Brand Visibility in the Agentic Age: How to Use an AI Brand Agent to Win at AI Search and SOM (Share of Model)

To sustain brand visibility in the Agentic Age, brands need to use AI brand agent and SOM (Share of Model) for AI search on LLMs, per Joanne Z. Tan.

This is a summary of what is already published on AIXD.World, a subsidiary of 10PlusBrand.com. 

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AI is already replacing traditional search. A Harvard Business Review survey of 12,000 consumers found that 58% used AI to search for products and services in 2025, up from 25% in 2023. These AI search users skew younger, wealthier, and better educated. Bigger disruption is coming as agentic AI begins to change not just how people find products — but how they buy them.

What Is SOM (Share of Model) — and Why It Is Replacing SEO in AI Search?

SOM (Share of Model) measures how often and how favorably a brand is mentioned in responses generated by large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. It tracks mention rate, average position, and brand perception across AI search platforms.

SOM evolves from share-of-search (SOS), which measured customer demand via query volume for traditional SEO. But the stakes in AI search are fundamentally higher. Brands that fail to register on an LLM simply do not appear before consumers at all. On ChatGPT, unlike Google, there is no page two.

In the Agentic Age, brand visibility in AI search is binary: you are either in the answer — or you do not exist for that buyer.

How to Achieve Brand Visibility in the Agentic Age: The Two Pillars of SOM

LLMs do not optimize for attention — they optimize for resolution. According to HBR, identifying the job to be done is the number one priority for brand leaders who want to score big on SOM. Two forces drive brand visibility in AI search:

1. Solve Specific Problems

Because LLMs seek resolution rather than keywords, brands must identify specific user needs, use cases, and pain points — then offer precise solutions. A brand offering “running shoes with a carbon fiber midsole for long-distance training” will outperform one selling only “the best running shoes.” Specificity wins AI search.

2. Establish Authority for AI Search and SOM

LLMs reward demonstrated expertise. Three proven strategies:

• Show sources. Link to clinical studies, published research, or primary data. A skincare brand citing clinical trials signals credibility to AI search algorithms.
• Provide product depth. Detailed ingredients, specifications, and use-case explanations increase the probability an LLM cites your brand.
• Leverage user content. Reviews, app ecosystems, and user-generated content create the social proof LLMs interpret as authority.

Brand Visibility in the Agentic Age: Preparing for AI Agents

A 2026 HBR article, “Preparing Your Brand for Agentic AI,” argues that agentic AI is poised to transform purchasing, not just discovery. OpenAI is already partnering with PayPal and Walmart to enable buying directly within ChatGPT. The strategic question for every brand: will your AI brand agent be ready?

Brands face two strategic imperatives: convince customers to use their in-house AI brand agent, and convince third-party consumer agents to recommend their products.

Building a Winning AI Brand Agent

In-house AI brand agents hold structural advantages over general-purpose consumer agents:

• Proprietary data. Sephora’s brand agent draws on 140,000 skin tone profiles and 34 million user records — a depth no consumer agent can match.
• Human-in-the-loop. For high-stakes transactions, brand agents can escalate to human advisors — adding empathy and creativity that pure AI cannot replicate.
• Responsible AI practices. Brands that communicate clear privacy and auditability standards dramatically increase brand agent adoption.

Four Ways to Influence Third-Party AI Search and Consumer Agents

Since many customers will always prefer consumer agents, brands must also influence which products those agents recommend:

1. Educate the AI. Regularly prompt leading LLMs and audit their responses. Correct product misinformation by updating websites, advertising, and content until AI search reflects accurate brand messaging. (10 Plus Brand creates and maintains SOM content for clients to lead AI search — contact us for details.)
2. Integrate with consumer agents. Instacart’s ChatGPT plugin — which automatically adds recipe ingredients to a shopping cart — is a model for embedding brand utility directly into the AI search journey.
3. Optimize formatting and coding. Adopt the LLMS.TXT format — machine-readable text that surfaces your most accurate, authoritative content to LLMs and AI agents. Be aware of emerging tactics like Strategic Text Sequences (STS) that can influence AI results.
4. Prepare for pay-to-play. Advertising within AI search is not yet standard — but it is coming, as it did in traditional search engines. Brands should develop strategies now while advocating for transparency in line with evolving global regulations.

The Strategic Imperative: Act Before Your Competitors Do

Brand visibility in the Agentic Age is not a future concern — it is a present competitive battleground. As AI search displaces traditional SEO and agentic AI begins to influence purchasing decisions, the brands that invest in SOM strategy and deploy effective AI brand agents today will define the category winners of tomorrow.

👉 Contact Joanne’s team at 10 Plus Brand to begin building your brand’s AI search presence and SOM strategy before your competitors do.

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About the Author: Joanne Z. Tan, Brand Strategist & Thought Leadership Coach

Joanne Z. Tan is the Founder & CEO of 10 Plus Brand, Inc. She is a globally recognized brand strategist, thought leadership coach, content and branding expert, and speaker. Joanne helps founders, CEOs, executives, board members, and organizations decode their Brand DNA, elevating successful businesses to powerful brands in the AI age.

Her coaching emphasizes comprehensive strategies, business modeling, multidisciplinary thought leadership, high-authority content creation, brand building, GTM, user experience design, AI Native Brand Architecture™, and AIXD™ (AI Experience Design). Trained in law and business with a liberal arts foundation from Brandeis University, Joanne is also a former journalist, award-winning photographic artist, poet, and avid wilderness backpacker.

© Joanne Z. Tan, 2026. All rights reserved. Originally published on AIXD.world.