AI search’s bland tax threatens brand visibility, Semrush warns

Sameness now carries a real cost in AI search. Semrush CMO Andrew Warden said brands face a “real risk of sameness” as AI systems increasingly decide which answers get surfaced, and which messages never make it through.

Warden made the case at Adobe Summit in Las Vegas, where the conversation centered on AI, brand visibility and the agentic web. His warning was blunt: “the idea of standing out is no longer optional.” In his view, visibility has shifted from winning a ranking to being recognizable enough for AI systems to trust, cite and include.

That shift matters because the economics are moving fast. Semrush says the average AI search visitor is 4.4 times as valuable as the average traditional organic search visitor, based on conversion rate. The company also projects that AI search visitors could surpass traditional search visitors by early 2028. In other words, getting excluded from AI answers is not just a branding problem. It is a revenue problem.

The larger issue is that AI tools compress the marketing funnel and can deprioritize links altogether. Instead of sending users down a familiar chain of blue links, AI search often answers the question directly, then narrows the field before a brand ever earns a click. That creates the bland tax: if a company sounds interchangeable, it can become easy for AI to ignore.

Semrush’s own AI Visibility Study points to a practical fix. AI models often favor community-generated and third-party sources over official marketing, with Wikipedia and Reddit frequently outranking corporate sites in citations. Semrush said Wikipedia appeared as the No. 1 or No. 2 cited source in four of five verticals studied, underscoring how external corroboration can matter as much as polished brand copy.

The message from Adobe Summit’s AI-focused sessions was consistent with that reality. Programming this year highlighted brand visibility and content management in the agentic web, along with sessions such as “Brand Visibility and Content Management in the Agentic Web” and “From Volume to Brand Value.” The takeaway for marketers was clear: distinct claims, original data and memorable phrasing improve the odds of being surfaced, while generic language makes brands easier to collapse into category sameness.

Semrush’s own efforts suggest the payoff can be real. The company said it nearly tripled its share of voice for target prompts in one month, rising from 13% to 32%. As AI becomes a gatekeeper for discovery, the brands that give it something specific to cite will have the best chance of being seen at all.