Australian marketers split over AI visibility ownership

Sefiani has found that 84% of Australian marketing and communications leaders disagree on who owns AI visibility, pointing to fragmented responsibility across major business functions.

The survey of 150 senior marketers and communicators found that 91% are changing strategy to influence AI-driven search and discovery, yet only 16% said their organisations take an integrated approach. Responsibility is split across Data and Analytics, Communications and Corporate Affairs, Brand, and Digital and Performance teams.

The findings suggest many businesses are trying to respond to the rise of AI search without clear internal control over how brands appear in AI-generated answers. For many respondents, AI search is now the most structurally siloed channel in the organisation.

That fragmentation is already affecting operations. Some 77% of respondents said internal silos had caused significant problems in the past year, including slower responses to issues and conflicting messages across channels. One in four said incorrect, inconsistent or outdated brand information had already appeared in AI answers.

Budget shift

The study also indicates that spending is shifting with changes in search behaviour. Nearly half of respondents said they had allocated 5% to 10% of their marketing and communications budgets to AI visibility, while a further 30% said they had assigned as much as 20%.

Most of that money is being redirected from more established channels. According to Sefiani, 90% of the spend allocated to AI visibility is being reallocated from traditional areas such as paid digital and brand activity.

The research adds to a wider industry debate over how companies should manage their presence in AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. For communications and marketing teams, the issue is becoming less about search rankings alone and more about whether company information is accurately represented in AI-generated responses.

Tom Telford, Chief Digital Officer at Sefiani and Clarity Global, said the issue cuts across multiple communications channels.

"Reputation used to be managed channel by channel, but AI search has changed the rules. Because these systems read across everything - earned coverage, on-site content, social signals, and search authority - siloed marketing and communications are quietly muting your AI visibility," Telford said.

"When your channels don't tell the same story, or teams are chasing independent KPIs with separate budget pots, these silos also become a major reputational liability. It is only when functions are truly connected that the models become trained on a consistent brand message and compound visibility across AI services over time. This is the crux of GEO, Generative Engine Optimisation, and done well it becomes the multiplier on everything you already invest in brand, PR and digital."

Reputational risk

Qualitative feedback from senior executives highlighted broader concerns about how AI tools handle historical information. Participants said older issues that might once have faded in conventional search results can be resurfaced by large language models and presented as current fact.

That creates a challenge for companies trying to manage reputation over time, particularly when responsibility for AI visibility is spread across several teams. The same qualitative work found that some leaders were trying to bring departments together, while others remained resistant to breaking down traditional functional boundaries.

Another theme was the growing burden on senior staff. AI-related work was described as an additional task added to existing responsibilities, rather than a function with clear ownership and dedicated resources.

Earned sources

The findings also point to a shift in how companies think about content and media exposure. More than 95% of sources cited by AI engines are non-paid, according to Sefiani, a trend that puts greater weight on earned media, expert commentary and other third-party references.

Mandy Galmes, Managing Partner, Australia at Sefiani, said, "When LLMs answer a question in your category, they're drawing overwhelmingly on non-paid, third-party sources. If your spokespeople, experts, case studies and proof points aren't in those sources, you're invisible at a key moment in the buyer journey."

The survey was conducted by OnePoll and questioned directors and above at organisations with more than 50 employees. Respondents were asked how their marketing and communications strategies had changed in response to AI search.

The results show a market moving quickly to adapt, but without a settled model for who should lead that effort inside companies. For many organisations, the immediate issue is not whether AI search matters, but whether they can respond with one clear voice rather than several competing ones.