How to Be Discovered, Trusted, and Chosen in the AI Era

A guide by Vera Agency, a business strategy and communication agency based in Vienna.

In the inaugural episode of The VERA Shortlist, we open a discussion that every forward-thinking business leader must confront: how to be visible, credible, and ultimately chosen when artificial intelligence is now the first step in the customer journey.

The rules of engagement have changed. The entry point to your brand is no longer a website visit or a Google ad. It’s a curated answer from an AI assistant. And the gatekeepers of visibility? They are no longer just human but algorithmic.

This article outlines what your brand must do to earn a place in this new landscape, combining structured digital assets with authentic, human-centered branding—something we, at VERA The Fluid Agency, have embedded in all our strategic business consulting services.

AI is the New Front Door to Your Brand

Today, AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot play a central role in the discovery phase of a buyer’s journey. Whether we’re talking about B2B decision-makers or digitally mature consumers, one thing is clear: brands are being assessed before any human conversation happens.

According to the HubSpot State of Marketing 2024, 75% of buyers now use generative AI in the early stages of brand research.

These tools don’t just find content but they curate insights. They filter noise and prioritize clarity. They act like digital consultants scanning structured data, online signals, testimonials, media appearances, and even CEO interviews to provide a “shortlist” of recommended brands. This shortlist is not just informative – it’s decisive.

This shift is crucial for any company focused on EU market entry consulting, business growth, or international expansion strategies. If your business does not appear in that list, you are not simply behind but unfortunatelly you’re probably invisible.

Not Just Search Engine Optimization – It’s Semantic Authority

Let’s be clear: classic SEO still matters. Keywords, backlinks, and load speeds are all important. But AI systems go further. They simulate human evaluation by looking at consistency, authority, and tone across platforms.

At VERA Agency , we help clients structure their content for both discoverability and strategic impact. That means:

• Maintaining consistency across LinkedIn, websites, press mentions, and leadership communication.
• Embedding brand values in every touchpoint.
• Making your tone not only professional but emotionally resonant and aligned.

These signals are now interpreted by AI tools as indicators of trust and relevance. As Google Search Quality Guidelines (2023) note, AI-driven engines assess brand consistency, leadership visibility, and cross-platform authority as part of their ranking criteria.

That’s why communication strategy services need to go beyond copywriting. They must architect alignment between what your brand says and how it behaves.

Machine-Readable Structure Meets Human-Centered Story

At this intersection of AI discoverability and emotional resonance, brands must hold a duality:

1. Structure: Titles, headings, schemas, alt text, and internal links – all built with semantic SEO in mind.
2. Story: Messaging that aligns with your values and builds emotional confidence in buyers.

This combination is not optional but it is the core of strategic business consulting in the AI era. And it’s where too many businesses fail. They either optimize only for search, losing humanity or they focus only on brand story, missing the structural logic needed to be found.

We call this dual approach “Machine-Readable, Human-Memorable.”

What AI Actually Looks For

Let’s break this down into the actual questions AI systems “ask” when choosing what to recommend:

• Is the brand’s presence technically clean and coherent across platforms?
• Do the people behind the brand communicate with authority and relevance?
• Is there alignment between what the company says and what it actually does?

If you’ve worked with us at VERA—whether on expanding into the EU, launching a new product, or refining your human-centered branding, you know we build this from the ground up. Each layer, from founder narrative to metadata structure, contributes to this machine-human synergy.

According to McKinsey & Co., 68% of purchase decisions in 2025 begin with an AI-generated shortlist. This means structured, multi-layered content is no longer a luxury but it is your brand’s passport to market relevance.

Discovery is Digital but Decisions Are Still Human

Once your brand is discovered, the human buyer steps in. Here, despite all the technological mediation, we return to something timeless:

People make decisions based on how your brand makes them feel.

Two questions dominate:

• Do I trust this company?
• Do I like their story?

And this is where strategy meets soul. At VERA, we specialize in guiding companies through this tension – between technical optimization and emotional intelligence.

LinkedIn and Edelman’s B2B report (2023) revealed that 88% of B2B buyers say emotional confidence in a brand influences final decisions. It’s a reminder that strategy without empathy is sterile, and branding without structure is invisible.

Building Brands That Perform in Both Worlds

This is where your future-focused business consulting agency becomes essential, not just for product expansion to EU markets, but for any brand aiming to survive and grow in 2025 and beyond.

Our work with small – mid size businesses, scale-ups, and international teams shows one thing clearly: The brands that win are those who integrate communication strategy with business strategy.

We call it fluid strategy for a fluid world – an adaptive, AI-era approach that evolves as fast as your customer’s expectations.

And this is why we created The VERA Shortlist video series: to explore, episode by episode, what this shift means in practice whether you’re entering the EU market, refreshing your brand, or leading a transformation from the inside out.

At VERA, our promise is to help you show up:

• In machine-curated search results.
• In people’s minds … and hearts.

Let’s build brands that earn a place in both.

Sources:

• HubSpot State of Marketing 2024
• McKinsey & Company Future of B2B Buying 2025
• Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, 2023
• LinkedIn & Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 2023