The news: First Horizon Bank has overhauled its digital marketing strategy to prepare for the AI search era by redesigning its website around customer needs, plain language, and discoverable content, per The Financial Brand. This corresponds with more consumers than ever—especially younger ones—using AI to search for banking products. 

Zooming in: According to The Financial Brand, First Horizon spent roughly 10 months relaunching its website after investing heavily in technology modernization. A key change was replacing internal banking terminology like "retail banking" with solution-oriented navigation such as "everyday banking" and "business banking," making it easier for customers and AI search platforms to understand the site's content. 

The bank also plans to continually expand educational content, viewing its website as its "biggest banking center" and recognizing that digital experiences require constant iteration rather than periodic redesign. 

Why it matters: AI is reshaping how consumers discover financial products, making discoverability—not just digital functionality—a new battleground. Banks that fail to optimize their websites for AI-powered search risk becoming less visible in consumer research, potentially losing opportunities before prospective customers ever visit a branch or speak with an advisor. 

That means marketing strategy is becoming a technology and customer experience issue rather than simply a branding exercise. 

Implications for banks: As consumers rely on AI assistants to research financial products, visibility in AI-generated recommendations is becoming as important as ranking well on Google. EMARKETER's “AI Visibility Index” already shows meaningful differences in how often banks appear in AI responses, as content strategy, website structure, and plain-language product descriptions are becoming competitive assets. First Horizon's redesign is an early example of banks adapting to this new reality.

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