• by Toby Southgate , Yesterday

More than one billion people now use standalone AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity every month, according to a recent We Are Social report. Adoption has been rapid, global and irreversible. For marketers, the most important question isn’t how fast AI is spreading; it’s how that adoption is rewiring the way people move between channels we know and rely on.

The traditional funnel has finally collapsed, and in place of the linear consumer journeys we’re familiar with, we now have something that better resembles a pinball machine. We might begin with broad, conversational AI prompts, ricochet into social feeds for validation, bounce to search for comparison, consult creators for reassurance -- and often end up somewhere entirely unexpected.

Each interaction is a bounce. Each channel plays a distinct role. AI has simply added  new ramps, flippers, and alarms, accelerating the movement between touchpoints and increasing the unpredictability of the path to purchase.

So while AI is often the beginning of the journey -- whether we realize that or not, given the integration of AI into search -- it’s almost never the end.

When we use AI tools, queries are usually exploratory rather than transactional. Around 18% of conversations with AI focus on information-gathering, while the top three use cases are “therapy and companionship,” “organizing my life,” and “finding purpose.” These moments are about orientation and sense-making, not commerce.

Brands may surface through AI -- a gift idea, a shortlist, a recommendation --  but discovery is just the beginning. What follows is verification and sense-checking, where consistency and authenticity become critical. If your brand doesn’t show up coherently across touchpoints, trust erodes as quickly as attention.

Which brings us to social. Despite the AI hype cycle, social media’s role in the marketing mix has intensified. There are now 5.66 billion active social media user identities worldwide. Roughly two thirds of the global population uses social platforms every month.

Advertising on social remains the #3 source of brand awareness globally, just behind search and TV. And more than 30% of consumers say they discover new brands through social. Looking at younger audiences only, for 16- to 34-year-olds social remains the single biggest driver of awareness.

Any suggestion that social is being replaced should be put firmly to rest. But it’s not a silver bullet, either. The real shift marketers need to navigate is that the mix matters more than ever, so ideas and creativity become increasingly valuable.

AI doesn’t simplify marketing, it compresses timelines: decision cycles shorten,  channel-hopping accelerates, so brands influence across moments rather than unfolding in sequence. Planning for neat, linear journeys isn’t just outdated, it’s a misunderstanding of fundamental behaviors.

This demands a different mindset: less obsession with attribution, more focus on coherence and narrative. Marketing rewards those who design for movement rather than control, those who expect verification, friction and detours, and who build systems that can withstand them.

In the age of the pinball machine, success doesn’t come from watching the ball spin, or slowing it down. It comes from understanding the angles, and playing accordingly.