Is Affiliate Marketing Future-Proofed or Doomed? #72

Executive Summary

• Consumers are moving to LLMs at a pace not seen before.

• Brands that fail to capitalize on this shift in consumer behavior are falling behind.

• Affiliate is a primary driver to improve your exposure in Chat GPT Gemini and other LLMs.

• Jason Wei’s talk at the Stanford AI Club verifiers’ law and posits that intelligence will be a commodity.

• Middle of the funnel might be your sweet spot to winning AI LLM exposure within affiliate marketing.

• Human and trust-based aspect of Affiliate will preserve it from being eaten by AI - for now.

What does the AI wave mean for Affiliate Marketing?

One of the leading AI experts spoke at the Stanford AI Club.

His talk raises many great questions and concerns. Still, ultimately, I think it bodes well for several businesses and functions, including those at the heart of Affiliate, Partner, and Influencer Marketing.

Jason Wei’s talk at the Stanford AI Club outlines three foundational ideas that are shaping AI in 2025: intelligence as a commodity, the significance of verifiers’ law, and the jagged edge of AI capabilities.

Intelligence as a Commodity

Wei argues that AI has entered an era where intelligence and knowledge are becoming fast, cheap, and universally accessible.

As public information becomes instantly retrievable, fields previously gated by expertise or access—such as coding and personal health—are becoming democratized. The shift to adaptive computing, where AI allocates different amounts of computing power based on task difficulty, also means costs continue to drop.

Verifiers Law

Wei introduces “verifiers law,” stating that AI progress on any task depends on how easily that task can be verified. Tasks with clear, objective measures will be solved most rapidly, such as competition math or code testing. He emphasizes the importance of developing benchmarks and measurement tools for AI systems to optimize.

The Jagged Edge of Intelligence

Rather than expecting a sudden “fast takeoff” to superintelligence, Wei describes AI advancement as uneven and task-specific.

Special thanks to a fellow founder, Daniel Pearson, CEO & Founder of Bamboo, for bringing the Jason Wei video to my attention.

He observes that digital tasks with abundant data (such as translation or coding) show rapid improvement, while physical or subjective activities (such as hairdressing or human relationships) remain largely untouched. The rate of progress and capability varies dramatically across different areas.

Key Implications

• Universal access to knowledge will raise the value of private or insider data.

• AI will heavily accelerate software and other digital fields.

• Industries that require physical skills or deep subjectivity will experience less impact.​

In short, Wei’s talk forecasts a future where AI automates the easily measured and verifiable, reshaping industries based on the inherent properties of their core tasks.

Ok, cool, but what “affiliates” can win in this AI LLM environment?

Middle-of-the-funnel decision-making content to build trust in LLMs is key. Ewen Finser calls it “middle of the funnel overflow” because brands next 3-5x more content in AI to shift consensus vs in Google, where ranking #1 (or 1-3) was most of the ballgame.

This means that editorial review sites / YouTube channels, as well as buyer-oriented recommendation sites / YouTube channels, have outsized returns.

Suppose you are not tapping into unique content, utilizing platforms like Reddit and YouTube, or assessing your rankings, citations, and exposure within LLMs to gain a competitive view and customer sentiment. In that case, you are missing out big time.

Reply if you want to learn more and nerd out on what we are seeing in the affiliate ecosystem and in GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). We are investing heavily in expertise and technology.

Affiliates are still the R&D of the ecosystem.

Affiliates have consistently represented the research and development of both the partner marketing and performance marketing ecosystems.

One of the more prominent consumer CMOs I have worked with observed that affiliate-trained individuals made some of the best multi-channel marketers.

Affiliates, by nature, are entrepreneurs who often put their own skin in the game and promote brands using their own technology, money, and time.

It is still highly relationship-based and authentic, trust-based (when done the right way), and as a result, AI is less likely to replace the Affiliate Tech/Service Stack as quickly as other marketing levers.

Recap

• Consumers are moving to LLMs at a pace not seen before.

• Brands that fail to capitalize on this shift in consumer behavior are falling behind.

• Affiliate is a primary driver to improve your exposure in Chat GPT Gemini and other LLMs.

• Jason Wei’s talk at the Stanford AI Club verifiers’ law and posits that intelligence will be a commodity.

• Middle of the funnel might be your sweet spot to winning AI LLM exposure within affiliate marketing.

• Human and trust-based aspect of Affiliate will preserve it from being eaten by AI - for now.

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