AI has drastically changed the way we search the internet; that much is already clear. But the interesting question is a different one: what happened, along the way, to the purchase journey for a product? Is AI really the one calling the shots now?
Picture the scene. Someone sees a coffee maker on TikTok that promises to change their life, or asks ChatGPT which one is worth buying. They get excited. But before paying, they do what almost all of us do: they send the link to the family WhatsApp group with a “does this actually work or is it all hype?” And they wait for the verdict.
Notice everything that came into play in that single decision. AI plays one role, influencers play another, viral social content plays yet another. None of them rules alone: together they build the repertoire the consumer uses to discuss their purchase options with family and friends.
The myth and the truth
The myth: AI dethroned people; now we trust the machine.
The truth: the trust hierarchy hasn’t moved an inch. What changed is the point of entry. Before, a product entered your radar through TV or an offhand recommendation; now it enters through TikTok or a ChatGPT answer. But whoever validates, whoever gives you the emotional permission to buy, is still the same as always: your people. AI triggers. Family confirms. The order changed, not the authority.
The numbers don’t lie
And this isn’t marketer intuition; it’s measured. According to Edelman, 88% of Gen Z still ranks family as their most trusted source, and 84% ranks friends, far above journalists, religious leaders, or politicians[1]. At the same time, social platforms — TikTok, Instagram, YouTube — now account for more than 60% of product discovery, overtaking Google as the starting point for search[2].
Put it together and the picture gets sharper: social media makes the introduction; the family group validates. Family curates what’s viral. For a brand, appearing in the feed is no longer enough: you have to appear in a way that survives the trip through the family chat.
The tension almost no one sees
Here’s the subtle problem. If a brand doesn’t make it into the AI’s answer, it never even reaches the family conversation. The point of entry became a filter: what AI doesn’t mention doesn’t get discussed, doesn’t get validated, and therefore doesn’t get bought.
It’s a shift in location, not in power. But ignoring it means being knocked out of the game before the referee even blows the whistle.
Where the honest conversation moved
There’s a second, quieter shift. The real questions (the uncomfortable ones, the vulnerable ones, the ones you wouldn’t ask in public) have moved neighborhoods. From Instagram’s open comments they moved to Reddit, Discord, niche forums, private Facebook groups, and direct messages. Especially in sensitive categories where stigma rules: that’s where people ask what they’d never write with their name and photo attached.
The consequence? If your category touches something intimate or stigmatized, the public layer is the worst place to listen. The conversation that truly moves your brand is happening where traditional tools can’t reach.
Listening now has three layers
That’s why, at Maggiore, we stopped thinking of listening as a single thing. Today it has three layers, and each one calls for a different method:
- Public signals. TikTok, Instagram, X, press, blogs. The usual layer, the one tools capture well. It’s useful for detecting trends and mentions, but it’s increasingly limited: the honest conversation no longer lives there.
- Community signals. Reddit, Discord, Quora, forums, private groups. Where the questions nobody would ask in public get asked — about symptoms, effects, real doubts, and what actually works. It requires specialized methodology and human interpretation.
- AI signals. How your brand appears (or disappears) within ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and AI Overviews. The layer almost no one is monitoring yet, and where invisibility quietly builds up.
What did we learn from this?
In the end, AI didn’t change who’s in charge of your purchase decisions. It changed where the information comes in… and, along the way, it changed what we, as brands, can listen to in return.
The brand that wins in this scenario isn’t the one shouting loudest in the feed. It’s the one that manages to come in through the new door — AI — and, above all, survive the verdict of the family group. Because that’s where the real decision is still being made, in that “does this work or is it all hype?”
Sources
[1] Edelman — “The Rise of Trusted Influence: 3 Key Gen Z Trends to Act On”
[2] Sprout Social — “Social Media Statistics 2026”