Winning Content for AEO: How AI is Reshaping Content Strategy

Did you hear that? The starting gun just fired, and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is off to the races.

AI-powered answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s Gemini are giving users instant, synthesized answers, and AI decides whose content makes the cut.

No scrolling through SERPs. No clicking to a webpage. No patience required.

That means content isn’t just competing for rankings anymore. 

It’s competing to be cited and to be trusted. To be the definitive source AI systems rely on.

The old SEO playbook is fading away. A new era is here, and if your content isn’t built for it, you’re getting lapped. 

What makes content “winning” in the age of AI?

Winning content in this new era is defined by four essential characteristics:

1. Unique and authoritative

Whilst not new, there's an increased premium on unique opinions and trusted quality first-party data. Generic content slowly dying. 

AI can already produce adequate "good enough" answers on many top of funnel topics which is eating into a valuable traffic source for brands. The focus is shifting to MoFU and BoFu terms and on delivering unique, deeper insights, often back by proprietary research, and authoritative expertise that AI systems can't replicate.

AI is now generating satisfactory answers for many top-of-funnel topics, decreasing a valuable traffic source for brands. Consequently, the focus is shifting towards middle- and bottom-of-funnel terms, and on providing unique, in-depth insights, often supported by proprietary research and authoritative expertise that AI systems cannot replicate.

This means less fluff, more depth, and authoritative opinions backed by real expertise.

2. Persuasive to agents and humans

Content must persuade not just human readers but also AI agents who are the new ‘middlemen’ between brands and customers. 

These AI systems are becoming the gatekeepers of information, deciding what content to surface in response to user queries. It’s a new and poorly understood optimization challenge.

Successful content strategies must now consider both audience persuasion and agent persuasion as critical objectives.

Research from Seer Interactive confirms that keyword visibility in search engines—particularly Google (0.65 correlation) and Bing (0.56)—strongly influences whether brands get mentioned by AI systems, outweighing traditional SEO factors like domain authority (0.25) or backlinks (0.10).

3. Ranking In existing and emerging graphs

For now, SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) remains the primary battlefield for establishing authority. Even Perplexity that doesn’t rely on traditional SERP uses a similar authority graph to the larger search engines. 

Ranking well in Google search results is crucial for AI agents to consider your content for inclusion in their responses.

While the landscape is evolving, winning at traditional SEO acts as a very solid foundation for AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).

4. Cited

Being found is only half the battle. Being cited is where true visibility happens. 

Your content can rank at the top of search results, but if AI systems don't cite it when answering user queries, you're missing out on a critical visibility opportunity. 

A recent analysis from AirOps partner Kevin Indig found that AI-generated answers frequently pull from citable sources such as exclusive research, industry surveys, and thought leadership from recognized experts. 

Citation patterns are still poorly understood, making this an important frontier for research and experimentation.

Trends reshaping organic content

The death of undifferentiated information

Zero-click queries are increasingly becoming the norm, where users get their answers directly in search results or AI interfaces without ever visiting publisher websites. 

Generic informational content that simply restates widely available facts is rapidly losing value. 

While there's still an opportunity for informational content to work (by winning answer boxes and generic AI citations), the bar is much higher than before and the opportunity size is shrinking.

Web content as an agent data feed

Web content is becoming a data feed for AI agents, and not only for human consumption. 

This means priorities are shifting from human-centered design to agent-centered information architecture.

Success factors now include accuracy, completeness, agent readability, and authority signals that help AI systems identify your content as citation-worthy.

AI as the new broker

Between customers and brands, a new actor has emerged that needs to be persuaded and properly informed. 

That is an AI answer engine. 

Current AI models are somewhat "lazy" and look for the easiest way to meet user intent, so presenting information in clear, structured formats (like question-answer pairs) increases the chance of citation.

This will surely change, but understanding how to structure content for AI consumption is becoming as important as optimizing for human readers.

The content types that will matter more

As the landscape evolves, certain content types are gaining importance:

1. Authoritative Expert Opinion: Content that showcases genuine expertise from inside and outside your organization
2. Detailed Product Information: Comprehensive, accurate, and specific details that address user questions
3. Experiential Content: Videos, interactive experiences, and tools that can't be fully replicated by AI systems
4. Answer Engine Formatted Content: Non-fluffy, succinct content structured for easy AI consumption
5. Off-Website Content: Strategic presence on platforms like Reddit, YouTube, and LinkedIn along with backlinks that feed into AI systems

AEO technical considerations for implementation

To optimize for this new ecosystem, several technical factors are worth considering:

• Content Density and Format: Structured, information-rich content that's easy for AI systems to parse
• Schema Markup: Underlying HTML schema that improves readability and signals authority
• Static HTML: More easily crawled by AI systems than JavaScript-rendered content
• Long-Tail Intent Pages: Specific pages targeting particular search intents with efficient Q&A formats

Mike King from iPullRank just did a great webinar with this on how RAG systems can influence AI results down to the paragraph level. You have to think about your posts bit by bit. 

The Future: Agent-first content?

Looking ahead, we're seeing early signs of more radical changes that could become mainstream in the next 2 years:

• Agent-First CMS Layers: Dedicated content versions optimized for AI consumption, potentially using markdown or other simplified formats
• Direct Knowledge Graphs: Ways for brands to expose structured knowledge directly to agentic systems
• Direct Product Catalog Submission: Providing product information directly to AI platforms

How does this impact your marketing budgets? 

This shift has significant implications for marketing resource allocation. As AI becomes the primary information gateway for consumers, content that establishes authority may begin to pull budget away from traditional advertising.

82.5% of marketers increased their SEO budgets in 2024, prioritizing content that AI favors over traditional keyword-stuffing tactics. If consumers can instantly access comprehensive, comparative information about products through AI interfaces, the value of interruptive advertising diminishes. Brands that dominate the conversation through authoritative content will have a significant advantage.

Your North Star for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

With AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), the North Star is clear: Become the source that's trusted and cited for the important queries that matter to your business.

This requires a fundamental rethinking of content strategy, focusing less on volume and more on authority, depth, and AI-friendliness.

It means creating content that satisfies both human readers and AI agents, and structuring information in ways that make it easily discoverable and citable.

The rise of AI as an information gateway presents both challenges and opportunities for brands. Those who understand and adapt to this new paradigm – focusing on creating truly "winning content" that's unique, persuasive, ranking, and cited – will thrive in the age of answer engines.

The future belongs to brands that can establish themselves as the authoritative voice in their domain, structuring their expertise in ways that both humans and AI agents can easily discover, understand, and trust.

We’re entering an exciting period where organic demand strategy is significantly shifting once again. We are working to help our customers win in this new era. 

This will take on a few different forms. We’re working on new utilities and templates focused on emerging channels and content to help our community learn. 

Stay tuned for updates with our newsletter and get in touch if you would like contribute to the conversation! 

Ready to future-proof your content and win your audience? Book a demo call today.

–

NOTE: This article represents my current thinking on the evolution of content strategy in the age of AI. The landscape is rapidly changing, and we're continuing to research and refine our understanding of best practices for AEO. I welcome your thoughts and feedback as we navigate this transformation together.