Shelly Palmer on Navigating the AI Noise: Six Things Marketing Leaders Need to Know Right Now

Virtual Event Recap

During a recent private LEAP Alumni & Community virtual call, senior marketing leaders gathered for an unfiltered conversation with Shelly Palmer, President & CEO of The Palmer Group and one of the industry’s most respected voices on applied AI. Rather than speculating on distant futures, Shelly focused on the changes already underway and what they mean for marketers right now.

These off-the-record alumni conversations are designed to help leaders cut through noise and focus on what truly deserves attention. Shelly’s perspective was direct, practical, and grounded in decades of experience working with some of the world’s largest brands.

1. The Shift From SEO to AEO

Shelly was unequivocal about the future of search. As AI overviews and conversational interfaces become the default, the traditional model of links and click-through traffic is disappearing.

“Ten blue links are gone forever, and there’s no way they’re coming back.”

For marketers, this means visibility is no longer about ranking alone. Brands must ensure their information is structured, conversational, and surfaceable inside AI-generated answers, not just optimized for search results pages.

2. Winning Share of Prompt

As consumers move from keywords to natural language, brand visibility increasingly depends on whether you appear when needs are expressed indirectly.

“How do you show up and share a prompt when just the thing is said, as opposed to your name?”

This shift requires marketers to rethink how content, data, and context work together, especially when brand names are never explicitly mentioned in a query.

3. Preparing for Agentic Commerce

Shelly emphasized the growing importance of agentic commerce, where bots do more than recommend products. They actively transact on behalf of consumers.

“When bots go looking for you, do they find you, and can they transact with you? Because if they can’t, nothing good is going to happen.”

Brands now need to design their digital infrastructure for intelligent agents as well as human users. If systems cannot browse, evaluate, and transact with your brand, you risk being invisible in this emerging economy.

4. Understanding the Collapse of the Funnel

One of the most resonant moments of the session was Shelly’s assertion that the traditional purchase funnel no longer exists.

“The entirety of the purchase funnel has collapsed.”

Discovery, consideration, and conversion now happen simultaneously, often within a single interface.

5. Why Leaders Can’t Stay at Arm’s Length

Shelly closed with a clear directive for marketing leaders themselves. Watching AI developments from a distance is no longer sufficient.

“If you don’t have hands on keyboard at Google, and you don’t have hands on keyboard at OpenAI, you’re not doing yourself any favors.”

The pace of change is compressing timelines faster than most organizations expect. Firsthand experience with these tools is becoming a leadership requirement.

6. The Risk of Artificial Control

One of Shelly’s most pointed warnings focused on who controls intelligent systems and whose interests they serve.

“I don’t fear AI. That’s the wrong thing to be scared of. Be scared of artificial control.”

As intelligence gains agency, outcomes can be shaped without transparency.

“You have intelligence decoupled from consciousness, with an agenda. That’s working either on your behalf, or on someone else’s behalf, and you have no way to know.”

Shelly underscored that these systems are not neutral, and incentives (and who’s getting paid) matter.

The Time to Engage is Now

Shelly’s six points signal a shift that goes beyond tactics or tooling. Marketing leaders are no longer operating solely within channels they control. Visibility, influence, and trust are increasingly mediated by intelligent systems that recommend, decide, and transact on behalf of consumers.

As those systems evolve, defaults are being set quickly and quietly. Leaders who understand how these environments work — and whose interests they serve — will be better positioned to protect brand trust, maintain relevance, and influence outcomes.

The implications are strategic. The window to engage is now, while the rules are still being written.

About Shelly Palmer

Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that advises Fortune 500 companies on AI Transformation. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs.

Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.