Author: Marty Swant

There’s a quiet vibe shift rippling through marketing circles as the industry comes to terms with the epistemic hangover of its long entanglement with Google. 

None of this is new, of course — marketers have spent years toggling between frustration and resignation over how tightly Google grips their ad dollars. But now, with the company freshly found guilty of illegally monopolizing not just how people find information online but how that information gets monetized, those long-simmering feelings are boiling over. Throw in Google’s ongoing third-party tap dance in the world’s most popular browser, and the unease is becoming harder to ignore. 

The cumulative effect: marketers are now looking at Google not as an untouchable platform, but as a company in flux. That shift is already shaping how they think about the future, according to advertising and media experts interviewed by Digiday. 

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AI agents are no longer just experimental tools — they’re rapidly becoming indispensable intermediaries in how people search, shop, and interact online. As platforms like Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity race to roll out agentic AI, the advertising industry is bracing for a shift that could redefine consumer journeys and reshape digital marketing strategies.

Despite all the hype, many marketer’s generative AI investments are still modest or even nonexistent. One Gartner survey of more than 400 marketing leaders found that 27% of CMOs reported their teams had little or no adoption of generative AI. However, it’s still early — both in terms of impact and in terms of preparations. And with the search landscape ever-evolving, Gartner analyst Noam Dorros marketers could risk creating a “massive headache” for themselves by trying to chase what the future might look like.

“You still have to focus on what’s three feet in front of you, which is your consumer, and understand their behaviors and their needs,” Dorros said. “… If you are foundationally sound when this changes again, you’ll give yourself a better launch pad to pivot and adjust accordingly.”

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