AI, the new intermediary between brands and the world
by Miguel Lucas
The Cluetrain Manifesto asked brands to cut out intermediaries and speak directly with people. Just when they had managed it, AI slipped in between them as the most powerful intermediary in history. Now what?
In 1999, the Cluetrain launched the thesis that redefined marketing: “Markets are conversations” 1. The message was clear: enough sterile corporate talk; brands must converse like people. Without filters. Without mediators. For twenty-five years, that’s exactly what they tried to do. Social networks, communities, content, transparency. The promise, slowly, was being kept.
And then, without anyone planning it, someone slipped into the conversation.
Imagine spending two decades learning to talk directly with your customers, only to discover one day that a stranger has positioned themselves behind your counter. They serve your customers before you’ve opened your mouth. They describe your brand, recommend — or don’t recommend — your products, tell your story in their own way. Sometimes they get it right. Sometimes they invent a discount that doesn’t exist. You didn’t hire them, you haven’t trained them, you don’t control what they say. But your customers trust them. More than your advertising, more than your influencers.
This is not a metaphor. According to a study by ALM Corp and SEMrush, 43% of consumers said they had discovered a new brand through an AI tool — not a paid ad or a Google search 2. Gartner predicts that by 2026 traditional search will drop 25%, as AI chatbots become “substitute answer engines” 3. And BCG confirms that consumers perceive these systems as “objective and transparent” guides, free from the clutter of ads or the bias of influencers 4.
The mechanism is as simple as it is profound: the user surrenders their attention to a system that summarizes market reality. In that summary, the brand loses control of its own narrative. If you don’t appear in the synthesis, you don’t exist for that user. If you appear distorted, there’s no one to complain to.
The irony is almost perfect. The Cluetrain demanded the elimination of intermediaries. What arrived instead is the ultimate intermediary: one that speaks better than any person but has no biography, no intention, no accountability. Amazon controlled the shelf. Google controlled the index. AI controls the conclusion directly. Markets are still conversations, yes. Except your brand is no longer at the table. It’s on the menu.