testing.
Marketers must embrace an experimentation mindset. Allocate budget and time to try out diverse approaches, platforms and strategies. Measure results and have clear criteria for when to drop new approaches and pivot.
CMSWire: Tell us something about Luis outside his professional role.
Luis: Beyond my full-time professional role in tech and marketing, I have another pro job: husband and proud dad of four energetic children, who keep me both busy and entertained. Seriously, I sometimes feel like their personal referee!
I love spending time outdoors with them, whether it’s exploring nature or chasing after them. On the quieter side, I’m also an avid reader, always making time to dive into a new book.
Check out some of Luis’ content from 2024:
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