Users need AEO platforms to go beyond just visibility metrics and provide actionable insights derived from AI engine responses. This includes identifying product gaps, positioning gaps, or un-surfaced customer success stories based on how AI engines synthesize information from various sources (e.g., Reddit, review sites) when responding to specific prompts. The platform should present these insights in a way that can be directly used by product, sales, and leadership teams for strategic decision-making.
Most of the AEO conversation right now is about visibility. That matters, and it's a real part of our strategy at Buffer. But I think the most underrated thing AEO data tells you has nothing to do with content and everything to do with product. Here's what I mean. Say you sell a project management tool. You're tracking how AI engines respond to prompts like "best project management software for remote teams" and "project management tool with time tracking." You show up consistently on the first prompt. On the second, you're barely mentioned. The content marketing instinct is: write more about time tracking. Publish comparison pages. Manufacture visibility. But AI engines aren't pulling from your marketing site the way Google used to. They're synthesizing from Reddit threads, review sites, YouTube comparisons, and community forums way more. And platforms like Perplexity emphasize these sources significantly more than other LLMs. So if nobody's recommending you for time tracking, optimizing a blog post about it won't change the answer. The AI is reflecting a real (or perceived) product gap, not a content marketing one. It's a live summary of what the market thinks about you, updated every time an AI engine crawls new sources. The short-term impulse is to chase those gaps with content. The durable play is to bring those insights back to your product team. If the market doesn't associate your tool with time tracking, maybe the feature needs work. Maybe the UX makes it hard to find. Maybe your own users are saying so openly. Fixing that is what moves the needle long-term. Not manufacturing a narrative the product can't back up. Visibility matters. But the teams that treat AEO as a feedback loop, not just a distribution channel, are going to build something much more sustainable.