What is AI Optimisation?
AI Optimisation (AIO) is the practice of ensuring your brand, products, and content are accurately represented and recommended by AI systems. As AI becomes the primary way people discover information, AIO is becoming essential for visibility.
In this guide
- What AI Optimisation means in practice
- Why traditional marketing isn't enough anymore
- The core principles of AIO
- How to start thinking about AI visibility
The Shift in Discovery
For two decades, search engines were the gatekeepers of online discovery. If you wanted customers to find you, you optimised for Google. But the way people find information is fundamentally changing.
Instead of typing keywords into a search box and browsing through links, millions of people now ask AI assistants directly: "What's the best project management tool for a small team?" or "Which running shoes are best for flat feet?" The AI doesn't give them ten blue links. It gives them an answer.
Traditional Search
"best CRM software" → 10 links to compare
AI Discovery
"What CRM should I use for my startup?" → Direct recommendation
What AIO Actually Means
AI Optimisation is about ensuring that when an AI system answers questions relevant to your business, your brand is:
- Present: The AI knows your brand exists and understands what you do
- Accurate: The information it has about you is correct and up-to-date
- Recommended: When relevant, the AI suggests you as a solution
The Three Pillars of AIO
1. Training Data Presence
LLMs learn about the world from their training data. If your brand isn't well-represented in authoritative sources when that training data is collected, the AI simply won't know about you.
This means being mentioned in industry publications, having quality content that gets referenced, and building a genuine reputation in your space.
2. Real-Time Discoverability
Many AI systems now search the web in real-time to answer questions. This means your existing SEO work still matters, but the way AI systems evaluate and select sources differs from traditional search rankings.
AI systems look for clear, authoritative, well-structured content that directly answers the question at hand.
3. Entity Understanding
AI systems understand the world through entities (people, places, companies, products, concepts) and the relationships between them. Your brand needs to be a clearly defined entity that AI can recognise and reason about.
This involves consistent naming, clear category associations, and well-defined relationships (e.g., "Acme Corp is a B2B SaaS company that makes project management software").
Why This Matters Now
The shift to AI-mediated discovery is happening faster than most businesses realise:
- • ChatGPT reached 100 million users faster than any application in history
- • Google now shows AI Overviews for many search queries by default
- • Microsoft Copilot is embedded in Office products used by millions daily
- • Voice assistants and AI-powered search are becoming the norm on mobile
Businesses that wait to address AI visibility will find themselves invisible in an increasingly AI-mediated world. The time to start is now.
Key Takeaway
AI Optimisation is about being part of the conversation.
When AI systems answer questions in your industry, your brand should be known, accurately represented, and recommended where relevant. This requires a deliberate strategy spanning content, authority building, and technical implementation.
Technical Implementation
Proper technical implementation helps AI systems understand your brand as a distinct entity with clear attributes and relationships.
Structured Data for AIWhat's Next
Understanding what AIO is raises an obvious question: how does it differ from the SEO you're already doing? In the next section, we'll explore the key differences between AIO and SEO, and why you need both.