Artificial intelligence is reshaping the responsibilities of marketing leaders, pushing them far beyond traditional advertising and brand campaigns.
As AI-powered search tools increasingly influence how consumers discover businesses, marketing executives are taking on broader roles that span customer experience, product development, communications, and corporate reputation.
For Ally Financial, this transformation is already underway, with Chief Marketing Officer Andrea Brimmer arguing that her current title no longer fully reflects the scope of her work.
Marketing Has Become a Company-Wide Strategy
Since joining the digital financial services company as CMO in 2015, Brimmer has overseen a dramatic expansion of the marketing function.
What was once a department of fewer than 40 employees has evolved into a multidisciplinary organization responsible for communications, creative services, user experience, customer acquisition, product innovation, and consumer insights.
Rather than focusing solely on advertising campaigns, the team now works across nearly every aspect of the customer journey, helping shape both the company’s products and its public image.
AI Search Is Changing How Customers Find Businesses
Brimmer believes generative AI has fundamentally altered the way consumers make purchasing decisions.
Instead of searching for a specific bank or financial product, customers increasingly ask AI assistants broader questions such as how to invest extra money or improve their finances.
AI systems then recommend companies based on a wide range of signals, including reputation, customer satisfaction, authority, and product quality.
This means businesses are no longer competing only for search engine rankings—they are competing to become the recommendation generated by large language models.
Reputation Now Shapes AI Recommendations
According to Brimmer, maintaining a strong reputation has become essential in the AI era.
She noted that every customer interaction contributes to how AI systems interpret a company’s credibility.
Poor customer service, negative publicity, operational mistakes, or unhappy employees can all influence how AI assistants describe and recommend a business.
Conversely, positive experiences and responsible corporate behavior strengthen a company’s standing when AI evaluates which brands to present to users.
Ally Is Monitoring How AI Understands Its Brand
Brimmer cited data from AI search analytics platform Scrunch, which found that Ally was the most frequently mentioned bank in response to general banking questions across major AI assistants between January 2025 and July 2026.
To maintain that position, the company has shifted its focus toward understanding how AI models gather and process information about businesses.
Internal teams now work to identify misinformation, improve AI visibility, and better understand the intent behind consumer questions.
Brand Reputation Extends Beyond Marketing
The growing influence of AI has blurred the lines between departments inside many organizations.
Brimmer argues that customer service, employee treatment, communications, product quality, and operational decisions all contribute to the reputation AI systems build around a company.
As a result, marketing has become less about creating campaigns and more about ensuring the entire organization consistently delivers positive customer experiences.
AI-First Teams Are Driving Internal Changes
To adapt to these new realities, Ally has reorganized parts of its business around what Brimmer describes as an “AI-first mindset.”
Cross-functional teams analyze customer behavior, monitor how AI platforms interpret the company, and continuously update information that could influence AI-generated recommendations.
Every product launch, media mention, customer review, and employee interaction is treated as valuable data that contributes to the company’s digital reputation.
Marketing Is Being Measured by Business Results
Brimmer believes marketing should no longer be viewed primarily as a cost center.
Instead, she argues it directly contributes to revenue growth by strengthening customer trust, increasing pricing flexibility, and building long-term brand value.
Customers who have confidence in a company’s reputation, she says, are less likely to choose products based solely on price, giving businesses greater room to compete on value rather than discounts.
Customer Insights Are Helping Build New Products
Marketing’s expanding influence also reaches product development through Ally’s internal innovation unit, known as TM Studio.
The team uses customer research to identify unmet needs before designing new financial products.
One example came after researchers discovered that many customers save for multiple goals—such as vacations, weddings, education, and future vehicle purchases—while most banks still required separate accounts for each objective.
That insight led to the creation of “savings buckets,” allowing customers to organize multiple savings goals within a single account.
The Definition of a CMO Is Rapidly Changing
For Brimmer, developments like savings buckets demonstrate how marketing has evolved beyond advertising into a discipline centered on customer intelligence, innovation, and business strategy.
As AI continues to reshape how companies compete for consumer attention, she believes today’s marketing leaders are increasingly responsible for influencing every aspect of the customer experience—making the traditional title of chief marketing officer feel too narrow for the role it now represents.
