Akamai treats LLMs like 'VIP customers' to boost AI search visibility
Being recommended by an LLM once meant being the biggest name in a category. Akamai, the B2B cybersecurity firm, rethought how it shows up in search as AI began shaping buying decisions before its own marketing could reach the buyer, Marketing Week reports. The outlet describes the shift as Akamai treating LLMs like 'VIP customers.' In the piece's own words: 'Being recommended by an LLM is more than just being the biggest brand in a category, it's proving you are the right brand for the right customer.'
Campaigns built to reach the biggest name in a B2B category now compete with a recommendation an LLM makes before a company's own marketing reaches the buyer. Marketing Week's account of Akamai ties that recommendation to demonstrating fit for a specific customer. Media planning for B2B accounts increasingly has to account for a stage that happens before paid and owned marketing get involved: the read an LLM forms of which brand fits which buyer.