Chatbots Are the New Influencers Brands Must Woo

Companies are realizing they can no longer simply promote themselves to potential customers. They have to win over the robots, too.

In late 2024, Stacy Simpson, the chief marketing officer of Athenahealth, a health care software and services provider, started asking artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT about her company. The results were not ideal.

The chatbots did not know about some of Athenahealth’s offerings and did not name the company as an option when asked. They pulled details from insidery software websites that had not been updated in years.

Ms. Simpson realized that she had to figure out how to market to A.I. chatbots. “This is one of the single biggest shifts we’ve seen in decades,” she said in a recent interview.

Similar realizations are happening across corporate America as companies grapple with how A.I. and chatbots are changing not only the way people work but also the way they consume information. That means businesses can no longer simply promote themselves to potential customers — they have to win over the robots, too.

- Author: Erin Griffith, The New York Times 

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