Roundtable Notes: AI, Marketing, & Websites
Talk from the Table
Co-Hosts: Nicole Wetzell (NEW Marketing Solutions) & LaMae Weber (Dream Warrior Group)
How are arts organizations using AI for marketing in 2026? We co-hosted a candid conversation with arts leaders from Chicago, Vancouver, and Phoenix to answer exactly that — covering AI search optimization, Reddit's surprising rise, and practical tools real teams are using today. Take a look below for notes and related resources.
Explore upcoming NEW Marketing Solutions Roundtables and join us at the table.
Presentation on AI Search
Click here to download the presentation.
-
Each AI model pulls from different sources, ranks content differently, and sends users further down the decision path before they even land on your website.
LaMae noted that by the time someone finds you through AI search, they've often already made up their mind. That means your website's job is to confirm, not convince.
The models covered: ChatGPT (most popular, running multiple searches per query), Gemini (favors Google/YouTube), Claude (source-credible, "the professor"), Grok (X/Bing-based, changes hourly), Microsoft Copilot (LinkedIn-friendly, inside Microsoft 365), and Perplexity (smaller audience but converting at 9x the rate of traditional organic visitors).
-
Although AI pulls information from many different sources, every major AI model is currently pulling from Reddit.
Nicole and LaMae both flagged it as one of the highest-leverage things organizations can do right now — though someone was quick to point out that for a two-person team already managing Instagram, Facebook, and education programming, adding Reddit is a real capacity ask.
LaMae suggested being transparent: open an account with an identified email, engage honestly, and don't try to slip it in.
Nicole floated the idea that this might belong with community engagement staff rather than marketing.
-
AI engines are constantly cross-referencing your content to determine whether you're authoritative and trustworthy.
That means your social media manager, your ad agency, and your website writer all need to be using the same language and messaging.
FAQs were called out as a surprisingly powerful tool — AI loves answering questions, so structuring content as questions and answers (even if collapsed in an accordion on your site) helps you get found.
Structured data markup was also flagged as a technical must-have.
-
One attendee uses AI primarily to optimize social media captions and ads.
One organization has ChatGPT Pro per department but keeps artistic staff largely out of it. Guest Experience uses it most for manuals and documentation.
Two practical examples: 1.) reorganizing a donor table in Claude (saving hours) and analyzing a local Facebook community group to quickly understand the culture and mindset of your local community.
The group discussed the real tension between AI's efficiency and what entry-level staff lose when the "learning by doing" tasks disappear.
-
Nicole shared why she personally switched from ChatGPT to Claude — citing Anthropic's decision to turn down a government autonomous warfare contract and the ethical background of founder Dario Amodei.
One attendee noted that ChatGPT has a habit of citing fictional sources, making it unreliable for academic or market research.
LaMae reinforced a universal rule: never put patron data, donation amounts, or private contact info into any AI model, regardless of their terms of service.
The moment of pause before you paste is worth it.
-
[Article] The AI Search Cheat Sheet, The Marketing Millenials - this is the article that goes deep into the six major AI engines.
[Podcast] Search Engine, Mysteries of a Chat Bot - Deep dive into Anthropic. Writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus went inside Anthropic to figure out what's going on with Claude, and whether anyone can actually control it.
