In a nondescript Sydney office, a quiet revolution is brewing. Hall, an AI marketing startup founded by Atlassian and Dovetail alumnus Kai Forsyth, just landed $2 million in pre-seed funding led by Blackbird Ventures. Their mission: to help brands navigate a world where getting found online means more than topping Google’s once-mighty “10 blue links.” Welcome to “The Great Decoupling”—an era where our questions are answered not by web pages, but by AI.
The Dawn of AI-First Discovery
Until recently, SEO was king. Digital footfall flowed reliably through search engines to company websites and online stores, shaping fortunes and fueling entire industries. But something tectonic is happening: more consumers now turn to chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude to scout restaurants, compare software, or research products. They’re skipping Google altogether, choosing instant, AI-powered answers—personalized, contextual, and, crucially, free from traditional search rankings.
“When someone asks ChatGPT for advice, they’re bypassing Google entirely,” explains Forsyth, whose background spans product engineering with deep roots in marketing analytics. (statement to industry news outlets) “The move away from 10 blue links to tailored instant answers represents Google’s first true threat in decades, creating an entirely new marketing channel for businesses.”
Hall’s Solution: Becoming Brands’ “Air Traffic Control” for AI
Launched in April, Hall already counts hundreds of signups from progressive SEO agencies, in-house marketing teams, and brands eager to understand how they’re being portrayed in AI-driven conversations. Their platform tracks key questions: How often does ChatGPT mention my brand? Are customers visiting because an AI model referred them? Can I improve how these systems talk about me?
The goal: to build an operational system for the “AI channel,” letting companies benchmark and manage their brand presence across the conversational universe of large language models. Blackbird’s Nick Crocker puts it like this in a statement to startup media: “Conversational AI is the next great business channel. Email enabled direct marketing, App Store created mobile, social shaped performance marketing. Hall is building the foundational infrastructure for this new space”.
The Industry Shift: Who Else Is Shaping the AI Marketing Landscape?
While Hall aims to define the category of “AI SEO,” it’s by no means alone. The AI marketing sector is white-hot in 2025, with global funding for AI startups soaring to $162.8 billion in the first half of the year—much of it pouring into companies chasing smarter search, analytics, and customer engagement.
Some of Hall’s emerging peers include:
- Albert.ai: Pioneering automated ad optimization, Albert’s platform continuously updates campaign targets and creative in real-time, driven by AI analytics.
- Surfer SEO: Adapting its toolkit to optimize content not just for traditional search, but increasingly for visibility in AI-generated answers and voice assistants.
- Jasper AI and HubSpot AI: These giants lead in AI-powered content creation, helping brands stay relevant as AI assistants rewrite the rules for what content gets surfaced and referenced.
- LivePerson: Building conversational analytics that enable B2B SaaS brands to see exactly how chatbots and AI customer service agents shape perceptions and drive (or lose) business.
The Stakes: Adapt or Fade
The opportunity—and risk—for brands is enormous. An influential survey recently found that 77 percent of media professionals now use AI search engines rather than Google to answer their questions, representing just the tip of a broader consumer shift. As AI becomes the interface for nearly every digital journey, companies must learn a new skill: ensuring their name, story, and reputation are present not just in search results, but in the responses of AI agents.
For those slow to adapt, the consequences could be stark: invisibility at the very moment when customer decisions are made, with little recourse to the tactics that powered decades of online marketing growth.
Looking Ahead: Hall and the Next Wave of AI-Driven Marketing
With this new funding, Hall is scaling up its engineering team and product ambitions, aiming to become mission control for every brand navigating AI-powered discovery. It’s a mission that blends speed with vision—after all, as Sam Altman recently mused to technology journalists, the future of startups may depend not on big teams, but big ideas harnessed through cutting-edge AI tools.
The narrative is clear: in the coming years, winning brands won’t just optimize their websites—they’ll optimize their existence within the digital minds that are fast becoming our first stop for information and advice.
Hall’s journey is just getting started, but their quest resonates with every founder, marketer, and business leader looking to stay in the conversation—no matter who, or what, is having it.
