Lori Schafer in New Hope Network: AI search levels the playing field for health and wellness brands, independent retailers

Read the original article in New Hope Network here.

AI search is transforming retail, empowering health brands with unified data to compete, meet trends and deliver trusted answers to consumers.

At a Glance

• AI search is reshaping retail, giving niche health and wellness brands a chance to compete with global leaders.

• Consumers are searching for keto, gut health, and non-GMO products—brands must align with these trends to stay relevant.

• One in 6 young adults use AI for health advice, so brands must position themselves as trusted sources for AI-driven answers.

Among the many ways AI shopping will alter retail, one shift deserves particular attention from health and wellness brands: AI search could diminish the impact of paid search.

For a sector filled with niche manufacturers, challenger brands and independent retailers, the new search era could be profound. If AI search does become a primary tool for product discovery and health trends, independents could gain a better chance of competing for consumer attention with large nationals. Put another way: If consumers increasingly use AI tools to search and shop for products, as opposed to web browsers governed by paid search, this trend could level the playing field for health and wellness companies. As consumers engage and prompt available AI tools, authentic and unsponsored brand information should rise to the top. 

It may sound idealistic now, but health and wellness companies must get ready for AI search. This requires implementing a digital foundation and system powered by clean, enriched and unified data. 

Consumers actively search for health and wellness products

Consumers ask a lot of questions about health and wellness—maybe more than for most CPG categories. For example, there are diet trends they want to know about: keto, paleo or low-FODMAP. There are also movements like gut health foods, functional beverages or understanding products that support GLP-1 medications. Lastly, they’re asking about non-GMO, gluten free or sustainably sourced items. 

The questions can go on and on. Yet, at the same time, consumers don’t always trust the information they’re getting or may struggle to understand it. NIQ’s global health and wellness survey found that 45% of consumers feel strongly that product labels need to be more transparent and easy to understand. A study from Deloitte found that while more than three-quarters of consumers prefer to use food and beverages to manage their health, 40% said they don’t understand how fresh foods can improve wellbeing. 

There’s a clear gap between product intent and understanding, and it’s creating a major opportunity for brands and retailers to deliver improved information online that can get picked up inside AI-powered searches.

Consumers want guidance, and they’re turning to AI. A study by KFF found that 1 in 6 adults use AI search monthly for health information and advice. This could increase as young adults, ages 18-29, said they use AI in general several times a week. It’s clear that consumers are already asking AI about health and wellness, so how can brands and retailers position themselves to be the source that powers AI with consistent, trusted answers?

Data management is now a brand’s storefront

To get brands and wellness retailers on the path to being “the answer,” it starts with product data. "AI search" means tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok and others scrape, read and interpret content found across the digital ecosystem, prioritizing information coming from clean, authentic, highly organized data sets. The tools are trained to downgrade information that is tied to ad spend or sponsored links.

Brands and retailers are already leveraging solutions to organize master data management (MDM) and product information management (PIM), but do not have these sources unified, streamlined and automated by AI. Companies need to be as accurate and fast as possible in updating product information, attributes that align with diet trends and searches and content in real time so they appear in searches.  

With modernized, AI-native solutions that centralize data from every channel within the organization, companies can:

• Deliver more accurate product attributes. AI looks for structured information like ingredients, allergens, functional benefits, sustainability claims and other key information often found on a label or online brand pages. Agentic AI inside a platform can autonomously update attributes and ensure claims are accurate.

• Optimize content for AI. Brands that invest in content on their sites, such as blogs, recipes, usage instructions, FAQs and reports, create a rich knowledge layer from AI to source. Unified data feeding this content ensures the information meets what AI is seeking.

• Update pricing and promotions. Product information and attributes that are in sync also means pricing and promotions are updating in real time, so AI agents pull the right price for when consumers go and check out.

Unified data helps maintain consistency of information across touchpoints to the point that a brand’s data becomes its online storefront. For independent retailers and brands looking to connect with consumers, well-managed product information and content becomes as important as any competing marketing budget.

Walmart and ChatGPT signal that AI shopping has arrived

The announcement of Walmart and OpenAI partnering to enable consumers to buy directly from ChatGPT certainly hit retail as a turning point. Later, Perplexity announced free, automatic shopping for consumers and a partnership with PayPal. 

It’s in its early stages, as many retailers, even the biggest, aren’t quite ready for full-scale, consumer-facing, AI-assisted experiences, but it starts with search. Consumers are growing more comfortable with using AI to answer all their questions and shopping will be right there.

Smaller health and wellness brands and independent chains can monitor how consumers used the tools during the hot holiday shopping season and prepare their data storefronts to be ready for when the tide truly turns.

Core capabilities supporting AI search

In the short term, health and wellness companies can take steps to get data managed and unified. Product attributes, ingredients, certifications, sustainability claims and all content need to be accurate, consistent and governed. Product information needs to be enriched and centralized so AI tools can ingest, evaluate and surface brand and retailer information.

Lastly, agentic AI and autonomous workflows embedded into management systems can help companies identify missing information, generate meaningful content and assist with compliance. 

AI search is primed to transform health and wellness brands and retailers, altering how consumers find their products and creating a path for niche companies to encroach on global leaders. If the playing field is indeed leveling, brands and retailers need solutions and strategies that power their data and make them visible to AI agents.