Search, social media and advertising are becoming more AI-led, more fragmented and more reputation-driven.
For brands, the job is no longer just to rank, post or advertise. The job is to be useful enough to be found, credible enough to be cited and human enough to earn attention.
May 2026 made that clear. Google completed another core update, AI search adoption accelerated, paid media moved further into conversational environments, and social platforms continued to reward more immediate, less polished content.
Here are the marketing shifts worth paying attention to.
Organic search, SEO, AEO and GEO: AI visibility still depends on strong fundamentals
Google’s May 2026 core update began on 21 May and finished rolling out on 2 June, with noticeable volatility across the SEO industry. It was Google’s second core update of 2026.
The bigger point is not just the update itself. It is what it says about AI search.
As AI Overviews, AI Mode and large language model results become more visible, marketers are understandably trying to work out what Generative Engine Optimisation, Answer Engine Optimisation and AI SEO actually require.
The answer is less dramatic than some of the new acronyms suggest.
Brands do not need to create separate “AI-only” content strategies or build endless pages for every possible prompt variation. AI search visibility is likely to reward many of the same things good SEO has always required:
- Clear answers to real audience questions
- Strong topical authority
- Useful, original perspectives
- Accessible page structure
- Evidence, sources and expert input
- Consistent brand signals across the web
The difference is that content now needs to work harder in more places. It must be readable by people, understandable by search engines and extractable by AI systems.
An Ahrefs test of 1,885 pages found that schema markup alone did not significantly increase citations across Google AI Overviews, AI Mode or ChatGPT. That does not make schema irrelevant. It still helps search engines understand page content and can support rich results. But it is not a shortcut to AI visibility.
AI search is changing what visibility means
At Google I/O 2026, Google said AI Overviews now has more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, while AI Mode has passed 1 billion monthly active users. Google described AI Mode as its biggest upgrade to Search.
Traditional SEO reporting is built around rankings, impressions, clicks and conversions. AI search does not always behave that way. A brand may be mentioned, summarised or used as a supporting source without receiving the same click-through behaviour it would expect from a traditional search result.
The commercial risk is not just losing traffic. It is losing definition. If AI systems learn about your category from competitors, review sites, forums or outdated content, your brand may be framed in ways you do not control.
Paid media: ads are moving closer to AI-led discovery
ChatGPT is moving further into commercial discovery, with product feed ads allowing retailers to connect product data so ads can be generated from product names, images and attributes.
This is significant because users are often asking AI tools high-intent questions: what to buy, which option is better, what is worth the money, or which product suits a specific need.
That brings paid media, SEO, e-commerce and product feed management closer together.
Retailers and e-commerce brands should start treating product feeds as part of their search and AI visibility infrastructure, not just as a paid shopping asset. Product names, attributes, categories, imagery and reviews all influence how products are understood and recommended.
Google is also moving Google Display Ads into Demand Gen, bringing Display activity closer to YouTube, Gmail, Discover and Maps. Google says advertisers adding Google Display Network inventory to Demand Gen campaigns see an average 9.5% increase in ROI, with the transition expected to complete by 2027.
As campaign management becomes more automated, the commercial advantage moves upstream.
The brands that perform best will not simply be the ones that push more budget through automated platforms. They will be the ones with:
- Cleaner data
- Stronger creative assets
- Sharper positioning
- Better audience understanding
- A clearer reason to be chosen
Snapchat AI Sponsored Snaps: conversational advertising is moving into chat
Snapchat introduced AI Sponsored Snaps, a format that allows brands to show up in Chat through AI agents that users can interact with directly. Snap said Snapchatters sent more than 950 billion chats in Q1 2026, and more than half a billion users have messaged My AI since launch.
This shows where advertising is heading: less like a static placement, more like a conversation.
For marketers, that creates opportunity and risk. A conversational ad can answer questions, recommend products and guide a user towards action. But it can also feel intrusive if the experience is poorly designed or if the brand has not earned permission to be there.
The execution bar is higher than a standard ad unit. Brands will need to think about tone of voice, decision logic, escalation, compliance and what happens when the user asks something unexpected.
PR: attention still comes from ideas people want to talk about
One of May’s strongest PR lessons came from a simple earned attention moment: 75 minutes, one balcony and free prime ad space.
Tom MacDonald’s Hackney Half example showed how a smart, timely and location-aware idea can create disproportionate attention without a large media budget. The execution worked because it was visible, contextual and easy to talk about.
That matters because distribution is getting easier. Automated ad platforms, AI content tools and social scheduling systems mean more brands can publish more often.
But attention is still hard.
The best PR ideas still tend to have three qualities:
- They are easy to understand quickly
- They connect to a relevant cultural or physical moment
- They give people a reason to share, comment or retell the story
LinkedIn has also continued to push marketers towards more genuine, expert-led conversations, with industry commentary pointing to stronger performance for content that prompts meaningful engagement rather than generic posting.
For PR and thought leadership, that reinforces the value of expert commentary, founder voice, employee advocacy and clear opinion.
Social media: community signals are becoming more important
Reddit’s HubSpot integration entered public beta, allowing marketers to publish, schedule posts, monitor brand and competitor mentions, analyse sentiment and engage with Reddit users inside HubSpot.
This matters because Reddit is where many people go for unfiltered opinions, product comparisons and peer recommendations. Those conversations can shape how brands, categories and problems are understood online.
For GEO, Reddit is also important because community discussions increasingly influence AI-generated answers. AI systems often draw on publicly available discussions to understand how people talk about topics in natural language.
Brands should not treat Reddit as another broadcast channel. It works best when marketers listen first, understand community norms and contribute with restraint.
Instagram also introduced Instants, a disappearing photo format designed for spontaneous, unedited sharing with close friends or mutual followers. Meta said Instants disappear after being opened and cannot be viewed after 24 hours.
The signal is clear: audiences are still responding to lower-pressure, less polished content.
Brands do not need to abandon quality. But they do need to make room for faster, more human formats alongside planned campaign content.
Video: long-form content needs to be built for reuse
AI clipping tools and platform features are making it easier to turn long-form content into short-form clips. The market around short-form video clipping is growing quickly, with brands, creators and media businesses using short clips to extend the reach of longer assets.
For marketers, the implication is simple: a webinar, podcast, interview or event recording should no longer be treated as one asset.
It should be planned as a content system.
A single long-form asset can become:
- Short-form video clips
- LinkedIn posts
- Quote graphics
- Blog content
- Email content
- FAQ answers
- Sales enablement material
- Searchable transcript content
- AI-readable topic context
The mistake is trying to find the value after the recording. The strongest teams plan the clips, hooks and searchable moments before the content is created.
Key takeaway: discoverability is now fragmented, conversational and reputation-led
May 2026 reinforced a clear direction…
Search is becoming more conversational. Paid media is moving into AI-led discovery. Social platforms are rewarding more immediate and community-shaped content. PR still depends on ideas that earn attention rather than simply buying it.
For brands, the winners will be those creating content that is useful, credible and human enough to be found, trusted and shared across more environments.
That means the marketing priority is not simply more content.
It is better content architecture, stronger points of view, cleaner data, sharper creative and a clearer reason for audiences, and AI systems, to recognise your brand as a credible source.
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