The new "Decision Zone": Is AI now your business's first impression?

Okay, we all know AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, they are exploding. Even AI Mode built inside Google search is changing the game. But the question then is, are people actually using them? Well, the latest data is suggesting that they are. There was a 2026 AI and search behaviour study. It was seen on an industry publication called Search Engine Land, and it showed that 37% of respondents were now starting their discovery with AI tools like ChatGPT, instead of going straight to Google and some of the traditional searches that we’ve done in the past.

So if you think even about your own behaviour, I’m sure you’re going to agree that you are searching and discovering the answers to your problems, and different businesses and different products and solutions, differently than what you might have been doing even as little as five years ago. And look, Google still has its place, but where in your overall journey as a consumer a Google search is coming in, where that sits, is appearing to be shifting right now. So does that mean you have to shift any of your strategy and your marketing strategy alongside these changing shifts in marketing and discovery?

So today, I want to take you through what I’m calling the decision zone, and it’s about understanding if your customers are actually making decisions about you before they even hit places like Google, before they even hit your website or your social media, and if so, how do we influence it? If we haven’t met before, my name is Jordan McFadyen. Welcome to For The Daring Growth Seekers podcast, brought to you by Done By Nine, and this is a podcast which is designed to help you navigate this cluttered world of marketing in the AI era.

So we’re going to start the podcast today by setting the scene. For years, we’ve taught that marketing is about getting in front of people at the right time. Someone searches using a couple of keywords like, I don’t know, “plumber Auckland”, and your ad is going to show up, or your website’s going to rank on that search, and away you go from there. It’s been the game that we’ve focused on for many, many years. But as we know, and if you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, or read our content online, you know that game has shifted when tools like ChatGPT entered the chat.

Google even coined a concept years ago, and it’s called the messy middle. And I think the messy middle accurately predicts what was actually changing at that time. This was back in 2020 when they came out with the messy middle, but cleverly, I still think that it’s actually very relevant today. The idea behind the messy middle is that when someone first realises that they’ve got a problem, and when they actually buy something, there’s that real messy piece in the middle where they’re going back and forth. They’re exploring different options. They’re evaluating different options. They’re exploring more. And then, of course, they’re evaluating it again, and then, hopefully, we’re going to get a conversion out of it somewhere.

It’s not like the straight line all those marketing bros are going to tell you, where you believe that short, linear marketing funnel. That just doesn’t exist. And I think the messy middle concept still holds up today, and even more so, I feel as though it is getting messier and messier. People don’t just see your ad and buy. They research, they’re comparing, they’re coming back, they leave again.

But what I think’s also fundamentally changed on top of that messy middle is that I kind of think that there’s this new layer that’s now sitting outside that messy middle concept. From a lot of the reading that I’ve done over the break, and a lot of the research that we’ve done, and what we’re seeing with our clients’ ad accounts and things like that, there’s a layer that’s happening before people even start that exploration and that evaluation loop in the messy middle.

And that layer, I think, is AI chatbots, like ChatGPT and Gemini and Google’s AI Mode. I’m calling this the decision zone, essentially. Now, the reason I’m calling it that is because it’s where that initial shortlist is actually getting formed. So before anyone even goes to Google, before they even start clicking through your website and reading your products and services, before they even enter that messy middle at all, they’re potentially actually asking ChatGPT. They’re asking tools like Claude or Google’s AI Mode or Microsoft’s Copilot, like a coach, like a sparring partner or a research partner.

And these tools, what they are doing, they’re actually giving them some early answers. They’re giving them recommendations. They’re giving them a crucial starting point, asking them follow-up questions, getting them dialled into their problem and how they can actually solve it. And so by the time someone actually hits Google, or they hit your website and start that traditional exploration phase that we see in the Google messy middle, they’ve actually already got that shortlist in their head, based on what they were told and fed from those AI chatbots.

And the issue is that if you’re not on the shortlist, you’re essentially playing catch-up from the start, and you’re trying to convince them to choose you and your product and your service or your business. So if you think about it like this, the decision zone is essentially like the bouncer at the door of the messy middle. So if you don’t get past the decision zone piece, you’re essentially going to find it much harder to be able to get inside the club overall.

And look, there’s actual data and actual research that’s backing this up as well. So heading back to what I said at the start, the industry publication Search Engine Land recently published a study that found that 37% of consumers are now starting their product or service searches with AI tools rather than traditional search engines. Even 60% of those people in that study said that AI delivers better answers than traditional or old-school search. But in saying that, 85% of people are still double-checking elsewhere after getting that AI answer.

So it’s not that Google is dead. It’s more around that AI is becoming that first filter, the place where people get their bearings before they go deeper. Plus, 47% said that AI responses influence their trust in a brand. So the other big thing there is that if ChatGPT is recommending you, or Claude’s recommending you and your business, that actually is going to mean something to some people. It’s going to help build trust before they’ve even visited your website.

So let me just take a moment here and walk you through how this might actually play out for you and your business. And I’ll give you an example that’s kind of close to home here, and that’s if someone was looking for a marketing agency like Done By Nine. So imagine you are a business owner. You’ve been doing your own marketing for a while. Or, I don’t know, maybe you’ve got a single contractor that’s handling all your marketing at the moment. But you’re getting to the point where you just need a bit of help in some particular areas. Maybe you want to run things like a new Google Ads campaign or a Meta campaign. You need someone with a different type of expertise or understanding to be able to do that.

So a few years ago, you probably would jump on Google. You’d type in something like “marketing agency in Auckland” or “Google Ads agency in New Zealand”. And obviously, you’d be presented with potentially 10 different answers. You’d click through some results, check out some websites, maybe have a look at some reviews, start building that shortlist from there. It’s kind of going into that messy middle concept that we discussed earlier.

But what we’re seeing now, increasingly, is that people are now going to ChatGPT first. And they’re not just typing in keywords. They’re actually having full conversations instead. Like, who can actually help me with Google Ads in New Zealand? Or, do I even need someone to help manage my Google Ads? This is my current setup. Or, what should I be looking for in a marketing agency for a small business of X type of product or service? Or even, can you recommend some marketing agencies that specialise in helping service businesses in this particular service or product? All that type of thing.

ChatGPT is then giving them that answer, that direction. Maybe it’s going to list out a few agencies. Maybe it’s going to give a few criteria to look out for when they’re at that evaluation stage. Either way, that person now has a really solid starting point for their research and their discovery for that pain point that they’ve currently got. They’re potentially even starting to get some names in their head. They’ve got a framework, really, of what good is going to look like as part of this research phase for them.

So now when they do go to Google, or go to some websites, or have a look at social media, they’re not starting from scratch. They’ve already got that pre-built in their mind. And they might start a search for a specific agency name to check out. They might search for a marketing agency in Auckland when they go back to Google. But they’re doing that now and comparing to what they’ve already seen and what ChatGPT has also told them.

So they also have that understanding about what good is. They know what they’re likely to look for and what’s likely to fit that caveat. This is the decision zone. And I think the decision zone is shaping the expectations before that messy middle concept even begins, or before even thinking about trying to get them into your funnel, for example.

So what does this actually mean for you practically? I think that there are some things that you need to consider here. The first is that your brand, your reputation, they’re becoming more important than ever. Because AI tools, let’s think ChatGPT, they aren’t just going through and reading your website. They’re learning about you from what other people are saying about you. And we’ve talked about this before in the podcast. Have a look back at some of our content as well. Less than 25% of AI citations are actually coming from your own website.

The rest is coming from things like your reviews, your mentions, your articles, your testimonials, external sources that really do signal to these AI models that you are a trustworthy business. So this is where your Google reviews still matter. Your case studies are still mattering. Whether you’re going on industry publications or podcasts, that type of thing matters, because that’s what AI is pulling from when it asks for a product or service within your industry.

And the second thing is that you need to understand what AI is actually really saying about you right now. Have you asked ChatGPT about your business recently? Have you asked it to recommend businesses in your category or in your area? This is a piece of our workshop that we do with our AI workshops, where we actually sit down with businesses and audit ourselves, audit each other’s businesses, to understand how do we appear on these searches, and who is getting better visibility on ChatGPT searches as well.

Because if you don’t understand this, and if you haven’t audited it yourself, you don’t actually know whether you’re in that decision zone or not right from the get-go. And so you might be completely invisible at that first stage, which means that you are relying entirely on people finding you later in that process, and then trying to convince them to shift their thinking back to you and your business.

And the third practical thing too, and this connects back to, of course, the messy middle concept, is that this decision zone that we’re talking about doesn’t just influence whether people actually find you. It’s going to influence how they end up actually evaluating you once they’re inside that exploration and that evaluation loop. So if ChatGPT has already told someone that the most important thing to look for in a marketing agency is case studies or proven results, then when they land on your website, that’s what they’re going to be looking for. That’s going to be that criteria that they’re going to be searching for. So the decision zone is essentially setting that customer’s criteria.

So for us at Done By Nine, obviously, this is always part of an ever-evolving, shifting strategy that we’ve been facing for the past couple of years. And honestly, a lot of it does come back to fundamentals that we have spoken about a lot in this podcast as well. Building genuine authority in your space. Not just saying you’re good at what you do, but actually having other people try and say that for you as well. This is the reviews, the testimonials.

Try to think about those actual outcomes. We did this on a podcast last week. Not just asking for a testimonial that says “great service”, but more so, “this helped us reduce our cost per lead by 40%”, for example. Trying to be mentioned in places that matter to your audience. And this goes back to what I said before: industry publications, podcasts, local business directories, anywhere that AI might be pulling information from. And making sure your website, your social media, it’s clear about how you help and what problems you’re actually solving. Because if AI is scanning your site to understand what you actually do, you do want to be really obvious about it.

And then actually testing it. Asking ChatGPT, going into Claude, asking Gemini, Copilot, all these questions that your potential customers might be asking. Seeing what is coming back. Seeing if you’re even getting mentioned on your own searches. Seeing who else might be mentioned, and then trying to understand what their strategy is. And that’s not a one-time thing either, because these models are constantly evolving. They’re constantly updating. So what they say about you today could be completely different in a few months.

And we’ve been doing this for years with traditional SEO: those top 10 links that we’ve been trying to chase for years and years, they would change all the time with algorithm shifts. So it’s the same principles that apply here as well. So we need to learn and adapt, and essentially try and stay consistent as well.

But look, I think we’re really at this interesting point where the way that people really discover businesses is genuinely changing. And look, that change is only going to get faster this year. And while AI is, honestly, helping our businesses in so many different ways, with our processes, with our timing, with a lot of different internal processes, in other ways it’s honestly making other pieces of the puzzle so much harder to actually figure out. It’s adding a whole new layer to how we need to think about certain aspects of our marketing.

Because I think that the messy middle is still really real. People are still exploring and evaluating and going back and forth before they buy. That piece has not gone away. But I think the decision zone that we’re talking about here today, this new AI-powered layer that sits on top of the messy middle, that’s where people form their initial shortlist. That’s what I think will become that first gate that you need to get through. If you’re not showing up in the decision zone, you might be invisible to literally a growing chunk of your potential customers before they’ve even started looking properly.

So look, if you want to dive deeper into any of the topics that we’ve spoken about today, we have done quite a few episodes recently that connect directly back to this. We’ve talked about AI visibility, how to do audits where AI is actually mentioning your business. We’ve covered topics around Google’s AI Mode and what that means for search. We’ve also talked about why chasing traffic numbers might not be the right metric for you to focus on right now, as you can probably hear from this podcast here, that click-through rates to a website are dramatically dropping.

So you can find all of those publications, all of those podcasts on our website, donebynine.com. Just click on the Learn tab at the top. You’ll also see everything that we’ve shared there, alongside all the, I think we’re up to 82 episodes of this very podcast as well. And if you need help thinking about how this applies to your business specifically, that’s obviously what we do at Done By Nine as well. You can get in touch through our website. But again, thank you so much for listening. We’ll see you on the next episode of For The Daring Growth Seekers.