The AI-Powered Consumer

Happy Friday, Sippers!

How was your week? 

Ever feel like the ground is shifting under your brand's feet? 

Mine has been a whirlwind of post-Google Marketing Live excitement, making me feel like the recipe for brand building is being rewritten in real time.

For those who couldn't join us in Montreal, I can tell you that the energy was electric. 

It's moments like these that reignite my passion for what we do, weaving together the threads of brand building and the entrepreneurial hustle that have defined my career. 

While I was diving into the corporate world with giants like L'Oréal and Molson Coors, I was also on the front lines of the restaurant industry. I co-founded and built award-winning brands like  Joe Beef and Liverpool House from the ground up—literally emptying my own house to furnish the first one—all without spending a single dollar on advertising.

We did it by creating an undeniable experience and fostering a true sense of community. That relentless focus on the customer is the same energy I bring to you today because, in this new reality, understanding your customer is more critical than ever. The ground is constantly shifting beneath our feet. The linear path to purchase is replaced by a dynamic web of searching, streaming, and scrolling. 

So, let's pour a strong coffee (or a glass of wine, depending on when you read this). There’s so much to unpack that I’m splitting this into a two-part series. Today, in Part 1, we’ll look at how AI is empowering your customers. Next week, we’ll flip the script and explore the “The AI-Powered Brand.”

It's enough to make your head spin, but once the dust settles, the picture becomes incredibly clear: the way we interact with the world of information is fundamentally changing.

• Watch Google I/O '25 Keynote or here Under 10 minutes

• Watch Google Marketing Live 2025 or here Under 15 minutes

Forget everything you thought you knew about a "search." We're moving from a world of keywords and blue links to one of conversations, visual discovery, and delegated tasks. Consumers are being handed a new set of superpowers, and our job as brand builders is to understand how they'll use them.

Superpower #1: The Power of Conversation

The simple search box is evolving into a dynamic, two-way dialogue. 

People are no longer typing fragmented keywords; they're asking complex, nuanced questions, with queries in the new AI Mode in Search being 2-3 times longer than before. 

This is all powered by incredible advancements, such as Gemini 2.5, our most intelligent model yet, which serves as the new brain of the operation, excelling at reasoning and understanding complex information. It allows AI in Search to become your research assistant on steroids. With AI Overviews, already used by 1.5 billion people monthly, users get synthesized, comprehensive answers upfront. For truly deep dives, features like Deep Search can generate expert-level reports on a topic in minutes.

What this means for your brand: It's no longer about just being on the list of results. It's about being the answer. It requires a deep understanding of your customers' real-life problems and the ability to provide genuinely helpful solutions.

Superpower #2: The Power of Sight

"What is that flower?" "Where did they get that shirt?" Increasingly, our questions are visual. The use of Google Lens has exploded, growing 65% year-over-year, and one in five Lens searches shows commercial intent. New tools like Circle to Search, now on over 250 million Android devices, make it effortless to search for anything you see on your phone with a simple gesture. 

This capability is reaching a new level with Gemini Live & Search Live, which essentially turns the world into your search box. You can now use your camera to have a real-time conversation with Search about what's in front of you—like getting interactive assembly instructions for that flat-pack furniture box. This visual conversation extends directly to commerce with features like virtual Try-on, collapsing the purchase journey.

The takeaway for your brand: Your visual identity is now a front door to your brand. High-quality images and videos are no longer just campaign assets; they are the starting point for discovery. With new tools like Imagen 4, Veo 3 and Flow, an AI filmmaking tool that creates stunningly realistic and cinematic clips, brands of all sizes are now empowered to become incredible visual storytellers.

Superpower #3: The Power of Delegation

Perhaps the biggest shift is the move from finding information to getting things done. The new Agent Mode in Gemini will allow users to delegate complex, multi-step tasks to their AI assistant. 

Instead of dozens of separate searches, a user can say, "Plan a 4-day trip to Montreal for my family of four in August, find a hotel with a pool near a metro station, and book us tickets for the Jean-Talon market tour," and Gemini will orchestrate the entire process. 

We're even seeing the future of communication evolve with Google Beam, which creates a stunningly realistic 3D video experience, making virtual connections feel more like being in the same room.

How your brand can prepare: Is your business "agent-friendly?" Can an AI easily find your availability, understand your services, and complete a transaction on a user's behalf? Being ready for this new world of delegated tasks will be critical for growth.

The Sip: The Future is Human-Centric

While the technology is dazzlingly futuristic, it serves a very human purpose: to make our lives easier, more intuitive, and more connected. For brands, the lesson isn't to become an expert in AI models but to double down on being authentically human:

• Be the helpful answer. 

• Be the inspiring visual. 

• Be the seamless solution. 

In this new era, AI will find you if you are genuinely and relentlessly focused on serving your customer's needs, and I'm here for it.

That wraps up Part 1 on the new AI-Powered consumer. 

Get ready for next week, when we'll dive into Part 2: The AI-Powered Brand.

See you next week

(And yes, I might have used Gemini to help me write this).