---
id: "action-segment-by-model"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Treat each model as a distinct market segment."]
tags: ["market-segmentation", "analytics"]
related: ["concept-ai-model-segmentation", "framework-ai-commerce-adaptation"]
action: "Identify top-performing AI models driving traffic and treat them as distinct market segments."
outcome: "Allows for targeted optimization strategies tailored to the specific behavioral quirks of dominant LLMs."
speakers: ["Jafar Sabbah", "Oguz A. Acar"]
sources: ["geo"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-geo"
originDay: 3
articleStem: "hbr-tier2-06-ai-shopping-agents"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/research-traditional-marketing-doesnt-work-on-ai-shopping-agents"
sourceTitle: "Research: Traditional Marketing Doesn’t Work on AI Shopping Agents"
---
# Segment marketing by AI model

**Action:** Identify top-performing AI models driving traffic and treat them as distinct market segments.

**Do this:** Identify which specific AI models (e.g., GPT-4, [[entity-gpt-5|GPT-5]], [[entity-gemini-2-5-pro|Gemini Pro]]) generate the most traffic or transactions in your product category. Treat these models as distinct market segments with unique behavioral profiles — rather than treating "AI" as a single monolithic audience (see [[concept-ai-model-segmentation]]).

**Expected outcome:** Enables targeted optimization tailored to the specific behavioral quirks of the dominant LLMs in your category.

**Framework position:** Step 2 of the [[framework-ai-commerce-adaptation|AI-Centric E-Commerce Adaptation Strategy]].

**Related:** [[concept-ai-model-segmentation]] · [[concept-reasoning-vs-non-reasoning-models]] · [[framework-ai-commerce-adaptation]]