Humanity’s Next Chapter in Marketing

I’ve been reading Mark Schaefer’s new book, How AI Changes Your Customers: A Marketer’s Guide to Humanity’s Next Chapter.

It’s a powerhouse read because, whether we like it or not, AI is already changing how customers behave. And if you’re a professional advisor, that means it’s changing how they choose you.

Before you tune out thinking this is another “AI is taking over” post, stay with me. This one’s for people who actually sell ideas, advice, and trust.

The Wake-Up Call: You Now Have Two Customers

That’s right. From here on out, you’re selling to two decision-makers in every sales process:

  1. The human prospect (your CEO, founder, or business-owner target).
  2. Their AI agent, the invisible assistant already helping them research, vet, and recommend.

AI will increasingly decide:

  • Who’s credible.
  • Who’s worth meeting.
  • Who actually solves problems.

And if your digital presence doesn’t make that clear?
AI won’t recommend you, so the human never finds you.

The Cost of Surrender

If you depend on “being found,” you’ve already given up control of your top of funnel.

You’re now playing on rented land, and AI is your new landlord.

Every platform that helps you get found—Google, LinkedIn, ChatGPT, you name it—will be monetized. That means:

  • You’ll either pay to be visible, or
  • You’ll spend your life chasing algorithm changes.

Neither is sustainable if you’re an advisor who values predictability.

The Better Way: Sell to Both Customers

Here’s the opportunity: you can sell to humans and algorithms at the same time.

Everything you create for AI—the thought leadership, the case studies, the credibility content—builds trust with real humans too.

Everything you do in person—the referrals, introductions, credibility you build with Centers of Influence—gives AI the social proof signals it looks for.

It’s not two separate strategies. It’s one integrated approach to marketing in the new era.

If you’ve ever sold in a multi-stakeholder environment, this will feel familiar. The only difference now is that one of the stakeholders isn’t human.

How Advisors Win in the AI Era

Here’s how you stay ahead:

1. Take back control of the top of your funnel.
Identify your ideal prospects by name before they ever go looking. AI can’t block what starts by referral.

2. Be referable—both online and off.
When someone checks you out (and they will), make sure AI finds proof that you’re credible, consistent, and trustworthy.

3. Leverage your relationships.
Referrals still skip the line. A warm introduction beats a cold algorithm every time.

4. Create content that educates, not advertises.
AI rewards clarity, transparency, and authority, and so do the humans you actually want to meet.

The Real Shift

AI isn’t killing relationship-based business.
It’s amplifying it.

Those who already build trust through human networks are about to get even stronger, because the machines will surface the evidence of that trust.

If you rely solely on AI-driven leads, you’re working for the algorithm.
If you build human networks that AI validates, the algorithm works for you.

Final Thought

The question isn’t whether AI will change your business.
It already has.

The real question is:
Will you train it to recognize your value before someone else does?

Let’s stop pretending this is the future.
It’s the present.