Small companies can win AI search
A few weeks ago at AI Summit Barcelona, someone handed me a microphone and forgot to take it back. 🤣 It was one of the best conversations I have had on stage. Here are my three takeaways.
01SMBs can win AI search
Most people assume the big brands will take everything. I think it could be the opposite.
A small team working with AI agents can move faster than a large company's marketing department. And prompts are more specific than Google searches.
Nobody types “running shoes” into ChatGPT. They ask for trail shoes for wide feet, under €100, for a first ultra. A small company can be the exact answer.
02Context is what makes AI useful
AI agents can write content in seconds. That's not the hard part anymore. The hard part is giving them enough context to write something worth reading: who you are, who you serve and what you believe.
Stale context makes stale content. Keep it up to date. And have a real point of view. If you have nothing unique to say, AI has no reason to cite you.
Visibility is not earned by manufacturing mentions. It is earned by having something clear and true to say.
03AI traffic arrives with stronger buying intent
The number I shared on stage was this: customers who find you through AI can convert 7 to 10 times better than customers from traditional search. By the time they reach you, AI has already done the research, compared the options and recommended you. They show up ready to buy.
I would not treat that as a universal benchmark. It depends on the category, the prompt and how you measure conversion. The simpler point is this: when someone arrives from an AI recommendation, much of the comparison work is already done.
Sources and context
- Official Daniel Espejo speaker page
- Official AI Summit Barcelona schedule
- Daniel's original LinkedIn post
- Omnia analysis of decision prompts and conversion
Thanks to Jakob Seeger for leading the conversation, Antoine Heftler and Fernando Angulo for the sharp takes, and the AI Summit Barcelona team for putting us on stage. Now we need to help more small teams show up where their customers are already asking questions.