HOW UNIVERSAL AI ASSISTANTS ARE REWRITING BRAND ENGAGEMENT

Welcome to the age of the ever-present plus-one: the universal AI assistant. 

No longer siloed to chatbots or tucked inside smart speakers, these AI-native agents—like Google’s Project Astra powered by Gemini—are becoming your co-pilot across browsers, phones, wearables, and your living room. Think Siri meets search engine meets shopper, all in one. And yes, brands need to make sure they’re part of the conversation—literally. 

But don’t mistake automation for autonomy. Behind every great AI interaction is a team shaping the voice, strategy, and structure that makes it feel human—and useful.

If your brand isn’t in the thread, it’s outside the decision.
These assistants aren’t waiting for you. They’re already whispering in your customer’s ear. Whoever’s closest to the consumer controls the conversation—and right now, that’s not you.

Here’s what marketers need to know as we enter this next wave of experiential engagement: 

CONVERSATIONAL COMMERCE IS YOUR NEW FRONT DOOR 

The search bar is melting into a dialogue box. “What’s the best running shoe for my gait and the SoCal heat?”—that’s not a keyword phrase, it’s a fully-formed thought. And your next customer is asking it out loud to an AI assistant, not typing it into Google. 

Welcome to the evolution of SEO. This isn’t about rankings anymore—it’s about conversational SEO, or what we call AI-native discoverability. It’s not enough to be clickable. Now you have to be recommendable. 

This isn’t about being loud. It’s about being preferred.
Because when an assistant defaults to a competitor, you don’t just lose the click—you lose the entire conversation.

And not all AI assistants are built the same. 

Pi by Inflection AI, for example, is forging deeper, emotionally aware conversations—less search engine, more confidante. Consumers will default to the AI platform that feels most aligned with them. That means brands must consider not just what their audience wants to know, but how they prefer to ask, and who they’re asking. 

You have to think about which AI your audience is likely to use—and how to show up authentically inside that system’s logic, tone, and context. 

Tools like Gemini and ChatGPT with browsing are training users to search less and ask more. And when assistants respond with branded recommendations inside the thread, discovery turns conversational—and conversion becomes instant. 

Pair that with agent-guided checkouts, virtual try-ons, and “buy now” links all within the same interaction—and we’ve skipped the traditional sales funnel entirely. The whole brand journey happens inside one thread. 

But even here, human insight is critical—crafting the prompts, language, and brand presence that makes the assistant’s suggestion feel like a perfect fit.

If you’re not optimizing for how people talk, think, and feel, you’re not showing up. Speak the language of your consumer—and the assistant they trust to speak for them. 

HYPER-PERSONALIZATION IS NOW A GIVEN (AND INSTANT) 

Universal assistants learn fast—what we buy, when we buy, what we almost bought, and what we didn’t even know we needed. And they’re not just learning—they’re creating. 

Let’s be real: assistants don’t personalize. They predict.
And every prediction comes from training. That means every brand interaction is training data. Your metadata. Your reviews. Your tone of voice.
If you’re not feeding the assistant the right ingredients, don’t be surprised when it serves the wrong dish.

We’re talking hyper-personalization at scale. Yes, that includes paid ads—platforms like Omneky now auto-generate thousands of dynamic ad variations, tailored to specific audience segments, platforms, and performance trends. But it goes way beyond that. 

AI is also reshaping organic brand touchpoints: from personalized product recommendations and conversational suggestions to curated shopping flows based on what the user actually wants—not what the algorithm thinks they might. 

And the once-heavy lift of creative testing? Writing copy, designing assets, running A/B tests—it’s all being automated. Faster cycles, smarter outputs, and a level of precision that makes “spray and pray” feel prehistoric. 

But none of it works without thoughtful creative strategy. It’s the agency’s job to define the inputs worth scaling—voice, visuals, values—and the stories worth telling. Personalization without a human point of view is just noise.

Feed the assistant your voice, values, and visuals—then let it remix, personalize, and perform across every touchpoint, paid or not.

BRAND POSITIONING IS A BATTLE FOR FAVOR 

The AI assistant doesn’t pitch. It recommends. And in a world of infinite options, that quiet nudge—“most trusted,” “best value,” “top rated”—is everything. 

This isn’t paid placement. It’s earned positioning, built from the data that lives behind the curtain: your brand’s metadata, customer reviews, product specs, sustainability claims, and even how well your content is structured for machine readability. 

This is where brand equity becomes semantic equity. What are you known for—in machine logic?
If the assistant doesn’t associate your brand with a need state, you’re invisible.

In this world, your assets aren’t just marketing tools—they’re your audition tape. You’re not just convincing a person anymore. You’re convincing the algorithm to put you forward. 

So yes, your brand still needs to resonate with people—but it also needs to rank with their assistants. Stop thinking only about your audience. Start thinking about your AI gatekeepers. That’s the new pitch meeting. 

And that positioning doesn’t happen by chance. It’s a strategy-led effort—crafted by creative thinkers who know how to translate brand truth into formats assistants trust.

There isn’t yet a dedicated AI assistant built for brands to actively manage, test, and optimize their ranking in AI ecosystems like Gemini, ChatGPT, or Alexa. But… 

Expect a wave of “AI SEO” or “Assistant Visibility Optimization” tools that sit at the intersection of metadata management, tone training, and assistant interface testing. 

TRUST IS THE PRICE OF ENTRY 

Consumers don’t need their assistant to feel human. They need it to feel right. 

That means accurate answers, consistent tone, no weird left turns.

Forget charm—focus on calibration.
Did the assistant recommend the right size? Did it get the allergy right? Did it remember your tone? That’s trust.
That’s what builds equity and mental proximity in this new landscape.

If the assistant makes a bad call, your brand wears it. Whether it's a wrong product suggestion or a misrepresented value claim, the consumer doesn’t blame the algorithm. They blame you.

So for brands, that means:

• Keep your product data clean and current.

• Ensure your voice is clear, consistent, and carried through every AI touchpoint.

• Don’t cut corners with representation.

No fluff. Just accuracy, clarity, and operational consistency. That’s the bar now.

MARKETING ORG STRUCTURES NEED TO CATCH UP 

This isn’t about replacing your copywriter or UX team. It’s about integrating a new teammate—one that never sleeps, never forgets, and doesn’t take creative direction well.

Marketing organizations need to adjust for that reality, both in staffing and in skill sets. Content has to be modular, semi-autonomous, and testable. Brand strategy now includes prompt engineering and assistant fluency.

Think: content that lives inside a conversation. Product catalogs that update in real-time. Tone of voice guidelines that an algorithm can interpret, not just a creative director.

The assistant isn’t replacing your team—it’s becoming part of it.

The SoHo B.O.L.D. Framework FOR CONVERSATIONAL COMPUTING 

A strategic lens to help marketers lead inside the thread:

• B — Branded Interface
  It’s not your platform, but it better sound like your brand.

• O — Optimized Memory
  Not just found—remembered. Think semantic recall, not just rankings.

• L — Live Learning Loops
  Every conversation is a test environment. Learn and iterate in real time.

• D — Designed for Trust
  No fluff. Just clarity, accuracy, and brand consistency, built to scale.

THE BIG PICTURE 

Universal AI assistants are reshaping brand engagement from a one-way push to a dynamic pull—one where brands are discovered, recommended, and transacted with in a single breath. 

This shift isn’t theoretical. It’s operational.
It’s already rewriting the rules—and if you’re not designing for it, you’re falling behind it.

At SoHo, we believe experiential marketing is no longer confined to physical spaces. It’s everywhere a brand can be felt—heard, seen, and engaged with. That includes your assistant’s next product suggestion.

The future of brand engagement is ambient. And the strongest brands won’t just show up—they’ll show up ready to earn preference in every conversation.

Curious how your brand shows up inside a universal assistant? Let’s find out. 

We’re helping brands future-proof their presence in the AI-powered world. Let’s build something that lives beyond the feed—and inside the conversation.