My wife recently asked if now was a good time to buy a car. I was sure the answer was no, but figured I’d do a little research. A few prompts into an AI chatbot, I learned I’m actually just months away from my car’s peak residual value and that trading in now might be the smartest move.

Just like that, we’re in the market for a new car.

That one conversation kicked off a whole research journey: reading reviews, watching walk-throughs, comparing trims on sites like Car and Driver. Not long ago, that journey would have started with a friend’s recommendation over dinner, then unfolded slowly over time.

That’s what’s changing: The conversation that creates intent—the one that moves someone from not in-market to in-market—used to happen offline, between people. With AI, that conversation is shifting online.

That shift is bigger than it looks. And I think most of the ad industry is misreading what it means.

Every major shift in digital advertising follows a similar pattern: take something that happens offline, make it addressable and make it measurable. Connected TV did this for television. Retail media did it for the endcap and the circular. LLMs are doing it for word of mouth, arguably the most powerful and most persistent holdout of analog human behavior.

Social media tried to digitize conversation, but it largely became a broadcasting medium. Messaging apps got closer but proved inhospitable to advertising. LLMs are something different entirely. Chatting with AI feels more like a genuine one-on-one conversation than anything digital advertising has had access to before. People are asking for recommendations, comparing products, working through decisions—behaviors that used to happen between friends over coffee.

This isn’t just a new channel. It’s the digitization of conversation itself and an expansion of the addressable opportunity for the entire open internet.

Consumer research The Trade Desk Intelligence conducted with PA Consulting, across 3,000 consumers and 200 real search journeys, makes the opportunity and the imperative clear. AI tools are already reshaping the top of the funnel, compressing discovery and narrowing options faster than traditional search ever could. Consumers are 1.2 times more likely to start a search journey with an AI tool than without one.

But here’s what the “AI will collapse the funnel” crowd gets wrong: Conversation sparks inspiration, but it doesn’t make decisions. Eighty-eight percent of consumers aren’t fully comfortable relying on AI-generated answers alone for high-stakes decisions. They’re 1.6 times more likely to turn to content from premium publishers—experts—for the confidence needed to finalize a purchase. And 95% have gone back to verify what an AI tool told them on trusted, premium sites.

Just like those dinner table conversations, AI brings people in-market. But the quality content, trusted publishers and credible reviews that comprise today’s open internet are still where decisions get confirmed. The funnel isn’t collapsing. It’s being rewired, with a new, AI-powered front door.

Read the full article on The Current.