Beyond the search bar: How AI is shaping the future of engagement

The landscape of digital marketing is undergoing a seismic shift, particularly within the crucial arenas of search and consumer engagement. To navigate this evolving terrain, Campaign Middle East Magazine Editor, Anup Oommen, sat down with Laura Gleadhill, General Manager at Keyade MENA, a WPP Media Brand, a leading voice in the region's performance marketing sector.

In this insightful interview, Laura unpacks the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing marketers today. From the rise of multi-modal, 'zero-click' search to the dawn of agentic AI, she provides a clear-eyed analysis of how consumer behaviour is changing and what brands must do to not just adapt, but thrive in this new era. 

How do you see multi-modal search experiences that integrate text, voice, visual and immersive elements evolving and what are the key challenges that marketers need to address on priority through this evolution?

Search is evolving rapidly, with text, voice, visual, and immersive inputs reshaping how consumers express intent. AI Overviews, launched globally at GML 2025, and new interfaces like the AI device from OpenAI and former Apple designer Jony Ive, point to a screenless, conversational future. For marketers, this means content, product feeds, and site structure need to be optimised for AI interpretation, not just search engines. The priority is ensuring your brand is eligible to be surfaced in these new environments — not just discoverable. Teams across SEO, paid, and content must work together, and measurement needs to account for multi-surface, zero-click interactions. 

As generative AI comes into play, how is the era of 'zero-click search' and changing consumer search patterns and preferences repositioning the practice of search specialists? 

With AI increasingly answering questions directly in the SERP, search is shifting from a traffic driver to a visibility channel. Search specialists now need to optimise for presence within AI-generated content — not just for clicks. That means focusing on structured data, content relevance, and technical hygiene. The role has become more strategic, sitting at the intersection of SEO, paid media, content, and UX. Specialists need to shape how and where a brand appears, even when the user doesn’t land on the website — and redefine performance accordingly. 

Over the past few months, AI companies have piloted, previewed and premiered a posse of Agentic AI tools. How will this signal a pivot a how people interact with brands, and how will this force a shift away from traditional AI models? 

Agentic AI — systems that act on behalf of users — will fundamentally change the customer journey. Consumers will delegate tasks like buying, booking, or researching, and AI agents will make decisions based on structured inputs: availability, reviews, pricing, relevance. That shifts influence from the consumer to the algorithm. Marketers need to ensure their data, product feeds, and content are clean, accessible, and optimised for machine-led evaluation. Messaging still matters — but technical readiness, operational agility, and trust signals will increasingly determine if your brand gets picked.

 With marketers navigating fluctuating CPCs, new channels such as retail media, and consumer demand for personalised recommendations, how can marketers diversify and measure better? 

Search is no longer just Google and Bing — it now includes retail platforms like Amazon and Noon, social search on TikTok and Instagram, and AI-driven discovery through tools like Google’s AI Overviews. As CPCs rise on core search channels, marketers need to diversify within the search ecosystem — investing in retail media for high-intent moments, optimising feeds and product data for visibility, and using first-party signals to personalise experiences. Measurement must evolve too: incrementality testing, margin-based metrics, and cross-channel attribution are critical to prove what’s truly driving business results, not just clicks.