From SEO to Agent-Led Growth: Profound’s James Cadwallader

Marketing has entered an era of "agent-led growth," where generative AI agents—rather than human consumers—act as the primary interface for internet discovery and purchasing decisions. James Cadwallader, CEO of Profound, highlights that this shift renders traditional SEO strategies insufficient, as agents consume information across a vastly wider surface area than humans. To remain visible, brands must move beyond mere keyword optimization to ensure their products are "legible" to AI, providing original insights that models cannot synthesize from existing web data. While the rise of agent-driven search threatens the traditional economic incentives of content creation, social media platforms are increasingly emerging as vital, human-centric environments for authentic data exchange. Ultimately, marketers must adopt agentic tools to automate complex workflows, such as real-time sales objection handling, or risk obsolescence in a landscape where AI agents increasingly steer consumer behavior.