Buyers ask AI first. How should we plan our marketing?

More than nine in ten people who get a shopping tip from an AI go and check it before they buy.

That comes from this year's e-Conomy SEA report, published on 21 October by Google, Temasek and Bain. It asked AI users in six countries, Singapore among them, how they shop.

So the AI's answer is where the shortlist gets made. The sale is won or lost a few minutes later, when the buyer looks you up.

Most marketing plans leave that part out. With next year's budget being set now, put it in.

Where should your marketing go now that buyers ask AI first?

Plan for the whole path a buyer takes, and not for one channel. Many buyers now start by asking an AI, and almost all of them then check what it said: they search online, read reviews and look at social media. So your plan has four stops to cover: the AI's answer, a search for your name, your reviews and your recent posts. Walk the path yourself, fix the weakest stop first, and give every stop a little time each month.

Where buyers start now

Picture a couple furnishing their new flat in Tengah. They ask ChatGPT where to buy a sofa bed that fits a small living room. It names three shops.

That first step has become ordinary. Across the six countries, about half of the people surveyed said they use AI to find products in the first place. About one in five shopping journeys now begins inside an AI app, going by Google's summary of the report. Singapore leads the region: seven in ten of its working population use AI, about 3.2 million people, according to the report's Singapore pages.

The old doors are still open. Search engines and social media each still start about one in four shopping journeys. Your buyers come in through several doors at once, and the AI is now one of them.

Why the check decides the sale

Back to the couple. They don't walk into the first shop on the list. They type its name into Google. They read what other customers wrote. They open its Instagram to see real sofas in real flats.

Most people do the same. After an AI recommends something, more than nine in ten do more research or read reviews before they buy, the full report found. The three checks people make most are the three the couple made: a search online, customer reviews and social media. Only about one in ten said they trust an AI's shopping advice without checking it.

Think of the AI as a friend who recommends a restaurant. You trust the friend. You still look at the photos, the menu and the reviews before you book a table for six on Saturday night.

So if the AI names your business and the phone still doesn't ring, look at the check before you blame the AI. An old address in the search results. A website that never says what you sell. A newest review from two years ago. An Instagram that went quiet in March. Any one of them is enough for a careful buyer to move on to the second name.

Bigger decisions get checked harder

The report also shows when people check most. Buyers in Singapore are the region's most willing to take an AI's word for small things, like what to watch tonight or which food to order. For bigger purchases, people use AI to research and compare, and then take back control at the point where money changes hands. The report puts it plainly: people find AI most useful when they are weighing big-ticket purchases. Small, quick choices get taken on trust. Big ones get researched.

Many small businesses sell the bigger kind. A tuition programme for a child, a wedding photographer, an accountant, a sofa that has to last ten years. For those, the check is longer and stricter, and that is where your marketing has to do its work.

Plan your marketing as one path with four stops

A marketing plan usually reads like a list of channels: Instagram three times a week, some Google ads, a newsletter now and then. The buyer never sees that list. They see a path, one stop after another, and they leave at the first stop that lets them down.

So plan by the stops, and decide what each one must show a stranger who has never heard of you.

1. The AI's answer. Are you on the shortlist when someone asks for what you sell, in their own words? That depends on how clearly the websites and listings that AIs read describe you. Our guide to getting ChatGPT to recommend your business covers this stop.
2. A search for your name. This stop answers "is this business real, and still open?" The first screen should show the right address and opening hours, a website that works, and a first line that says what you sell and who it is for.
3. Your reviews. This stop answers "do people like me trust them?" A buyer sees in seconds when your newest review was written, and whether you answered the last unhappy one.
4. Your recent posts. This stop answers "will it look like that for me?" Posts from the last few weeks showing real work, real customers' homes or real results, and how to get in touch, answer it. A page that stopped months ago raises a doubt the AI never had.

Walk your own buyer's path this week

It takes about half an hour, on your phone, as a stranger would do it.

1. Ask an AI for what you sell, the way a customer would: "Where can I buy a sofa bed for a small flat in Singapore?" Note whether you are named, and who is named first.
2. Search your business name in a private browser window. Read the first screen as if you had never heard of yourself. Is the address right? Are the hours right? Does the first line say what you sell?
3. Open your reviews. How old is the newest one? Did you reply to the last one that complained?
4. Open your Instagram or Facebook. When was the last post? Would a stranger know from your last three posts what you sell and how to buy it?
5. Do the same for the business the AI named first. Write down every stop where it looks better than you.
6. Mark each of your stops green, amber or red. The first red one is where next month's effort goes.

Then split next year's time and money by the stops

Most plans give their effort to the stop the owner enjoys most. A shop that loves Instagram posts every day, while its Google listing still shows last year's opening hours. A buyer who reaches the listing first may never get as far as the posts.

A plan that follows the path does three things differently.

1. It fixes the weakest stop before adding a channel. More ads send more people down the same path. If the path breaks at the reviews, more ads send more people to the break.
2. It gives every stop an owner and a little time each month. An hour a month to keep the listing right. A set day each week to answer reviews. A steady rhythm of posts that keeps going after 11.11 and through December, rather than a burst that stops when the shop gets busy.
3. It asks what buyers checked, not only where they came from. When a new customer gets in touch, ask what they looked at before they did. "I asked ChatGPT, then read your reviews" tells you which two stops are working.

Then walk the path again every three months, the same way, and compare the colours with last time. That is your marketing plan's progress report, in a form anyone in the business can read.

Questions owners ask

Do we still need Google and social media if customers ask AI?

Yes. Search engines and social media each still start about one in four shopping journeys in the region, and they are two of the three places people go to check what an AI told them. An AI's recommendation with no good search result and no recent posts behind it has nothing to back it up when the buyer looks.

Which stop should we fix first?

The first one that fails when you walk the path yourself. If anything is wrong in the search for your own name, start there. Searching online was the most common check in the survey, so almost every buyer who checks passes through it. And a wrong address or missing hours takes minutes to correct.

Does this matter for a service business, or only for shops?

The survey asked about shopping, but the pattern it found is about how big the decision is: the more a choice costs, the more people research it. Choosing a tuition centre, an accountant or a contractor is that kind of choice.

Can an agency plan this with us?

Yes. AI WISE is a Singapore-based digital marketing agency serving Asia. Our marketing strategy work starts with a close look at what you run now. Then comes a short written plan: who you are for, which channels to use, the offer, each step from first seeing you to buying, and the few numbers that show whether it is working. The plan is reviewed each month against those numbers. See how our marketing strategy works.