Make Your Content Count in the AI Age
It wasn’t long ago that marketing teams were still learning the ropes of SEO, figuring out how to optimize headlines and pepper in just the right keywords to rank higher on Google.
Today, they’re being asked to create content that not only appeals to human readers but also attracts the attention of generative AI models that are crawling, summarizing, and amplifying the web in new ways.
This isn’t science fiction. AI-generated summaries are being built into search engines, email clients, news apps, and productivity tools. If your company’s content doesn’t surface in these summaries, you’re invisible in conversations where decisions are increasingly being made.
So how do you craft content that gets picked up by AI?
It turns out, some of the same strategies that help with human readers also make your content more “summarizable.” Here are three steps we’re recommending to clients who want to stay ahead.
1. Write like a journalist, not a novelist
AI models love clarity. They aren’t impressed by cleverness if it gets in the way of comprehension. That means your content needs to get to the point early, stay focused on one idea per paragraph, and support every claim with examples or data.
The lede matters. If an AI tool is scanning your blog post to summarize it, it’s probably starting with the first few sentences. Make those count. Don’t waste them on throat-clearing or vague introductions. Hit the who, what, and why as early as possible.
2. Structure matters more than style
AI tools are particularly good at summarizing content that is well-structured. Use subheadings. Use lists. Use bullet points. Break long paragraphs into smaller ones. All of this makes it easier for AI to parse and extract meaning from your content.
We’ve started advising our clients to include a short, bolded summary paragraph at the top or bottom of key blog posts. That’s not just for your busy human readers. It also increases the likelihood that AI models will pull the right points when generating a synopsis.
3. Choose keywords with AI, not just SEO, in mind
Traditional SEO practices still matter. But now, we also need to consider how AI interprets language. Tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are trained on content at scale. That means they recognize terms and concepts that show up frequently across trusted sources.
It’s not enough to optimize for a few popular keywords. Companies should be using tools that help identify the language AI models are learning from, the phrases that reflect how your target audience talks about the problems you solve. This is less about stuffing and more about matching your customer’s intent.
As we tell our clients, you’re not just writing for your prospects anymore. You’re also writing for the machines that are helping your prospects filter, summarize, and decide.
Let’s Talk About Your Content Strategy
Navigating this new landscape isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible. With a few smart adjustments, your content marketing can still punch above its weight, even in a world where AI is doing some of the reading for us.
If you’re wondering how your current strategy stacks up, or how to make your next campaign more AI-aware, let’s have a conversation.
