Brands
Adobe completes Semrush acquisition to boost AI-led brand visibility
Deal strengthens Adobe’s push into AI-driven search and customer journeys
SAN JOSE: Adobe has completed its acquisition of Semrush, in a move aimed at strengthening its capabilities in AI-driven brand visibility and customer engagement as digital discovery rapidly shifts towards intelligent agents and conversational interfaces.
The deal comes at a time when how consumers find and interact with brands is being reshaped by artificial intelligence. Adobe is positioning itself at the centre of this shift, expanding its customer experience orchestration offering with deeper search, content and data integration.
Central to this strategy is Adobe CX Enterprise, the company’s end-to-end agentic AI system designed to bring together content supply chains, customer engagement and brand visibility. The platform aims to simplify fragmented workflows by allowing AI agents to manage tasks and deliver personalised experiences at scale.
The acquisition of Semrush adds a critical layer to this ecosystem. Known for its strength in search engine optimisation, Semrush brings tools that help businesses improve discoverability across traditional search engines as well as emerging AI-driven interfaces. Adobe plans to combine this with its own suite, including Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Commerce and Adobe Experience Platform, to offer a more unified view of how brands appear and perform across digital touchpoints.
The urgency is clear. Adobe’s internal data shows AI-driven traffic to US retail websites surged 269 per cent year on year in March 2026, highlighting both the opportunity and the gap in how brands optimise for AI-led discovery.
“The rules of brand discovery and commerce are being rewritten in real time, and marketers who are not optimising for that world today will find themselves invisible tomorrow,” said Adobe president, customer experience orchestration business Anil Chakravarthy. “Together with Semrush, we can offer a full picture of how brands show up, from search and large language models to content, engagement and conversion.”
For Semrush, the deal marks a new chapter after more than 17 years of building marketing tools for businesses of all sizes. “By joining Adobe, we see an opportunity to build the definitive platform for brand visibility in an AI-driven world,” said Semrush chief executive officer Bill Wagner.
As consumer behaviour evolves, marketers are increasingly designing content not just for people but also for AI systems that influence discovery and decision-making. Adobe’s combined offering will target this shift with tools spanning SEO, generative engine optimisation and agentic search optimisation.
With the integration underway, Adobe is betting that the future of marketing will hinge on how well brands can stay visible, relevant and trusted across both human and machine-led interactions.
Brands
HSBC names Gautam Anand to head global India private banking unit
The bank taps a 25-year veteran to run its franchise as the war for wealthy NRI clients heats up
MUMBAI: HSBC has handed Gautam Anand the keys to its global India private banking business, betting that a seasoned operator can squeeze more out of one of the world’s most lucrative pools of offshore wealth.
Anand, who joined HSBC Private Bank in December 2023 as global co-ordinator for Global India, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, steps up to lead the franchise outright. He will run the operation across India and its key international outposts in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom, putting him squarely in the middle of the corridors through which Indian money flows abroad.
The appointment is a signal of intent. HSBC only launched its global private banking business in India in 2023, pitching hard at high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients as part of a broader assault on Asian wealth management. The bank now wants Anand to turn that beachhead into a fortress.
He comes well-armed. Before HSBC, Anand clocked time at UBS, Credit Suisse, ANZ and ABN Amro, a CV that reads like a roll-call of the banks that have long competed to manage the fortunes of India’s affluent diaspora.
With Indian wealth exploding at home and spreading fast across global financial centres, the race to capture it is only getting fiercer. HSBC is backing Anand to make sure it does not finish second.
