This requires a new approach to content, similar in intention to SEO but adapted to the logic of large language models, whether by being present in their training data or by remaining accessible in real time through retrieval mechanisms. Content creation is therefore no longer an end in itself: it must be designed to be exploitable and integrated, otherwise brands will simply disappear from the answers provided to users.
This evolution goes far beyond information, as these engines are expected to become transactional. Buying a product, booking a service, managing a claim, or executing a banking operation could soon be done without ever leaving the conversation. For brands, this means making sure their systems and data can be accessed by these tools, through new emerging protocols that enable action execution. Failing to prepare risks being absent the day transactions move massively into these interfaces.
This shift also reshapes the balance of power. Brands may seize the opportunity to sell directly without intermediaries, although nothing guarantees that the balance with these new players will be more favorable than with retailers or marketplaces. The latter will need to redefine their value proposition if the marketplace function is absorbed by conversational engines, most likely by reinforcing their strengths in logistics, customer service, or in-store experience. Websites face the same question: if information is fully accessible within the engines, what added value do they provide? Without reinvention, they risk becoming the dark kitchens of the conversational internet, invisible and gradually abandoned. It mirrors what happened to physical stores at the dawn of e-commerce, when many failed to offer complementary experiences and saw their business models collapse.
The final challenge is advertising, perhaps the most sensitive of all. Yesterday’s visible formats, such as banners and sponsored links, are giving way to recommendations directly embedded in answers, with unprecedented subtlety. The risk is clear: if users cannot distinguish organic advice from paid promotion, the line between information and manipulation disappears. The scandals surrounding influencers provide a useful parallel, when social platforms were forced to impose explicit sponsorship disclosures. The same demand for transparency will be essential here, especially since conversational engines have built their success on a unique relationship of trust, to the point that some users already treat them like a therapist or a doctor. Exploiting this trust through opaque advertising mechanics would open the door to serious abuses. Current strategies reveal two contrasting visions: on one side, an aggressive approach seeking to integrate advertising massively into the experience, at the risk of polluting it; on the other, a more selective and transparent approach, experimenting with limited formats and revenue sharing with publishers, but facing clear scalability limits.
Between these extremes, the challenge will be to find a sustainable balance between monetization and the preservation of trust, because it is precisely this trust that determines the future of these engines.
