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4 key takeaways from Scrunch’s research collaboration with Bain & Company

Chris Andrew Chris Andrew •

Scrunch AI collaborated with the team at Bain & Company on the latest research brief: “Marketing’s New Middleman: AI Agents.” The brief reveals how AI agents are rapidly becoming a key intermediary between brands and customers—reshaping how people discover, evaluate, and decide what to buy.

Our team shared data and insights into how marketers can navigate this transformative shift. As AI agents like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini reshape the customer journey, we believe traditional SEO strategies alone are no longer enough.

In this article, we unpack key takeaways from the Bain & Company brief and share insights into how marketers can act now to stay competitive.

1. AI agents are the new front door to brand discovery

Customers are increasingly relying on AI-powered agents (like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others) as trusted decision-makers—often bypassing traditional search engines, brand websites, and even human sales reps. Why? Agents automate research, filter options, and surface hyper-personalized recommendations at scale.

These models don’t just pull information from your brand’s website—they generate answers by citing third-party sources, reviews, earned media, and structured content across the web. At Scrunch, we’ve found that more than 90% of content in response to nonbranded search queries in LLM engines comes from third-party sources exclusively.

Tip: Marketers need to ensure their brand appears where AI models are looking—not just in Google, but across the entire ecosystem. There is no one-size-fits all approach here and that’s where our team at Scrunch can help!

2. Traditional funnels are collapsing

The Bain brief explains:

AI-powered “zero-click” journeys compress the discovery-to-decision process, reducing opportunities for brands to influence consumers, differentiate themselves, or even appear during the buying journey.

The collapse of the marketing funnel is accelerating the time to conversion, but only for brands that are “findable” in AI. In our analysis, we’ve found that conversion rates can be 2x that of standard Google search for certain journeys.

Tip: Marketers need to plan and optimize for three discovery paths: direct visits, AI-driven journeys, and traditional channels. This requires teams to build a unified content and visibility strategy that earns direct visits, citations, and search traction.

3. New sources of influence = new metrics

Bain highlights the need for new performance metrics and we couldn’t agree more. Instead of keyword rankings and backlinks, marketers must now track how often their brand is cited and included in AI-generated responses.

Tip: Don’t just track clicks—track citations. To measure your AI Search performance, monitor how often your brand is mentioned by AI agents, where the mentions link to, and whether they drive qualified traffic. It’s time to treat citations like the new backlinks.

Stay tuned for a more in depth guide to measurement. Coming soon!

4. Marketers must build for AI, not just humans

AI agents are optimizing for utility, not click-throughs. In other words, agents prioritize giving users the most useful and direct answers. AI agents don’t “browse” like humans. They scan, parse, and summarize content to answer questions quickly and accurately. If your content isn’t structured for this, you risk being overlooked—even if your insights are great.

Tip: Content needs to be structured to be AI-readable and citation ready. Use clear, concise language, include structured formats (e.g., bullet points, FAQs), and make use of schema markup (where possible).

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Conclusion

The future of brand discovery is here and it’s powered by AI. At Scrunch, we specialize in AI Search visibility, helping companies monitor and optimize how they appear across AI Search platforms.

Want to see how your brand is represented? Book a meeting today.