The AI Promo Brief: Issue #25

Forget SEO, Learn AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

When was the last time a new client found you through a Google search? Daniel Stanica just tracked 100 once-thriving blogs over four years, two-thirds lost more than half their search traffic, the median down a brutal 85%. His takeaway is one we'd underline: AI visibility isn't a safe successor to ranking #1, it's a portfolio position across sites you don't control. Here's our own read, based less on the study than on what we're seeing through a new wave of AEO tools: AI is rerouting discovery. ChatGPT doesn't search like Google, it pulls answers from a variable, provider-dependent set of sources behind the scenes, and which sites it draws from shifts with each model update. So when a buyer asks "who can produce custom branded merch for our launch?", the answer gets synthesized before anyone clicks and it may not cite you. That's what Answer Engine Optimization is trying to measure, with tools like Ranked and Diploria racing to audit whether the models recommend you and who they cite instead.

The Next Creative Wave Is Multimodal

Meta’s Muse (image + video generation) and Google’s Flow (AI creative studio) are both a signal that AI for marketing is moving from “make me a clip” to “run me a creative pipeline.” The common thread: control + continuity. These tools are trying to keep style consistent (characters, brand look, pacing), make iteration fast (versions, edits, remixes), and turn one-off prompts into repeatable workflows your team can ship with. For marketers, that means less time stuck in the concept-to-production gap and more ability to test ideas quickly, scale variations across channels, and keep campaigns on-brand without dragging every asset through a full studio cycle.

Stop Cold-Calling. Let AI Find a Warm Intro.

How are your prospect cold calls going? If the reply rate hovers under 5%, you already know the math is brutal. Key AI is betting on the other path: it maps the warm routes between you and a target buyer (mutual community members, shared events, overlapping backgrounds), then routes an intro through a handshake request where both sides opt in before anyone sends. The result? 45–60% reply rates on warm intros versus that sub-5% cold slog, across 100,000+ professionals already on it. You next client is probably one or two warm hops away, sitting in a network you never mapped. Instead of cold-blasting a list, let AI surface who to ask for the intro. Relationship-first, the way promo has always worked.

No More Sales Tools, Start Hiring Agents

Still shopping for a sales tool? Stop picking software and start hiring a role: a SDR, an ops assistant, an exec assistant. Attio calls itself the agentic CRM for exactly that reason, its agents build pipeline, chase signals, and move deals around the clock, and it's already running sales for Granola, Modal, and Wispr Flow. Ogment AI goes one step further: it drops into a Slack channel like a coworker and runs tasks across your connected tools right in the thread. For a distributor, that's the grunt work that eats your week (keeping the CRM current between calls) now handled by an agent that never clocks out. Fastest reply still wins the order. Now the fastest replier isn't you.

commonsku Presents: 15 Years Ahead

What will promo look like in 15 years? That's the question at the heart of 15 Years Ahead, a free virtual event on August 19 from 2-4 PM ET. commonsku's Bobby Lehew and Kara Parkinson host two panels with some of the sharpest voices in the business including Fairware's Denise Taschereau, Gemline's Jonathan Isaacson of Gemline, commonsku's Catherine Graham, and PPAI's Drew Holmgreen. Bring your teams and register here!

The Next AI Moat: Implementation

You bought in on AI. Is it actually running anything autonomously? That gap, between AI availability and AI working inside your business, is a deployment problem, and the big players are racing to own it. Microsoft commits $2.5B to a business unit embedding roughly 6,000 forward-deployed engineers straight into customer orgs. OpenAI's deployment arm snapped up Northslope, a crew of Palantir alumni, its the second such deal in two months. As you are already likely experiencing this, the tools are there, it’s the precise utilization (and time needed to implement) that is becoming the biggest roadblock to change. A great breakdown on a big problem from TechCrunch here.

📋 AI’s real ROI is in the boring middle (drafts, research, recap emails) so here’s what teams are actually doing with it in 2026.

🤝 Claude Cowork via mobile is a clear sign yet that agents are graduating from chat bots to day-to-day doers.

🧠 Use this for PPAI’s Expo? ConnectMachine turns badge scans into a searchable relationship brain. Now, “who was that buyer?” stops being a dead end.

💎 The new dev skill isn’t “make it work,” it’s “make it shippable,” and this piece nails the difference.

📞 GPT‑Live makes AI feel less like email and more like a real-time call, perfect for role-play, coaching, and on-the-fly drafting.

⚡Canva Code 2.0 is “vibe coding” for marketers, turning decks into mini-apps, calculators, and landing pages.

🧩 Inkling is a bet on customization, open-weight, long context, and built to be shaped around your messy business reality.

🎯 "Analysis of 70 million conversations finds consumers referred by ChatGPT have the highest lead rate of any channel at 49%" — report here.

🔮 commonsku turns 15 and celebrates by looking forward: two panels on the future of promo, August 19. Save your spot!