I left HubSpot’s GROW Europe event with a feeling I haven’t had in a long time: the sense that something fundamental in marketing has shifted. Not a trend. Not a new tool. Something deeper.
For the first time in a long time, the way people discover information, evaluate options and make decisions no longer maps to the content strategies most teams still rely on. And as I sat listening to the sessions, that realisation hit hard.
- Search engines are becoming answer engines.
- Buyers are doing more research before they ever land on your website.
- Educational content is generating less demand.
- AI is taking entire categories of search traffic and summarising them before anyone clicks.
Something big is happening.
And AEO is the name we are starting to use for the new playbook.
The Short Answer: What Is AEO?
AEO, or Answer Engine Optimisation, is the practice of shaping your content so AI tools can use it when generating answers.
SEO tries to rank.
AEO tries to be included.
If AI is the new front door to information, AEO is how you position yourself on the welcome mat.
SEO vs AEO: A Simple Comparison
| SEO | AEO |
|---|---|
| Aim: rank in the top results | Aim: be part of the answer |
| Powered by keywords and backlinks | Powered by clarity, authority and repetition |
| Optimises for website visits | Optimises for visibility in AI conversations |
| Trust comes from domain strength |
Trust comes from multi-source credibility |
Why This Shift Matters
I realised at GROW that we, as marketers, have been optimising for a world that no longer exists.
Here are the facts that made it click for me:
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AIOs show up on nearly 6 in 10 searches. Their presence halves CTR.
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HubSpot’s broad educational blog content now drives only 28 percent of demand
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But their human-first creator content now earns more than 40 million engagements each month
Buyers aren’t starting with your website anymore. They’re watching reviews on YouTube, reading Reddit threads, checking G2, searching LinkedIn comments and asking AI tools for advice.
By the time they reach you, they’ve already formed an opinion.
AEO helps you influence that opinion before they ever land on your site.
How Answer Engines Actually Work
This part was my personal lightbulb moment.
AI doesn’t take a question like “What is the best CRM for a small team” and search for one answer. It splits it into dozens of sub-questions.
For example:
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What counts as a small team
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Which CRMs have high adoption rates
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What tools integrate easily
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What onboarding experience matters most
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Which products are rated highest for customer support
It then finds answers to each one, evaluates which sources are trustworthy, combines the information and personalises it to the user.
Your content only needs to answer one of those sub-questions well to be included in the final answer. That is the opportunity.
FAQs
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) helps AI tools, like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, use your content when generating answers for users. AEO is about structuring your content so AI tools can easily understand, trust and reuse your answers when generating responses.
No. SEO gets people to your site. AEO gets you included in AI-generated answers.
They work together.
Because buyers now form opinions before they click.
If you can show up in the answers they see first, everything downstream converts more easily.
HubSpot data shows visitors from answer engines convert three times faster because they arrive informed and ready.
No. Start by restructuring your content, not your website.
Prioritise modular, answer-first posts that help answer engines parse your expertise quickly.
HubSpot has introduced its free “AEO Grader” which shows how your brand is represented across major AI engines (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) — highlighting how often your company is cited, the sentiment of those mentions, and how you compare to competitors.
HubSpot are continuing to share more resources and release new features that can help us with our AEO goals. They have also now introduced an "AI Referral" traffic source to reporting. To enable you to get a much clearer picture on where your website visitors are coming from.
How do I get started?
Instead of creating another long, catch-all guide, try creating content that directly address the real questions your audience is already asking. Start by reviewing the information you have - your sales calls, support chats and CRM notes, explore the forums where your audience hangs out. Turn common questions into specific, answer-first pieces of content with clear formatting.
AEO is not a trend. It is the natural evolution of how people search and how AI processes information.
For me, GROW Europe wasn’t just another marketing event. It was a reminder that our content strategies must adapt to the way people actually make decisions today.
If we want to stay visible in a world where answers are generated, not searched for, AEO is where the shift begins.
