I’m about to sound a little arrogant, but advertising has always felt like the soft side of business. I’ve long admired companies like Chipotle, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Zara, Starbucks, Tesla, Facebook (back when it was Facebook), and others that grew logarithmically with little to no advertising. I always figured if you had a product that was flat-out better than everything else, you didn’t need to worry too much about getting it out there. It would just happen.
Mark Andreessen has a saying: “Strong opinions, loosely held.” Well, this was one of mine and it’s changed. Not only was I wrong, I’m realizing I’ll probably be more wrong as we push deeper into the AI age. Frontier labs and the bleeding edge of tech aside, I’d bet good money that the shifts underway in business will force every founder and operator to get a lot better at advertising if they want to succeed. Here’s why.
My technical output has gone exponential over the past six months. I’m doing more with less in ways that feel surreal. And I’m not special. It’s happening everywhere. That means more products, more startups, and a lot more noise especially in software. And that’s just the start. AI is about to unleash massive changes in the physical world too. Ideas will go from head → CAD → code → machine → object faster than ever before. Whether it’s a mill, an injection molding machine, or a metal 3D printer, execution is about to get cheap and fast. Bezos’ “your margin is my opportunity” and Mauboussin’s Measuring the Moat will hit harder than ever. The gap between idea and execution is collapsing.
In that world, two things will matter more than anything: quality* and agency. And the hardest thing you’ll do as a builder isn’t shipping—it’s being heard.
*quality = Robert Pirsig’s definition of quality; If you need help understanding what I mean, throw up a comment. Maybe I’ll make a post on this alone.
Awareness, brand, CAC, retention, trust—all of it becomes harder. Here’s how I think this plays out (as a product guy, CFO, and non-marketer who’s now obsessed with this problem):
1. Trusted creators become more valuable
Yes, AI will flood us with content. That’s exactly why trusted humans—who already have an audience become more important. Product placements, podcast reads, short-form shoutouts, deep-dive gear reviews: they’ll all matter more if the creator is credible. Noise raises the premium on signal. Its arguable brands signal something similar; with so much noise, people may flock to things they know.
2. SEO gets flipped on its head
We’re moving from “Google that” to “ask the model.” Blue links matter less; prompt results matter more. You want your business to show up when someone asks, not just when they search. Right now, LLMs use search and feed results into their output but the moment your product is in the model itself, your chances of being surfaced go way up. LLM optimization (LLMOO?) is the new SEO. Wild west.
3. AI-powered campaigns go micro
AI will power niche-targeted creative (even down to n=1), optimize campaigns in real-time, and push weirdly personal ads. Meta’s already doing it. Tools exist today. It’s a mess right now, and I don’t think it’ll solve GTM for startups in the next 1–4 quarters—but it’s coming.
4. Agentic optimization
As AI agents become a real thing, how you structure content and APIs for them will matter. Tools like OpenAI’s MCP (basically an API for an AI) might be critical. If you want to be “usable by AI,” you need to start thinking about how to build interfaces they can access and understand. Being agent-friendly will be like being mobile-friendly was in 2012.
5. Programmatic ad costs keep climbing
Google CPC is up 5% YoY. Paid social CPM is up too. As more startups flood every niche and everyone fights for the same digital attention, prices will rise. It’s basic supply and demand. The counter: great creative and relentless testing. AI can help here too high-velocity content, lots of experiments, and smart iteration. But don’t expect miracles. It’ll take management.
6. Automation is your leverage
Smart use of tools like n8n will help you squeeze more juice from every click. You’ll still pay more, but your conversion rates should go up too. Every inbound should kick off a ruthless, AI-powered funnel that maximizes the chance they convert. No excuses here just build better flows.
7. The white glove play still wins
Ironically, as everything gets automated, human touch may matter more. Personally reaching out to potential customers, guiding them through onboarding, giving them attention that old-school stuff may turn users into superfans. It’s sales, not advertising, but it drives the best kind of growth: word of mouth.
What am I missing? Probably a lot. But here’s the punchline: building the thing is getting easier; getting people to care is getting harder. That’s the paradox of the AI era. Tools will help, sure. But humans are weird, society’s chaotic, and advertising is still one of the hardest problems in business.
You’re not just building a product. You’re building awareness. Good luck.