Why Your AI Strategy Is Really a Data Strategy

In the debut episode of The Visibility Brief, Yext SVP of Marketing Rebecca Colwell sits down with Chief Data Officer Christian Ward to unpack how AI is fundamentally reshaping the way consumers search — and what that means for brand visibility today.Search isn’t just about keywords anymore. Consumers are asking more complex, personalized questions, and AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are becoming the first stop for answers. So how do you make sure your brand surfaces — and shows up accurately — when there's no traditional search result to optimize for?Christian breaks down:How AI understands and interprets brand informationThe difference between structured and unstructured dataWhy citations are the new backlinks in the world of LLMsHow location, memory, and personalization shape resultsWhat marketers need to do right now to stay visible in AI search"Your AI strategy is just your data strategy. If your information isn't structured, you're invisible."Plus, Christian shares insights from Yext’s proprietary research on over 6 million AI citations — revealing how AI platforms really decide which brands to recommend.If you’re a marketing leader trying to future-proof your strategy for the AI era, this episode is your starting point.