How I Bought a Laptop Without Googling Anything

I recently upgraded from a 5-year-old laptop to a new one. The upgrade itself is not the story. The way I bought it is.

This time, I never ran a single Google search.

Me working on my newly purchased laptop

How I Used to Shop for Laptops in 2020

When I bought my previous laptop during COVID, the process was entirely self-directed:

• Googled "best laptops under MYR 4,000" and clicked through multiple review sites
• Opened multiple tabs across different websites to cross-compare specs
• Searched YouTube manually for reviews and benchmark videos of shortlisted models
• Manually mapped my needs against each model: battery life, processing power, weight, price
• Made the final call myself, after weeks of piecing information together

Every source handed me raw data. I did all the connecting work. The decision was entirely mine to wrestle with.

How I Shopped in 2026 (based on my actual purchase journey)

This time, I used Grok and had a single, evolving conversation. I had set a budget of around MYR 3,000 to MYR 3,500 with roughly MYR 100 to 200 flexibility either way, and I told it how I planned to use the machine: general productivity, light multitasking, portability.

Here is how the actual conversation went, in sequence:

• Processor comparison first. I took a picture of some laptop specs from a store of the laptops I was eyeing on. Fed it to Grok and it gave me a structured breakdown on performance, power efficiency, and which was better value for my use case, not just raw benchmarks.
• Adding more options. I then introduced additional models into the same conversation one by one. Rather than me building a spreadsheet, Grok folded each new option into an evolving comparison, ranking them by real-world performance for tasks like browsing, Office work, and light multitasking.
• Benchmarking against what I already had. I told Grok the specs of my current (older) laptop. It immediately placed my old machine in the context of all the options I was comparing, showing me exactly how large the performance gap would be and where I would actually feel it day to day.
• Evaluating a second-hand alternative. I also asked whether a second-hand business laptop with good RAM and storage was worth considering. Grok weighed it against the new options within my MYR budget range, factoring in resale value, battery age risk, and the generational performance gap. It was a real trade-off analysis, not a generic pros and cons list.
• Raising compatibility concerns. I had read that the laptop I was leaning towards had potential printing issues. Rather than searching Reddit or tech forums myself, I asked Grok directly. It confirmed the concern existed for some older drivers, explained what was resolved, and flagged what I needed to do after purchase to avoid issues.
• Confirming the final pick. I shared the exact listing for the laptop I was considering and asked Grok to confirm this was the model it had been recommending throughout. It was. So, I bought it.

The whole process was one focused session. No tabs. No separate YouTube search. When I wanted to see the laptop in action, Grok pointed me to relevant review videos directly, so I watched them without ever opening YouTube on my own.

What This Means for Brands

Here is what did not happen during my entire purchase journey:

• I did not visit any brand's website
• I did not click a single sponsored search ad
• I did not see a retargeting banner
• I did not land on a brand-owned blog post about "best laptops for productivity"
• I did not find a YouTube review through YouTube search

The brand's digital marketing presence, paid and organic, was invisible to me. And I still bought the product.

This is the problem for brands. Most marketing budgets are built around a search-and-browse journey. A growing segment of buyers is now skipping that journey entirely.

What AEO and GEO Mean (And Why They Matter Now)

Two disciplines are becoming critical:

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is about structuring your content so that AI tools like Grok, ChatGPT, and Perplexity surface your brand when someone asks a direct question. Not "laptops" as a keyword, but "what is the best laptop under MYR 3,500 for productivity and portability." AEO is about being the answer, not just a ranked result.

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) goes further. It ensures your product information appears accurately and favourably in what AI systems generate when comparing brands or making recommendations. If the AI has strong, consistent, structured data about your product, you show up. If it does not, no SEM budget rescues you.

SEM and SEO were built for a world where buyers open a search engine. AEO and GEO are built for a world where they skip it.

Should Brands Still Invest in SEM?

Yes, but with a clear-eyed view of where it still earns its keep:

• Bottom-of-funnel, high-intent searches where buyers have already decided and are comparing prices or looking for a specific retailer. These searches still happen on Google.
• Remarketing to audiences who encountered your brand through another channel.
• Niche or technical products where AI tools have thinner or less reliable coverage.
• Audiences not yet on AI research tools, which varies by age group, market, and product category.

What SEM is losing is the discovery and consideration phase. If someone starts their laptop research by asking AIinstead of Googling, your paid search budget has zero chance of intercepting them at that stage.

Where to Shift the Investment

• Structured, factual product content. AI systems surface what they can retrieve and verify. Detailed spec pages, clear product descriptions, and accurate third-party coverage feed AI recommendations directly. Keyword-stuffed landing pages built for search rankings do not.
• Earned media and PR. When multiple credible sources describe your product consistently, AI systems reflect that back. The PR function, long underinvested relative to paid search, becomes a core input into AI recommendation quality.
• Comparison-ready content. Content that directly answers "how does Product A compare to Product B for use case X" is exactly what AI systems draw from when generating comparisons. Write for that question format, not just for keyword ranking.
• FAQ and pre-purchase concern content. During my research, I asked Grok directly whether the laptop I was considering had printer compatibility issues. Grok could answer because structured content addressing exactly that concern existed somewhere online. Brands that publish clear FAQ pages covering common objections, compatibility questions, and "will this work with X" scenarios are giving AI systems the precise, retrieval-ready answers buyers ask before committing. This content does not need to rank on page one of Google to matter anymore. It needs to exist in a format AI can find and cite.
• Community and review ecosystems. AI pulls from forums, Reddit threads, and user-generated content. Brands that encourage genuine, specific user feedback are indirectly feeding AI recommendation systems.
• YouTube content. My research included video reviews, but I got there because Grok linked me directly to relevant videos. Being present in video review content still matters; the path to it has just changed. Brands that invest in seeding credible third-party video reviews are feeding both the AI recommendation layer and the viewing that follows it.

The Shift in Plain Terms

The research is still happening. The buyers are still doing their homework. What has changed is where that homework gets done, and who shows up in it.

The laptop I bought showed up in my Grok conversation because it had strong, consistent coverage across sources an AI system can draw from. The brand's SEM presence had nothing to do with it.

For brands still allocating most of their digital spend to paid search, the question is not whether this shift is coming. It is how much of the funnel it has already moved.

Key Takeaways

• AI-assisted research is already changing where discovery happens. Buyers are skipping the Google search entirely and going straight to AI tools for comparison, recommendation, and shortlisting. SEM cannot intercept a journey that never touches a search engine.
• AEO and GEO are not optional additions to SEO strategy. They determine whether your brand surfaces in AI-generated answers. If your product is not in what AI systems retrieve and recommend, you are invisible to a growing segment of buyers.
• SEM still earns its place at the bottom of the funnel. High-intent, price-comparison searches and remarketing remain valid use cases. Pull back on reliance on SEM for discovery and consideration among audiences who now start their research with AI.
• Structured, third-party-validated content is the new priority. Clear product specs, credible external reviews, and community-generated specificity are what AI systems draw from. Content built purely for keyword ranking does not translate into AI retrieval.
• Invest upstream in earned media, PR, and video. Consistent, accurate coverage across credible sources, including YouTube, is how your brand enters the AI recommendation layer. The channel that influences what AI says about you when a buyer asks is where the budget needs to go.

What about you? Have your purchase journey changed with the emergence of AI? Leave a comment to let me know.

ANALYSIS: Getting Digital Transformation Right (What Nobody Tells You)

I gave my POV on digital transformation and how organisations are adapting to it. This article was originally written by Advertising + Marketing (A+M) and can be found here

Image credit: 123RF.com

Like it or not, the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred many companies to start their digital transformation journey. While it might be on the agenda of most companies nowadays, success does not come easy. A research by McKinsey Digital titled "How to restart your stalled digital transformation" found resourcing issues (20%) to be the most commonly cited factor in stalled digital transformations. More than half of respondents (53%) said their resourcing problems result from the ways funds are earmarked or allocated among initiatives. According to McKinsey, this reveals that "the trouble is not simply a matter of allocating sufficient funding or talent" when it comes to digital transformation.

To jump-start stalled digital transformations, McKinsey found that undertaking a rigorous change-management programme (28%), improving the economic model for the transformation's timing and impact (21%), as well as developing a robust internal communications plan (21%) were most associated with success.

How do marketers define digital transformation?

One thing marketers can agree on is that digital transformation is an internal change involving business processes, culture and customer experiences to meet changing market requirements. StarHub's chief digital officer, Adam Stewart, told Marketing that digital transformation is not just about creating a new mobile app or embracing automation software. "I strongly believe that the key to a successful, scalable and sustainable digital transformation is making deep and holistic changes across all experiences, products, services, processes and data with customers’ needs and expectations at the centre of it all," he said.

According to him, the changes StarHub makes must improve customers' daily experience with the brand - from simplifying product catalogues to speeding up product enhancements, shortening response times and minimising errors. He added that success stories come from companies that are flexible and respond quickly to changing customer priorities and market movements, realising greater customer satisfaction, revenue upside and business cost reductions.

Likewise, Daniel Lee, senior director - digital acceleration, foundational markets at McDonald's, defined digital transformation as business transformation executed through digital technology. He explained that it is about combining customer-centric thinking with actionable data and digital channels, that ultimately deliver improved business outcomes. "It ranges from simple actions such as making existing processes more efficient, to creating brand new ways to reach and engage with customers," he added.

Besides improving business processes and making them more efficient, digital transformation also enables organisations to be more nimble and agile as well as being cost efficient in their day to day operations, Abbott Malaysia's head of digital marketing and CRM, Nicholas Goh, said. He added that this would then give the organisation a competitive edge over their competitors.

Also weighing in on the topic was Acquia's senior field marketing manager Rachel Lam, who shared about the aspects of digital transformation that nobody tells you, "Where there are so many ways to interact with your prospects and customers, the information gathered from these interactions, there is always an issue of making sense and use of all the data," she added. To be successful in digital transformation, companies need to do the groundwork and ensure it is sustainable after the transformation. Otherwise, there will be challenges in the long run, she added.

Some ways Acquia has implemented digital transformation for its clients include understanding the buying process of the customer through the interactions with its content and salespeople via online and offline channels. According to her, this helps the SaaS company better target similar prospects or audience through relevant channel and content. "Through the interactions with the customers, we are then able to provide consultative insights to them and provide them personalised solutions that would fit their needs and solve their pain points," she added.

Aspects of digital transformation that nobody tells you

Digital transformation might have become a buzzword in recent years, but there is no guidance on where and when to start. Goh said this includes areas such as when is the right time for an organisation to embark on a digital transformation journey and whether they are even ready to do so.

"In most cases, I would say when an organisation has a mandate to embark this journey versus people readiness as well as system readiness are often times mis-aligned. Alignment within the whole organisation and buy in from stakeholders are key before embarking on this transformation journey," he added.

Goh also said he wished he had gone on a digital transformation course before starting on the journey. He explained that most of the time, he learnt how to implement and amend things on the fly as he went along. While such a practice is not ideal, Goh said that having past experiences and knowledge in some areas do help him make decisions a lot quickly and easily. This is especially so when it involves technical knowledge as well managing stakeholders expectations.

Agreeing with him is StarHub's Stewart, who said that the execution of digital transformation strategies will become smoother when stakeholders see clear business objectives and outcomes.

"What I would want is an innate ability to recognise the nuances of customers’ ever-evolving needs and expectations. Customers’ expectations are a constantly rising tide in our fast-changing digital world, and we want to stay ahead and accurately predict what our customers want," he said. Stewart explained that this is why the telco's digital transformation journey relies heavily on data insights. To further boost this capability, StarHub is also in the process of breaking down data silos and harmonising its data assets for the company to have a unified view of its customers.

Mindset shift is key

At the heart of getting buy-in from the management is a mindset shift. According to Digi Telecommunications' chief digital officer Praveen Rajan, the key to digital transformation is actually people transformation and mindset shift. Most automation and digitalisation are operational processes, which still require people to craft the solutions.

He added that transitioning employees to new way of doing things requires acceptance, readiness and effort invested in training, for instance. "In other words, while having the latest digital technology is necessary, what is equally important is having company-wide support with the right people and the right mindset in place to see through an effective digital transformation," he said.

There is also a common notion in the industry that digitalisation is the answer to all business problems. While it can be the foundation and catalyst to many solutions and operational improvements, Rajan said the fact is that there will be complex business challenges that require more than just digitalisation to close the gap. Fundamentally, a good start is often to identify parts of the business that will benefit most from digitalisation, and then scale from there, he added.

According to him, one thing he wished he had known before embarking on digital transformation was the fact that it is a never-ending journey and that it will continue to evolve. "The digital landscape is an ever-changing one, and when you think you have transformed, either your customers have changing needs or the market changes before you know it," he said.

Citing MyDigi app as an example, Rajan said email addresses were used to log in to the app when it first rolled out. However, the team quickly learnt that the growing younger generation has moved away from using emails as a communications tool. As a result, it changed the login method to mobile numbers.

Also stressing the importance of mindset is McDonald's Lee, who said the culture around thinking is the most underlooked aspects of digital transformation and any business transformation for that matter. Transformation means doing things differently, which starts with being willing to think differently in several areas: making decisions quicker, taking calculated risks and having permission to fail, Lee explained.

"Organisations and careers in most organisations are built around slow consensus driven decisions and ensuring that failure is discouraged if you want to stay employed. If an organisation is truly seeking transformation, you must take risks which is naturally bundled with failure," he added. According to him, the trick is to manage risks and failure so that the impact is not as catastrophic when something goes wrong, which most likely will.

5 Reasons Why Brands Don’t Spend (as much) on Digital Marketing

Having been in the digital industry for quite a while, I’ve seen growth of the industry in terms of services, available platforms as well capabilities in terms of analytics and automation. However, why is it that brands still haven’t shifted their advertising and marketing spend to embrace digital as a channel?

Image credit: okoone.com

Shouldn’t it be the norm now for brands to do so, given that the industry has advanced and matured over the years to the point where it is now no longer termed “new media” but “mainstream media”? Yet, most brands only dedicate a small portion of their total advertising budget to digital channels and campaigns. Here are some of the reasons this could be the case:

Where do you even start?

The digital landscape is fragmented. VERY fragmented. There are many components and parties that rely on each other to make things work. Creative agencies, media agencies, publishers, ad serving, tracking, etc. In fact, it’s so fragmented, that there are providers that provide overlapping services to one another, and it can be totally confusing for someone to grasp what each service provider really does. Just to give you an idea, here is an image from chiefmartec.com on the marketing technology landscape.

(click here to view full image)

Believe me, I sometimes get confused as well after looking at this chart. For brands who want to invest in digital after seeing this, you can understand why there is confusion and doubt.

Don’t know the ingredients to make that sauce

Digital channels or media as a whole are made up of 4 main pillars: Display, Search, Social and Mobile advertising. Those are then fueled by content, which relies on optimization platforms and analytics to get the right balance. The question is, what is the right balance? How do you choose your digital media mix? How do you choose what platform to be on? What services to use? It’s like cooking. You first have to know the ingredients and cooking methods in order to make a particular dish. This is where the majority of brands rely on agencies to provide them consultancy on how to go about doing it. The challenge is always working with the right (and competent) agency, who knows your business well in order to recommend what you need to fulfill a business objective. But in my opinion, that in itself has its own set of challenges. (Read more here)

RTB, DSP, DMP, CPC, CPA, WTF…

Digital jargons are scary. There are so many metrics and measurements that are being used to the point that brands (and also agencies) sometimes do not really know what metrics they should be looking at. It doesn’t help that every year, that jargon list grows. Brand owners who do not know how to justify these metrics to stakeholders would tend to stay away, hence playing it safe by only investing to what they know (i.e. traditional media) – they fear the unknown. Again, the best way is to keep abreast with what’s happening in the digital marketing world. Agencies should play a bigger role here by educating brands through workshops and training, so that brands are constantly updated and know how to look at these metrics and make sense of it.

“I don’t want to know what I don’t know…”

In this case, it’s more like “I’m afraid of what I will know”. For digital, (almost) everything is trackable. Hence, for a brand owner, it could be something that may work against them. I once asked a client why they did not want to run a particular campaign on digital. They said it was too technical for them, and everything is trackable to which, should the campaign not do well, it would be hard for them to “hide” the evidence and justify to stakeholders! But then I asked, why do you think it would fail in the first place, given we have tools that can optimize the campaign? What if you can show your bosses that you can actually track and show proof of success? To which they became interested and asked me to explain more. The main thing here was more the case of the client not knowing the benefits of investing in digital. All it takes is a little education and effort to try it out to be able to understand its benefits.

Digital is expensive!

This is kind of a chicken and egg situation. Digital investments can initially cost a lot to start. With cost of creative development, cost of media, setting up of platforms, re-occurring cost for services, etc., you could also see why brands tend to sway away from this. However, most of these are initial one-time setup costs. For example, if you want to run multiple creative ads online using display advertising, you would initially have to pay a hefty fee for the design of dynamic ad templates. But once those dynamic ad templates are created, it doesn’t cost much to have multiple ads running off those templates. You could then update these creative in almost real-time whenever necessary. Which other traditional medium lets you do that? Similar to having a mobile application or building a website, the initial setup does seem expensive, but in the long run, the cost will justify the investment if you do it right.

The Death of SMS?

SMS or Short Messaging Service, has been one of the longest and often used (and sometimes overused) form of mobile communication by both consumers and marketers.

Image credit: ispyoo.com

But, with the rise of mobile chat applications such as Whatsapp, Viber, WeChat, Skype, Line, and even Facebook Messenger, it's not really surprising that we see a decline in overall SMS usage here in Malaysia.

We are already seeing a decline of total SMS sent in Q2 2014 vs Q2 2015 in Malaysia (13,193 mil vs 6,855 mil) by about 48%. And the usage still seems to be in a downward trend in 2015 in Q1 (7,768 mil) vs Q2 (6,855 mil). That's a reduction of 10% usage in just one quarter alone!

Source: Communication and Multimedia Pocket Book of Statistics, Q2 2015, MCMC Malaysia.

In the near future, mobile chat applications would probably replace SMS as a preferred form of future text communication as it gives the user more flexibility as well as options. Mobile chat applications allows:

• Real-time response
• Multi user participation (groups) 
• Sharing of files 
• Most importantly - No extra charges to send a message if you're on a data plan or using WiFi

The SMS usage numbers will only decline even further within these 2-3 years as more mobile chat applications become available, mobile data prices becomes more affordable and smartphone usage increases.

However, one thing to note that while SMS usage is on the decline, it's still regarded as a more reliable form of messaging compared to chat applications. SMS is also available as a default to all mobile phones, while chat applications are still very fragmented in nature, meaning, not everyone are on the same chat platform or application as you.

So whether SMS will still be around in the next few years remain to be seen, but the days of SMS are certainly numbered!