Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) focuses on structuring content to directly answer user queries, enabling search engines and AI assistants to provide precise responses. It emphasizes concise, relevant, and well-organized information for voice search, chatbots, and AI-driven search results.

Forrester has published a new guide, ‘From Prompts To Presents: The Marketer’s Guide To Answer Engine Optimization’.

Nikhil Lai says, “This holiday season, answer engines such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode — in addition to retailers’ owned and operated properties, search engines, and virtual assistants — will create and retain commercial intent, traffic, and some sales. Answer engines make shopping more convenient (for those who are more comfortable using answer engines than other media). Ultimately, shoppers are loyal to convenience. Answer engines deliver convenience by:

  • Supplying information symmetry. Answer engines offer rich, immersive details about how merchants and other shoppers perceive the quality of products. According to Forrester’s July 2025 Consumer Pulse Survey, 29% of US online adults struggle to buy apparel online because they “can’t tell the material and quality of what [they are] buying based on the product page.” When consumers ask ChatGPT questions about a product, the engine queries merchants’ product feeds, brands’ owned and operated properties, crowdsourced forums like Reddit, and more — offering consumers nearly complete information to learn more about, compare, and purchase products.”

From Prompts To Presents: The Marketer’s Guide To Answer Engine Optimization

Forrester

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