The Harvard Business School (HBS) writes: “Brand awareness is a measure of how familiar and recognizable a brand is to a customer, client, or other target audience.” Brand awareness is the first step toward building brand trust and brand equity. Until your target audience is aware of your brand, it is unlikely to seek out your products or services.
Brand awareness can generate positive or negative associations. Creating positive brand awareness can make the difference between brand growth and stagnation, according to consulting firm NielsenIQ. Its research has identified significant correlations between positive brand awareness and business outcomes, including:
But brand awareness is changing.
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According to a June 2026 report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), digital channels, including AI platforms, social media, and search engines, significantly outperform traditional media, including TV and print advertising, in both information discovery and purchase conversion.
AI search is emerging as an increasingly important channel. A 2026 Adobe report states: “AI is quickly becoming the primary interface between consumers and their favorite brands.” For example, Adobe found that traffic from AI platforms to U.S. retail websites grew 393% year over year in the first quarter of 2026. But brands still have work to do before they are ready for the AI age.
AI recommendation is also becoming an important influence on brand awareness. AI search platforms do more than help consumers find information. They increasingly help consumers compare products and services, narrow their choices, and identify brands that best meet their needs.
In January 2026, Google CEO Sundar Pichai described a fundamental shift in online shopping, from searching with keywords to having natural conversations with AI. Instead of sorting through pages of search results, consumers can now ask AI to identify relevant options.
This creates both an opportunity and a challenge for brands. Brand awareness is no longer just about being recognized by consumers. It is also about being discovered, understood, and recommended by AI.
In this article, we examine how companies can build brand awareness in the age of AI search and AI recommendation.
Brand awareness is a foundational step on the brand-building ladder. As HBS puts it: “Awareness is about ensuring your target audience knows that your brand exists.” But there is more to creating brand awareness than designing eye-catching logos or crafting memorable slogans.
Here are three suggestions for building brand awareness for long-term success:
Brand identity expresses your brand’s DNA and personality. It is unique and should be “informed by the mission, goals, and values” of your brand, according to HBS.
To clarify your brand identity, ask:
Creating original thought leadership content can distinguish your brand from competitors. High-quality content highlights your brand’s unique qualities and helps establish it as an authority in its field and a trusted source of information.
Social media is a primary research channel for consumers. According to BCG, 97% of internet users are active on social platforms at least monthly. Brands need to engage with their target audiences through posts, comments, reactions, shared content, and other forms of interaction.
Adobe’s 2026 report finds growing consumer trust in AI-generated shopping information. It reports that AI-referred traffic converts better than non-AI traffic.
In March 2026, visitors referred to U.S. retail websites by AI platforms converted 42% better than visitors from non-AI sources, according to Adobe. One year earlier, AI-referred traffic converted 38% worse. That represents an 80-percentage-point swing in relative conversion performance.
And once AI directs consumers to a retail website, they spend more time browsing. Adobe found that AI-referred visitors spent 48% longer on these websites and viewed 13% more pages per visit than visitors from non-AI sources.
These findings suggest that AI search is becoming an increasingly influential part of the consumer purchasing journey, although the results reflect the U.S. retail sector and may not apply equally to every industry.
AI recommendation is not entirely new. Retailers and digital platforms have long used recommendation engines to suggest products and content based on consumer interests and behavior. According to Algolia, “People don’t always know what’s available.” AI-powered recommendations can help consumers discover products they might otherwise overlook.
But generative AI search adds a new dimension. Rather than recommending products only within a retailer’s website or digital platform, AI search assistants can help consumers discover and compare brands across the broader marketplace.
For example, a consumer may ask an AI platform, “Which brand offers the best solution for my needs?” Or a business leader may ask, “Which executive branding consultant should I hire?”
The AI platform may respond with a shortlist of brands, products, or service providers, explaining their relative strengths and differences.
For brands, the stakes are changing: Brand awareness is no longer just about entering the consumer’s top choices. It is also about earning a place among the choices AI presents to consumers.
This raises an important distinction: Being visible in AI search is not the same as being recommended by AI. To improve their chances of being recommended, brands need to demonstrate relevance and differentiation.
AI recommendation is not necessarily a higher level of brand awareness. Rather, it is an increasingly important influence on consumer consideration and choice, particularly as consumers become more comfortable using AI to evaluate their options.
It is worth noting, however, that AI recommendations are not endorsements or guarantees of quality. They depend on the consumer’s questions, the information available to the AI system, and how that system evaluates relevance.
Nevertheless, brand awareness, brand trust, and AI visibility are becoming increasingly interconnected. Brands that demonstrate their unique value and earn the trust of their audiences are better positioned to compete in AI search and AI recommendation.
The ultimate goal is not simply to be found by AI, but to give both AI platforms and human consumers compelling reasons to choose your brand.
The Adobe report found that sizable portions of retail websites are not machine-readable, potentially limiting their visibility in AI search.
According to the report, an average of 75% of the content on brand homepages is machine-readable, leaving 25% potentially inaccessible to AI systems. The best-performing homepages reached 82%, while the lowest-performing averaged just 54%.
Individual product pages, which contain information particularly useful for AI-assisted shopping, averaged 66% machine readability.
This creates a significant challenge for brands. Even valuable product information may be overlooked if AI systems cannot access or interpret it effectively. However, machine readability alone does not guarantee that a brand will appear in AI search results or receive AI recommendations.
As we discussed in our article Brand Visibility in AI Search, brands need to make sure their most relevant content is readily accessible to AI search platforms.
In another article, AI Search Visibility: Why Brands Now Compete to Be Recalled, Not Ranked, published on our affiliated website AIXD.world, we described three strategies. A fourth, performance measurement, is added here to evaluate their effectiveness.
Brand awareness is a long-term investment in your brand’s future. In the age of AI search and AI recommendation, it is no longer just about whether consumers recognize your brand.
To earn relevance, trust, and consideration in AI-generated recommendations, brands need a distinctive identity, authentic values, credible expertise, and content that both consumers and AI platforms can understand.
The brands that stand out will not simply be the ones that are found. They will be the ones that are remembered, trusted, and recommended.
If you would like more information, please contact us.
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Joanne Z. Tan is a global brand strategist, thought leadership coach, and founder of 10 Plus Brand, Inc. and its subsidiary AIXD.world. She advises leaders, founders, executives, board members, and organizations on building influential, differentiated brands that drive visibility, credibility, and revenue growth.
Her work integrates strategic positioning, AI Native Brand Architecture™, and executive thought leadership to help leaders and the organizations they lead become recognized authorities in their industries.
AIXD (AI Experience Design) is a global platform and community focused on advancing human-centered artificial intelligence. Through thought leadership, collaboration, and strategic dialogue, AIXD aims to shape the future of AI with impact, innovation, humanity, and integrity.
