Future of AI Search: Takeaways from Cision’s Leaders Lunch

Not every lunch leaves you thinking on the drive back, but this one did. On 14 May 2026, our CMO, Alan, and Head of Search, Joanne, were invited to an exclusive Leaders Lunch hosted by Cision at The Boardroom, Fullerton Hotel Singapore. The occasion? The official launch of Trajaan, Cision’s new AI Search Intelligence solution. It was an intimate, invitation-only session bringing together marketers and agency leaders to explore how the search landscape is shifting, and what that means for brands navigating this new era of discovery.

A Shift That’s Already Happening

Search has always been at the core of what we do in digital marketing. But the way people search, and where they search, has changed dramatically over the past couple of years. Ranking on Google is no longer the only thing that’s important. Today, audiences are discovering brands through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overview, and a growing list of platforms that didn’t even register on most marketers’ radars a few years ago. If your visibility strategy hasn’t kept up with that, you’re already playing catch-up in places you might not even be watching.

This is something we’ve been paying close attention to at Impossible Marketing. As an agency focused on AI SEO, we’ve seen firsthand how brands that rely solely on traditional search strategies are starting to lose visibility in places that matter.

The conversation at the Cision Leaders Lunch validated a lot of what we’ve been seeing on the ground and it also reframed something we hear often in the industry: the AI vs human marketing debate. Because at the table that day, it wasn’t a debate at all. The question isn’t which one wins. It’s how marketers use both to stay visible in a landscape that’s moving faster than most strategies can keep up with.

The Session: Sharp Perspectives from Industry Leaders

The lunch featured insights from Maria Bersteneva (Senior Director of Product Marketing, Brandwatch), Matthieu Danielou (Co-Founder of Trajaan and VP of Search Intelligence at Cision), and Ophilia Soliano (Customer Success Manager, Brandwatch). Together, they brought a well-rounded perspective on how brands and agencies are navigating the evolving search landscape, from understanding shifting consumer behaviour to the practical realities of building visibility across an increasingly fragmented discovery ecosystem.

The conversation felt genuinely collaborative rather than a one-way presentation, which made for a more engaging and honest exchange of ideas. It was the kind of session where you leave with more questions than you came in with, and that’s a good thing.

So, What is Trajaan?

Trajaan is an AI Search Intelligence platform designed to help brands and agencies understand what’s happening across the full spectrum of modern search. Not just Google, but across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and other emerging platforms where discovery is increasingly happening.

Where traditional keyword tools fall short, Trajaan steps in to:

• Identify search demand through prompts – Track what users are asking and uncover trending queries relevant to your business.
• Competitor visibility insights – Discover prompts where competitors are appearing but your brand is not.
• Uncover new opportunities – Identify gaps and emerging opportunities to improve visibility and capture demand.

For agencies like ours, this is significant. A big part of what we do is help our clients show up where their audiences are. And as more of that discovery shifts to AI-powered platforms and conversational search, knowing what’s happening across those      touchpoints becomes critical. Trajaan is built for exactly that.

Our Take: Why GEO and AI Visibility Are Non-Negotiable

We’ve been investing in GEO and AI visibility strategies for a while now, and sessions like this reinforce why it’s the right direction. The brands that will win in the next few years are the ones that understand they’re not just competing for rankings on a search results page. They’re competing to be mentioned, recommended, and surfaced by AI systems that are shaping how people find information.

That’s a different game. It requires different thinking, different tools, and a different set of metrics. Traditional SEO isn’t going anywhere, but it’s no longer enough on its own.

What Trajaan brings to the table is the ability to monitor and analyse this broader landscape in one place. For a digital marketing agency managing multiple clients across different industries, that kind of consolidated intelligence is useful. It means we can spot trends earlier, identify gaps faster, and build strategies that account for where search is heading rather than just where it’s been.

What We Took Away

If you weren’t in the room, here’s the short version of what stuck with Alan and Joanne:

• Search is no longer one channel. Audiences are searching and discovering across a wide and growing range of platforms. Your visibility strategy needs to reflect that.
• AI platforms are making recommendations about your brand whether you’re paying attention or not. Understanding how you’re being represented and recommended in these environments is becoming a basic requirement, not a nice-to-have.
• Early movers will have an advantage. The brands and agencies that start building AI search intelligence into their strategies now will be better positioned as the landscape continues to evolve. Waiting until it becomes mainstream means playing catch-up.
• Data has to drive the strategy. Gut feel and assumptions won’t cut it. Tools like Trajaan exist precisely to give marketers the data they need to make informed decisions in a fast-moving environment.

Final Thoughts

Alan and Joanne left The Fullerton feeling energised, and we think that energy says something. The industry is moving in a direction that requires marketers to think more broadly about search, discovery, and visibility. It’s encouraging to see more tools catching up with where things are heading.

A big thank you to the Cision team for the invitation and for putting together a well-organised and insightful session. We’re looking forward to seeing how Trajaan continues to shape the conversation around AI search intelligence.