The Rise of LLMs Is Not an Accident
What 500 consumers revealed about trust, search, and the future of decision-making
May 22, 2026 – 4:52 pm
Image by: Canva
Over three decades, I’ve watched consumer behavior evolve across television, search, and social media. Each shift changed tactics, but not the underlying logic of decision-making.
What I am watching happen right now is different. And I know I am not alone. Every seasoned marketing professional I speak to, whether they built their career in offline media or digital platforms, says some version of the same thing: something fundamental has shifted, and the old playbooks are no longer working the way they used to.
This is not just a platform change. It is a psychological one. For the first time in my career, I am watching users move from searching for information to seeking certainty, and that distinction changes everything.
When Behavior Was Predictable
I remember the era when a celebrity’s face on a television screen was essentially a guarantee. Brand loyalty tracked closely with fan loyalty. If your brand ambassador had a devoted following, that following would follow them to your product. It was a simple, time-tested formula: attention creates association, association creates purchase. And it worked, consistently, for decades.
When the internet arrived, it digitized that predictability rather than dismantling it. Google and Yahoo turned discovery into a structured, keyword-driven system. Users searched, engines returned ranked results, and businesses that showed up at the top of those results won the customer. For the better part of a decade, through multiple algorithm updates, through the rise of paid search, through the SEO arms race, the core principle held: be visible, and you will be chosen.
Both eras rewarded the same thing: reach. Who could get in front of the most people, most often? That question shaped marketing strategy for nearly thirty years.
What Has Actually Changed
The change I am describing is not about which platform is winning or losing. It runs deeper than that, it is about how people make decisions.
Celebrity credibility has eroded in a way it simply had not before. It is not that people distrust celebrities, it is that modern consumers understand the commercial ecosystem they operate inside. They know that an endorsement is a transaction. And with global information available at their fingertips at all times, they also know that a single endorsement is not a sufficient reason to spend money.
Younger consumers in particular, Gen Z and late millennials, have moved almost entirely toward first-hand experience. Their own experience, or that of someone in their immediate circle, their age group, their specific context. Not someone famous. Someone relatable. And even then, they verify.
The online and offline distinction has also largely dissolved. A consumer who sees a product in a store will pull out their phone before they put it in their cart. A consumer who hears a recommendation from a friend will cross-check it before acting on it. The need for certainty is the new constant.