AwarenessAI founder Tom Mason has featured in a recent interview with KaneOnAI, exploring how generative AI is transforming the way businesses are represented online.
In the conversation, Mason outlines a fundamental shift already underway. Rather than relying solely on traditional search engines, users are increasingly turning to generative AI systems such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini to understand companies, compare providers, and make decisions.
This change, he explains, is altering where and how first impressions are formed.
“Before someone visits your website or speaks to your team, they’re asking AI systems what your company does,” Mason explains. “Those answers are shaping perception earlier than ever.”
A Shift from Ranking to Interpretation
A key theme of the interview is the transition from traditional search engine optimisation to what Mason describes as a new layer of visibility.
While search engines focused on ranking pages, generative AI systems interpret and synthesise information from across the web to produce a single response. This means that how a business is understood is now just as important as whether it appears in results at all.
According to Mason, this creates a new challenge for organisations.
“Two companies can have similar digital footprints but be represented completely differently by AI systems,” he notes. “One is clearly positioned and recommended, while the other is vague or overlooked.”
The Cost of Inaction
The interview also highlights the growing risk for organisations that do not engage with this shift.
Mason explains that the issue is not simply about accuracy, but about clarity and consistency. If AI systems form an incomplete or weak understanding of a business, it can result in reduced visibility and fewer recommendations.
Because users tend to trust AI-generated responses, this can lead to missed opportunities that are difficult to detect through traditional analytics.
Building AwarenessAI
The discussion also covers the origins of AwarenessAI and the challenge of building around a problem that many organisations do not yet fully recognise.
Mason describes how early work focused on testing how different AI systems respond to real-world prompts, and identifying patterns in how businesses are represented. This led to the development of a structured approach to analysing and improving AI visibility.
He also reflects on the realities of building a company in an emerging space, including the challenges of educating the market, as well as the opportunities created by being early.
Looking Ahead
Looking to the future, Mason suggests that AI-driven discovery will continue to accelerate, becoming a core part of how people evaluate organisations.
As a result, he believes that managing how a business is interpreted by AI systems will become a critical part of digital strategy.
“This isn’t about replacing SEO,” he explains. “It’s about recognising that a new layer now sits on top of it, one that directly influences how businesses are understood and recommended.”
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The full interview with Kane On AI is available to watch on YouTube and via the Kaneonai.com website.