AI and the Changing Consumer Journey

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.