The Rise of AEO in 2026: Scott Brinker's MarTech Predictions

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Introduction

# Scott Brinker, the "godfather of martech" and founder of chiefmartec.com, shares his insights on how marketing technology will evolve in 2026. With over 5,384 martech tools now available—a 9% increase despite 8.6% vendor churn—Brinker explains why AI didn't consolidate the market as predicted. Instead, it created new complexities that require marketers to fundamentally rethink their strategies for content, customer engagement, and technology adoption.#n#n1

AI Adoption: From Experimentation to Production

# While most marketers experimented with AI throughout 2025, few moved beyond limited production deployments. Brinker identifies two areas where AI is delivering real value: content production workflows and customer service chatbots. "Each step along those ways we are seeing people productively use AI," he notes, emphasizing that humans still drive the process but complete tasks much faster. Customer service chatbots now achieve 60-70% resolution rates by co ecting to proper backend data—knowledge bases, ticket histories, and customer profiles—marking a significant improvement over previous iterations.#n#n1

The Challenge of Non-Deterministic Systems

# The fundamental shift marketers must understand is moving from deterministic automation (if-this-then-that rules) to non-deterministic AI systems. While traditional automation was predictable and explainable, LLMs offer adaptability. "You can throw things at an LLM that would have broken one of those deterministic workflows," Brinker explains. The future lies in combining both approaches—maintaining structured workflows while incorporating LLMs at specific steps to handle unstructured data and content generation.#n#n1

AEO: The Evolution Beyond SEO

# Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) represents a critical evolution in how marketers approach visibility, though Brinker emphasizes SEO isn't dead. "I look at AEO as very much an augmentation, like a layer above and beyond core SEO," he states. The key difference lies in tactics: while SEO focused on backlinks for authority, AI engines track natural language references across platforms like Reddit. FAQ-style content resonates particularly well with LLMs, and marketers can now serve simplified markdown versions of pages specifically to AI agents—something Google previously discouraged.#n#n1

The Visibility Challenge

# The fundamental challenge with AEO is measurement. Unlike Google's well-instrumented system providing clear feedback loops, AI engines consume content without offering visibility into usage. Marketers must shift expectations about what they can measure while maintaining content production, as the value exists even without traditional attribution metrics.#n#n1

Context Engineering: The Next Frontier

# Moving beyond prompt engineering, 2026 will be the year of context engineering—bundling instructions, data access, and tools for AI agents to execute tasks effectively. The challenge isn't the AI itself but organizational readiness. "If you really want to get value out of these things, you got to step back from the AI piece of it and say, okay, what's the job to be done?" Brinker emphasizes. Success requires clearly defined processes, accessible data, and appropriate tools—elements many organizations still lack.#n#n1

The MarTech Landscape Transformation

# The proliferation of personal software development capabilities creates unprecedented competition for commercial MarTech vendors. With AI coding assistants enabling 10x productivity gains for professional developers and allowing non-technical users to build custom solutions, vendors face competition from both commercial alternatives and customer-built solutions. Brinker identifies orchestration as the critical gap—software providing guardrails and structure as organizations empower individuals to build their own agents and automations.#n#n1

Categories Under Threat

# Many specialized MarTech categories face existential threats as core AI assistants absorb their functionality. Writing assistance tools, competitive intelligence platforms, and prospect research solutions now compete directly with ChatGPT and similar LLMs that deliver "80% of the value for 20% of the work." The acceleration of technology adoption cycles means competitive advantages from new capabilities last months rather than years.#n#n1

The Customer Revolution of 2026

# Brinker's boldest prediction centers on AI empowering customers rather than marketers. "The AI revolution of 2026 is not going to be AI for marketers. It's going to be AI for customers, for buyers," he predicts. Agentic browsers already enable buyers to analyze complex pricing structures, compare competitors, and bypass traditional sales processes. This shift in information asymmetry—where buyers possess more information than sellers—will break existing go-to-market playbooks and force marketers to prioritize product quality, brand strength, and customer experience over manipulation of digital marketing levers.#n#n1

Conclusion

# As marketing technology continues its rapid evolution, success in 2026 will require embracing fundamental shifts in how we approach AI, content visibility, and customer relationships. While the tools and tactics change dramatically, Brinker reminds us that enduring principles remain: great products, strong brands, and genuine customer focus will determine success. Marketers must prepare for a world where customers control their journey completely, traditional measurement models break down, and the ability to adapt quickly becomes the ultimate competitive advantage.#n#n1