Chief marketing officers have a new critical responsibility: shaping how their companies appear in conversations with ChatGPT and Google Gemini. For Kimberly Storin at Zoom, this means leading an internal team that works to ensure the video meeting provider shows up favorably when users ask AI chatbots for product recommendations. The emergence of large language models as discovery tools has added an entirely new dimension to brand management.

When consumers now ask AI assistants which software or service to use, the responses draw from training data scattered across the internet. This makes every Reddit discussion, LinkedIn post, and press mention potential fodder for AI-generated recommendations. Storin and her team monitor these conversations closely, working to position Zoom favorably in the digital chatter that feeds large language models.

The shift marks a fundamental change in marketing priorities. Traditional search engine optimization now has a parallel concern: AI optimization. Companies that fail to manage their digital presence across forums and social platforms risk being overlooked when AI tools generate purchasing advice for millions of users.