Foreword
The journey moved before the site did.
Customers now research and decide with AI before they reach a brand’s site, and most of that activity never shows up in analytics. Referrer tracking tags 0.4% of visits as AI search, while 21.9% of visitors say they used AI before arriving. The journey has moved, and the instruments marketers rely on have not moved with it.
This study measures the shift from both sides. Knotch’s behavioral and on-site visitor data covers 19 enterprise brands over fifteen months. The MMA Marketer Survey asked senior marketers what they believe has changed, what they can measure and what they have rebuilt. Read together, the two show where customers have gone and how far marketers have followed.
It is needed because the response is being built on estimates. Marketers’ sense of how many visitors use AI first is close to the measured figure, yet most cannot see those visitors in their own data, and the budget behind the response is rising from a small base. Without a benchmark, every team is deciding alone.
Use this report to see where you stand against your peers, and what the marketers who are ahead did first.
AI is changing the customer journey. This study measures the gap between customer behavior and marketer action. Do marketers see what visitors are doing, and have they acted on it?
Marketers know customers research with AI before they arrive, and most cannot see it in their own data.
Executive summary
Marketers sense the shift, and although they cannot measure it yet, they have built the first layer to respond.
Customers research with AI before they reach the site. Marketers already know it.
Three in four marketers say AI has changed how customers research. One in five visitors used AI before arriving, and those visitors convert in fewer than half the pages.Most teams cannot see AI’s influence in their own data.
More than half cannot separate AI referrals from other traffic. Referral tracking tags 0.4% of visits as AI, while 21.9% of visitors used AI before arriving: 54 times more than the tracking shows.Content is now readable by AI. The site experience for AI-primed visitors is next.
Half of marketers restructured content for AI tools, and half rewrote pages for visitors who researched with AI first. Only 23% have taken the next step and rebuilt navigation for these visitors, and only 17% have rebuilt the path to conversion.Budgets rose almost everywhere. Risk, not proof, holds the response back.
Nine in ten marketers increased AI-related budget, yet half put under 10% of marketing spend behind it. Risk, brand safety and legal concerns are the top barrier, named by 47%, ahead of proving ROI at 30%. Most rate their readiness as moderate.
Methodology
Two lenses, in this order
Part A · What visitors do
Knotch tracked what visitors did on 19 enterprise brand sites and asked them, on site, whether they used AI before arriving and whether it drove the visit.
Visitors tracked and asked · Jan 2025 to Mar 2026
- 19brands
- 10industries
- 567Mpage views
- 32,425visitors asked
Part B · What marketers believe
MMA asked senior marketers what they believe has changed, what they can measure and what they have rebuilt.
Marketers surveyed · May to Jul 2026
- 103senior marketers
- 79%Director or above
- 72%own website decisions
- 5lead industries
Chapter 1
The change in customer behavior
Knotch data on how AI-primed visitors arrive, land and convert.
The full report
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6 chapters · 32 interactive exhibits
- 01 What visitors do
- 02 The pre-site decision
- 03 Measurement
- 04 Content and the site
- 05 Budgets and readiness
- 06 Conclusions
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AI and the Changing Consumer Journey 6 chapters · 32 interactive exhibits
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