This is a recap of AMA Madison’s May 8th event, “The AI-Powered Customer Journey,” featuring Lori Highby, CEO and founder of Keystone Click. Lori shared a practical framework for how marketers can combat AI drift and take control of how their brand shows up in an AI-driven search world.
If someone asked AI right now to recommend a business like yours, would you show up? Would what it said be accurate? Would it even sound like you?
Those were the questions at the center of AMA Madison’s May event, where Lori Highby, CEO and founder of Milwaukee-based agency Keystone Click, laid out a practical framework for how marketers can take control of their brand’s presence in an AI-driven search world.
Don’t Get Caught in the AI Drift
Before getting into solutions, Lori named a problem most marketers haven’t put a label on yet: AI drift.
Here’s how AI drift works: When someone asks an LLM about your business and you haven’t clearly published the answer yourself, the model doesn’t leave a blank. It fills in the gap, usually by pulling from whatever source is closest to you in the market. Could be a random third-party listing. Sometimes it’s a competitor.
Lori tested this theory on her own agency. She asked AI what it knew about Keystone Click. She found several inaccuracies–mostly from third party business listings. She’d realized she’d been so focused on her clients’ visibility that her own had slipped.
The good news: AI drift is fixable. That’s where the three pillars of “How We Show Up” come in.
The Three Pillars of AI Visibility
Lori’s framework for showing up accurately and consistently in LLM searches comes down to three areas, and the further you read, the more familiar it starts to feel.
1. Data and Presence
AI builds its understanding of your brand from what’s publicly available. That means your business listings, chamber memberships, Google Business Profile, directory entries, and schema markup on your website. If any of it is outdated, incomplete, or inconsistent across platforms, that’s the version of you the model learns.
This is foundational stuff. The basics of SEO. The difference now is that the specific wording matters more than it used to. Not just that you have a listing, but what it says and whether it matches everywhere else you exist online.
2. Voice and Content
This is where a lot of brands are quietly losing ground. We’re in what Lori called a “sea of sameness”: AI-generated content that sounds super polished but generic at the same time, disconnected from any real point of view. And LLMs pick up on that.
Your brand voice, the specific way you describe your services, write your web copy, and respond to customers, is increasingly what differentiates you in AI results.
A human-sounding, consistent, on-brand presence across your website, social profiles, review responses, etc. tells the model: this is who these people are, this is who my company is. Generic AI output does the opposite.
3. Signals and Reputation
The third pillar is reviews. Reviews matter more today than they ever have. Not just having them, but the details: how often you’re getting them, how recently, whether they’re spread across platforms, and whether you’re actually responding.
The cadence of a slow, steady stream of reviews signals credibility in a way that a one-time burst never will. Or when someone tags or references your brand positively without being asked, that organic credibility is exactly what LLMs are scanning for when they decide who to recommend.
The Thread Running Through All Three
Reviews show up in all three pillars. In your presence (where they live and whether they’re findable), in your voice (how you respond), and in your signals (recency, volume, platform diversity). That’s not a coincidence. It’s the clearest sign of where to start if you’re not sure where to focus.
And if you want a quick read on where you stand right now, Lori’s team offers a free AI visibility audit at aioptimizationaudit.com. It runs a few prompting scenarios based on your website and tells you whether your brand is showing up. No sales call required.
Learn More About Lori Highby
Lori Highby is a speaker, educator, podcast host, and founder of Keystone Click, a Milwaukee-based digital marketing agency. She specializes in helping businesses navigate the evolving customer journey through AI-driven marketing strategies.
Lori has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and works with organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to growing businesses, translating complex topics like AI and buyer behavior into clear, actionable insights.
Lori is also a national workshop facilitator for the Agency Management Institute and (fun fact) a published author of Hey ChatGPT, What’s for Dinner? (Available on Amazon)
Thank you to our AMA Madison Sponsors
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