How to appear in AI responses
- Brenna Watson-Paul
- Jan 23
- 6 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Three strategies you can implement today to encourage ChatGPT and Google AI to surface your content.
(TLSS) What’s covered in this insight:
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Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) influences whether AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini cite your content when answering questions in your industry.
Imagine this: An HR manager at a medical clinic looks up support for workplace policies on menopause using ChatGPT... If you're a law firm, do you want your name to be featured in the AI response?
Here's what's happening. Your customers, employees, and stakeholders are asking AI platforms questions about your industry. Right now, AI may be positioning your competitors as the authority – whether that reflects reality or not.
The risk is real. When AI platforms become the default interpreters of compliance, you risk:
misaligned stakeholder expectations
regulatory scrutiny based on incomplete information, and
gradual erosion of market authority.
Your expertise either shapes the conversation or gets replaced by someone else's.
What has changed in digital visibility over the past 12 months
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Can we guarantee visibility in search results?
No. One important caveat: AI search isn’t deterministic. The same query may surface your content one day and not the next. Visibility fluctuates. And it’s not always getting it right, with 42% of surveyed users reporting experiencing inaccurate or misleading content.
That’s why the focus isn’t on chasing individual results, but on strengthening the signals that increase your likelihood of being referenced over time.
For highly regulated industries, this shift presents a significant opportunity. When AI platforms generate responses, your documented expertise should be part of shaping that answer.
How to have your content surfaced in AI results
There are ways to increase the likelihood of your content being surfaced. The underlying structure – often referred to as discovery architecture – influences whether ChatGPT, Google, or Gemini reference your content when generating answers.
Like designing strong user experiences, AI discovery comes down to three simple, familiar foundations:
Conversational frameworks; writing for real human questions.
User-centred design; treating content as an experience, not just a page.
Accessible foundations; building performance infrastructure, not checklists.
Organisations who choose to put these foundations in place now will shape how their sector is explained to customers, regulators, employees, and markets. Those who don’t may risk inheriting someone else’s interpretation of their authority by default.
1. Write for conversational frameworks
The barrier to asking questions has dropped dramatically. People no longer need perfect phrasing. They can show or describe what they mean. Conversational structure builds authority. And authority is exactly what gets cited.
What this looks like in practice:
AI is designed to converse with users. Ask yourself: "What would someone naturally ask next?"
Your content needs to be easy for AI systems to understand and trust. In practice, this means your content must be:
authoritative
current
well-structured, and
verifiable.
Secondly, the structure of your content is vital. For AI-generated answers, structure your content so it can be pulled apart, summarised, and stitched back together accurately. That means:
scannable sections
clear, descriptive subheadings, and
direct answers that get to the point without losing your voice.
5 questions to check your content against
Does it answer a specific question? If someone asked it out loud, would your content give a clear, useful response?
Is the structure scannable? Are headings descriptive, and are sections easy to navigate?
Is the context complete? Would a reader reasonably expect background, examples, or references that are missing?
Does it sound human? Eliminate jargon and convoluted sentences. Simple usually beats clever.
Are there clear next steps? Strong internal linking supports both people and AI platforms in building complete answers.
2. Make visual assets work as hard as your text
Search is no longer just text. SEO Principal Shayna Burns (Luminary) explains it best:
"The process of using multiple search inputs (text, voice, video, photo) is called multimodal search, and it's one of the most natural ways we query and look for information."
Familiar examples include Google Lens identifying products from photos, voice searches like " Google, what insurance provider covers renters home and contents?", and ChatGPT analysing and answering questions about images.
For regulated organisations, this change matters. Visual assets now directly influence how AI interprets compliance environments.
What this means in practice
Use clear headings and proper structure
Break content into logical sections. Descriptive headings help users, AI platforms and screen readers navigate your material. HTML hierarchy (H1, H2, H3) signals importance and relationships.
Write meaningful alt text
Alt text describes images for both screen readers and AI, while captions explain why the image matters in context. Clear, intentional descriptions help AI understand and correctly use your visuals. For example, if someone uploads an anatomy diagram and asks about common symptoms, well-written alt text can help AI identify the body part and provide accurate, relevant explanations.
Make visual assets discoverable
Your flowcharts, compliance matrices and facility plans should have descriptive filenames, proper metadata and contextual explanations. These assets are now searchable, interpretable inputs. Not just supporting illustrations.
In regulated environments, this structure also:
shortens audit reviews
strengthens version control, and
reduces interpretive risk.
When AI platforms can correctly interpret your visual documentation (like PDFs and flowcharts), you maintain control of your narrative.
3. Design content as an experience, not just a page (user-centred structure)
The best-performing content for AI platforms has more in common with good UX design than traditional SEO. AI platforms surface content that actually works for people:
clear
useful
substantial.
Both people and AI respond to content that gets to the point quickly. Headings should preview what's coming. Paragraphs should be easy to scan.
What this looks like in practice
Create logical pathways | Good UX guides people through information smoothly. For content, that means:
AI platforms use these pathways to build accurate answers. This could benefit from a bullet list. |
Break things down | Use subheadings, lists, and structure that preserves context when content is extracted into AI summaries. |
Start with intent | Every piece of content should answer a specific question or solve a real problem. Map what your audience needs, then fill those gaps. |
Keep language readable | AI platforms reward clarity: short sentences, straightforward words, and active voice.
This is core discovery and performance infrastructure. Well-structured, readable, accessible content is easier for people to use and easier for AI to understand, index and cite accurately. |
Link strategically | Guide readers and help AI connect related content. Always use meaningful anchor text. Never "click here." |
The same structure that improves AI discoverability is exactly what supports a best-practice digital experience.
Where to start: Audit what you already have
Not only is this a brand exercise, it’s also a visibility, governance and authority audit.
What this looks like in practice:
Prioritise by impact. Start with high-value, high-risk or high-traffic content.
Check if it answers real questions. Does each piece address what stakeholders actually ask?
Find gaps and redundancies. Identify missing topics, duplications and outdated material.
Refine, don't rebuild. Improve headings, clarity, context and internal linking before rewriting from scratch.
Lastly, it’s vital to keep your content fresh. Generative search is always changing. Every quarter, review your top 10–20 traffic pages, update outdated facts and links, refresh summaries and schema to match user intent, and monitor how AI tools quote or interpret your content so you can correct misquotes and uncover new visibility opportunities.
Ready to strengthen your AI discoverability?  Not sure where your content stands? We run content audits for regulated industries – identifying gaps, opportunities, and next steps. |
Measuring success in AI responses
Similar to how teams use HubSpot or Google Analytics today, new tools are emerging to help track performance in AI-generated responses. You don’t need specialised software to get started. There are practical, tactical ways to measure AI effectiveness right now.
Here are several indicators you can track to understand how your content is performing in AI responses.
What this looks like in practice:
Measure | How |
AI citation rates | Monitor whether your content appears in AI-generated responses for key industry queries. Search for common questions in your sector and note whose sources get cited. |
Reduction in clarification requests | When your documentation is clear and comprehensive, stakeholders ask fewer follow-up questions. This applies to customer queries, audit requests and internal compliance questions. |
Source quality in AI responses | It's not just about being cited. It's about being cited accurately. Review how AI platforms interpret your content.
When AI platforms cite multiple sources for a single answer, your goal is to be the primary source. |
Competitive visibility | Regularly search for industry-standard questions. Are you cited alongside or instead of competitors? Are your frameworks referenced as authoritative?
These indicators reveal whether your content structure is:
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Now what?
Start where it matters most: identify your highest-stakes content, audit it against these three foundations, and make the improvements that position your organisation as the authority AI platforms cite.
And, for a deeper look at how GEO is reshaping content strategy, read the new rules for digital visibility.
Image credits: Custom GIFs by Lonely Island and Pudgy Penguins on Giphy.
