How brands can stay relevant as ChatGPT Atlas redefines discovery

Search is ever evolving and OpenAI’s new web browser, ChatGPT Atlas, has arrived to change how audiences may discover and interact with content as we know it. Built around ChatGPT, Atlas integrates AI directly into the user’s workflow, letting it suggest next steps, summarise research, automate tasks, or even act on behalf of the user — all while keeping privacy and data under control.

The launch comes amid a shift in how younger audiences find information. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are increasingly skipping traditional search, turning instead to social feeds, eCommerce platforms, and generative AI tools. Google remains dominant, but its cultural monopoly is quietly eroding.

For brands, Atlas highlights a new challenge: with AI curating what audiences see, marketers must rethink visibility, content strategy, and how to maintain emotional connections when an AI sits between them and their customers. For starters, Nathan Petralia, country head of Hong Kong, Ogilvy One and Verticurl, would frame Atlas as more than a browser. "It transforms traditional browsers from navigation tools into execution platforms," he said.

"Discovery becomes assistant-mediated within the exact window users are viewing, eliminating the need for tab-hopping and creating seamless, contextual experiences," he added.

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This, in turn, leads to brand competing to be recommended by an assistant instead of ranking on a page. "As AI platforms such as Atlas integrate browsing, memory, and agent features, discovery becomes deeply personal. The assistant knows what users like, buy, and trust. For brands, that means traditional SEO can’t just chase keywords — it must build authority, clarity, and context," said Shane Liuw, CEO of First Page Digital.

Paid search will evolve too, as fewer user clicks mean tighter competition for visibility, explained Liuw, adding that: 

The ‘new front page’ won’t be Google’s top result; it’ll be the AI’s top recommendation. Brands need to prepare for that reality now.

To land top recommendation, Petralia suggests transforming content creation and optimation, highlighting three interconnected disciplines brands must master: Answer engine optimisation (AEO), Generative engine optimisation (GEO) and Callable APIs. 

According to Petralia, AEO ensures canonical facts, product specs, policis and sustainability claims that are structured, verifiable and backed by source-of-truths IDs. GEO, on the other hand, involves producing fact-dense, rights-cleared assets that AI models can verify and quote while Callable APIs allow assistants to check availability, configure products, deliver estimates, or provide support, while maintaining attribution.

This comes amid a competitive landscape that is intensifying rapidly. "Chrome is embedding Gemini, Edge is embedding Copilot, Perplexity is pushing for browser integration, and Atlas represents OpenAI's bid to own the in-page assistant layer. This multi-assistant reality demands optimisation by design: portable schemas, callable APIs, and measurement parity across all major AI platforms," he explained.

"Success in this new landscape requires measuring what truly matters: share-of-recommendation, answer coverage, action success rates, and data freshness and latency," he added. 

Kuhan Kumar, CEO of Digital Symphony noted that content today is first interpreted by machines, not just consumed by humans. He stated that modern SEO now revolves around semantics, schema, and narrative clarity, posing the critical question of whether an AI can understand a brand as accurately as a human would. He added: 

Stop creating for feeds — start creating for frameworks. Structure and meaning are the new creative currency.

Meeting the next gen

If AI is the new shelf, brands need to do more than sit pretty, they have to resonate with the next generation in ways assistants can’t ignore. As Gen Z and Gen Alpha increasingly turn to AI assistants and social feeds to discover brands, brands can no longer rely solely on ads or search rankings, they need to speak the language of these digitally native audiences, embed themselves into the platforms they trust, and create experiences that AI can recognise, amplify, and act on. 

With ChatGPT Atlas' agentic capabilities, brand may face profound implications. "Brands must pivot towards anticipating AI prompts and creating content that answers these questions before they’ve been asked, embedding their brands across all platforms for Atlas to trawl through, and ensuring cultural nuances aren’t lost in the mix," said Dan Kalinski, managing director, APAC, NP Digital. 

Meanwhile, Liuw reinforced that reaching Gen Z and Alpha requires blending cultural relevance with conversational discoverability. Brands must be present in the spaces they live, short-form video, AI chats, and social micro-trends, with a voice that feels authentic, not automated.  “You can’t just be optimised; you have to be in the culture. If your brand isn’t being talked about organically, it won’t be surfaced algorithmically. The key is turning awareness into advocacy," he said. 

For Kumar, brands need to feed the algorithms with genuine cultural signals such as collaboration, participation and purpose, in order to stay relevant. "These generations can spot manipulation instantly. Authenticity isn’t a tone anymore — it’s a data layer." 

Beyond the algorithm

As AI increasingly mediates the customer journey, the risk is that interactions become transactional and impersonal. Brands now face the challenge of fostering genuine emotional connections while AI handles discovery, recommendations, and even transactions. Petralia stressed that maintaining a consistent brand voice while enabling human handoff is critical. This involves training brand voice layers and defining clear escalation paths to preserve service rituals and moments that create lasting memories for customers.

Echoing this, Kalinski noted that AI-driven interactions still begin with human emotion or intent. Whether it’s curiosity, aspiration, or a desire to belong, brands must anchor their messaging to these triggers, even AI-delivered answers should feel personal and relevant. Data, he added, can inform this. 

"The consumer journey does not end with discovery. As platforms such as Atlas minimise clicks and compress the funnel, brands must ensure that the end-to-end experience carries emotional consistency. By gaining knowledge of behaviours across platforms, brands can translate these insights into the emotional triggers to pick up and act on - thereby personalising experiences in line with who the consumer is and what they’re looking for," explained Kalinski. He added: 

In an age where everyone is trying to outpace their competitors via automation, we don’t want to lose out on design experiences that feel intuitive, personal, and human.

Liuw added that while AI may introduce a brand, it’s emotion that keeps customers coming back. Brands should double down on storytelling, purpose, and authenticity.

“In an AI world, your story isn’t less important, it’s your superpower,” he said. He also highlighted that the follow-up must feel personal: meaningful experiences, humanised communication, and communities that reinforce loyalty, adding: 

The future of marketing isn’t man versus machine; it’s man through machine. AI should be the bridge that makes brand relationships more human, not less.

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