In the healthcare and biotechnology space, your brand’s search strategy not only amplifies the commercial reach of your innovation, but it also amplifies the ability for it to make a lasting impact on human health. As the CEO of a brand strategy and activation agency for biotech and healthcare brands, I’ve noticed a growing interest in how advancements like AI search are affecting the clients we serve.

Here are four things brands should know to keep up with the rapidly evolving landscape of AI within marketing.

1. Consumers Are Turning To AI For Healthcare Questions

In the marketing funnel of awareness to consideration to conversion, many people now start their searches using generative AI platforms for answers and decision making. This includes topics related to health. Half of consumers are using AI search today, and one in four of the 800 million regular users of ChatGPT submit a prompt related to healthcare every week.

It’s not just patients using AI either. In 2024, over 50% of the physicians surveyed by the American Medical Association reported that they were already using or planning to use AI within the next year for tasks like summarizing medical research and standards of care and sharing patient-facing health recommendations.

With the recent announcement of ChatGPT Health, which will allow people to connect their personal health data to the chatbot for help interpreting it, health-related searches within AI platforms are likely to continue or increase. Similarly, for professional audiences, Anthropic has announced Claude for Life Sciences and Claude for Healthcare.

2. AI Tools Are Already Synthesizing Your Brand Information

AI search visitors are expected to surpass traditional search visitors by 2028. Brands, as part of their overall search engine marketing (SEM) strategy, must start considering generative engine optimization (GEO) in addition to search engine optimization (SEO) for discovery. The aim is to get your information recommended within generative AI platforms and AI-generated answers, such as Google’s AI Overviews.

Have you Googled your brand recently? What does the AI Overview say? And what links does it provide as sources for the information? If your available content isn’t already optimized for AI-generated answers, this should be one of the first things you update.

Google’s AI Overviews typically provide a short list of recommendations and justify the reasoning. Consider structuring content around explicitly answering questions and providing clear, scannable content with attributes that AI can use to extract and easily explain why your offering is a good choice. This includes using strong headings and concise sentence structure; formatting with lists or Q&A blocks; and using sentences that are self-contained and make sense when pulled out of context.

3. Brands Need To Lead With Authority And Authenticity

According to recent research, a brand must be perceived as an authority by AI to win its recommendation. Earning backlinks from reputable sources, having your product featured in expert roundups and demonstrating knowledge by creating expert-level content are all things that can build AI’s trust in your brand.

Where you build this credibility is just as important. Google’s AI summaries pull from trusted websites (e.g., those ending with .edu, .gov, etc.) and community discussion platforms (e.g., Reddit and Quora). In order to be seen as credible and thus cited, your brand needs to be present in these spaces when possible.

However, don’t forget your audience’s perception of your brand—that’s where authenticity comes in. Yes, optimize for AI search, but also once someone finds your brand, carefully consider how and when you are using generative AI to tell your brand’s story to make sure it doesn’t turn audiences away.

4. Evidence Is Still Essential

In an age when people consult the internet in addition to or instead of medical professionals, they need to be able to discern what information is reliable. We know AI tools can still hallucinate and provide false information, even as models improve. Patient audiences will (hopefully) try to verify the information AI provides, and brands must make the scientific evidence available to them.

Any business can craft content optimized for Google search presence or AI discovery, even if they are offering scientifically unsupported medical treatments for serious illnesses. Currently, Google doesn’t show ads in AI Overviews for sensitive verticals like healthcare. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t still be competing with shady businesses that, for example, also bid on advertising space for searches like “effective alternatives to chemotherapy” or “stage 4 cancer treatment.”

In addition, if your audience is made up of scientifically trained decision makers, there’s a high bar for health innovations. This is because doctors rely on evidence-based practice as a decision-making framework, which means proof is still essential for them to adopt a new clinical approach. Your marketing strategy should still prioritize this.

Innovation only makes a difference if it can reach the right people. AI search is fundamentally changing how consumers navigate decision making, and brands must adapt in order to be discoverable.

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?

Source link