Synthetic Data, Zero Search and more phrases unpacked

(This article first appeared on a post by Jacob Howard on LinkedIn here)

In this CMO Digest, we summarise themes arising from a number of recent events: a podcast by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) featuring a previous speaker at one of our Summits, Amir Malik; what we heard at a recent Marketing Society event in Dubai (attended by my colleague ARO and featuring Mark Ritson); and conversations with FS CMOs in the build‑up to our next Summits in Toronto and London.

Across all of these touchpoints, one theme is unmistakable: AI is no longer a bolt‑on to the marketing workflow - it is reshaping the foundations of how B2B and B2C marketing operates. Terms like ‘Zero Search’, ‘Closed Platforms’, ‘Synthetic Data’, and ‘GEO’ are surfacing in every CMO conversation. But beneath the vocabulary is a deeper shift: AI is moving upstream, from execution to intelligence, and redefining how buyers discover, evaluate, and choose.

This Digest distils three of the clearest signals emerging from the industry right now.

1. AI paralysis and the operating‑model reality

The CIM podcast with Amir Malik offered one of the clearest articulations of where marketing teams actually are with AI - and why so many feel stuck. Malik described a familiar tension: most organisations recognise that the way they have always done things is about to change, yet very few know how to begin. CEOs are experimenting with ChatGPT in their personal lives, changing the way they search and consume information, and naturally assuming their customers are doing the same. That expectation quickly cascades into pressure on marketing teams to “do something with AI,” even when the organisation is nowhere near ready.

Malik was particularly sharp on the gap between saying you’re doing AI and actually doing it. Many firms proudly announce that they’ve “launched AI,” but in practice this often means little more than switching on Copilot for a handful of employees. That is not an AI strategy - it’s a utility. Real adoption, he argued, requires something far more deliberate: a dedicated AI function or office, clear governance, defined use cases, and a view of where disruption will meaningfully hit the business. Above all, it requires a plan for value creation rather than a flurry of disconnected experiments designed to signal progress without delivering it.

This is where the paralysis sets in. Teams are overwhelmed by BAU, unclear on which tools are trustworthy, and unsure how to demonstrate ROI in a landscape where hype often outpaces operational reality. Malik’s point was that the bottleneck is rarely the technology itself; it is the operating model around it. Without governance, orchestration, and cross‑functional alignment, AI remains trapped in pilot mode.

He also emphasised that the real opportunity is not simply automation but augmentation. AI can turn front‑line staff into “wizards of productivity,” enabling richer customer interactions, faster problem‑solving, and more personalised experiences. Customer expectations are rising faster than most organisations can keep up with. In a world where AI can concierge an entire service journey, customers will not tolerate friction that feels avoidable.

Malik’s broader message was that AI is forcing organisations to confront long‑standing operational weaknesses - legacy systems, fragmented data, outdated processes - that have been tolerated for years but are now becoming untenable. AI doesn’t just automate work; it exposes the cracks.

FMI’s take: the CIM conversation reveals the real bottleneck: not technology, but operating‑model readiness. AI is forcing marketers to rethink workflows, governance, and customer experience from the ground up.

2. Zero Search, GEO and Closed Platforms: the new (and murky) distribution battleground

Across recent CMO calls, three terms keep surfacing with increasing urgency: Zero Search, Closed Platforms, and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). Together, they describe a fundamental change in how B2B/B2C buyers discover information - and they raise a new set of questions for financial services marketers that traditional SEO never had to confront.

Zero Search captures the idea that discovery increasingly happens before a query is typed. AI assistants surface answers proactively, drawing on context, behaviour, and prior interactions. Closed platforms - from Perplexity to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot - are becoming the new “home screens” for research. If your product information isn’t structured, consistent, and machine‑readable, it simply won’t appear.

GEO is the natural extension of this shift. If SEO was about ranking in Google, GEO is about being the answer an AI assistant generates. And this is where the FS‑specific tension emerges. In a regulated industry, the line between “information” and “advice” is tightly policed. Marketers on recent calls have raised legitimate concerns: if an AI assistant summarises a product page incorrectly, or blends regulated content with unregulated sources, who is responsible? What happens when an AI model surfaces a fund, a mortgage, or a pension product in a way that inadvertently crosses into suitability or recommendation? Traditional SEO has decades of regulatory guidance behind it; this new battleground is far murkier.

Advisors are already using AI assistants to compare products, interpret research, and summarise complex documents. Customers will follow. The question is no longer “How do we rank?” but “How do we ensure that what AI says about us is accurate, compliant, and aligned with our brand - and what happens if it isn’t?”

FMI’s take: this is the new distribution frontier. Product visibility will depend on clarity, structure, and trust signals - not on who spends the most on paid search. But for FS marketers, the challenge is twofold: ensuring that AI systems can find your content, and ensuring that what they say about your content remains within regulatory boundaries (for example clear audit trails). The industry has well‑established rules for SEO; it does not yet have them for GEO. That gap is where the next wave of risk - and opportunity - will sit.

3. Synthetic data and the insight revolution: what we heard in Dubai

At The Marketing Society’s 10‑year anniversary event of being in the UAE - which my colleague ARO attended - the conversation shifted decisively from execution to intelligence. Mark Ritson revisited one of his most enduring arguments: that weak marketers fixate on tools and channels, while strong marketers ground themselves in research and become the voice of the customer. AI, he suggested, is now exposing this divide more starkly than ever. Those who chase tools will drown in noise; those who anchor themselves in insight will thrive.

This framing set the stage for a deeper discussion about synthetic data, which emerged as one of the most important developments in B2B insight in years. It fundamentally changes the economics of research: cycles that once took months can now be completed in minutes; costs fall dramatically; and smaller teams gain access to capabilities that were once the preserve of firms with large research budgets. For FS marketers, long constrained by small sample sizes, compliance bottlenecks, and slow insight cycles, this is transformative.

What resonated most was the idea of hybrid credibility. Synthetic data alone may not yet satisfy every stakeholder, but synthetic data paired with selective primary validation is becoming a powerful way to bring the “voice of the customer” into the boardroom - especially when speaking to CFOs. It allows marketers to test assumptions, pressure‑test propositions, and interrogate customer needs with a speed and depth that traditional research models simply cannot match.

The message from Dubai was clear: AI is not replacing the fundamentals of marketing - it is amplifying them. The organisations that will win are those that use AI to deepen their understanding of customers, not distract themselves with tools.

FMI’s take: synthetic data democratises strategic intelligence. It gives FS marketers a new way to understand customers at speed - and a new foundation for decision‑making in an AI‑mediated world.

Conclusion

Across CIM, The Marketing Society, and our own CMO conversations, one message is consistent: AI doesn’t replace judgment - it scales it. In financial services - where decisions are high‑stakes, cycles are long, and trust is everything - this means CMOs must lead with commercial clarity, operate on shorter learning loops, and ensure insight flows seamlessly into product, pricing, and distribution. AI must be governed, not just deployed, and creativity and strategic thinking become the differentiators as execution becomes increasingly automated.

The task now is not to “adopt AI”, but to rebuild the marketing operating model around it - with the CMO at the centre of the transformation. And this is precisely why FMI has developed a new white paper Bank 2030: The Rise of Intelligent Marketing Systems - a practical, multi‑level framework built from our global summits, roundtables, and partner conversations. If the themes in this Digest resonate, the paper will take you the rest of the way: from vocabulary to structure, from noise to clarity, and from experimentation to operational reality. If you’re interested to get a quick preview before launch, drop us a line at jacobhoward@financialmarketinginsights.com!

References:

·       AI, Agentic & Hyper-personalisation: Marketing trends that will dominate in 2026 - https://www.cim.co.uk/content-insights/podcasts/ai-agentic-hyper-personalisation-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-in-2026/

·       Marketing Society celebrates 10 years in UAE: https://www.marketingsociety.com/event/inspiration-10-year-anniversary-party-dubai