This blog about making marketing content AI-ready raised more questions than it answered. So here, So What Marketing scratches the surface and goes in deeper. Grab a coffee and learn more about what we really have to do, from this little chat with Copilot… (and yes there will be a checklist soon!)

🗣️ Round 1: The Big Question

So What Marketing:
Right, Copilot – everyone keeps talking about ‘AI‑ready content’. What does that actually mean? And please, keep it simple. I’m only human.

Copilot:
Ok, here we go. In simple terms: buyers are asking AI about you before they ever visit your website. If your content is unclear, inconsistent, or fluffy, the AI will get it wrong – and the buyer will believe the AI.

So What Marketing:
So… all the brand messaging we’ve spent years polishing?

Copilot:
Beautiful. Useless. Machines can’t interpret poetry.

So What Marketing:
That’s a bit rude. But fair enough.

🧠 Round 2: What Marketing Doesn’t Know It Doesn’t Know

So What Marketing:
Alright then. What else don’t marketers know they don’t know?

Copilot:
A few things:

• AI doesn’t read your content in the order you want.
• It stitches together your website, PDFs, social posts, and press releases.
• Contradictions confuse it.
• Vague language forces it to guess.
• Guessing leads to hallucinations.
• Hallucinations lead to buyers thinking you do something you don’t.

So What Marketing:
So the problem isn’t AI, it’s our content.

Copilot:
Exactly.

🎯 Round 3: But how do we differentiate if we can’t use brand fluff?

So What Marketing:
Here’s the bit I’m stuck on. If brand messaging is too fluffy for AI, how do we still differentiate? Isn’t that the whole point of brand?

Copilot:
Differentiation doesn’t disappear. It just shifts.

Right now, many brands differentiate through tone, slogans, and abstract positioning.
AI can’t use any of that.

To differentiate in an AI‑mediated world, you need:

1. Clear, specific value propositions

Not ’empowering transformation.’
More like: ‘A workflow automation tool for finance teams that reduces manual processing time by 40%.’

2. Explicit differentiators

Not ‘leading platform.’
More like: ‘Only solution with native integration to X, Y, Z.’

3. Evidence, not adjectives

Not ‘trusted by global brands.’
More like: ‘Used by 1,200+ public sector organisations.’

4. Consistent language everywhere

If your website says one thing and your sales deck says another, AI will pick the wrong one.

5. A point of view

This is where your brand voice can shine – in how you explain, challenge, and contextualise.
AI can summarise facts. Only you can articulate meaning.

So What Marketing:
So differentiation becomes clarity + proof + perspective.

Copilot:
Exactly.
Brand still matters – it just has to be grounded in something AI can actually use.

❓ Round 4: What ‘question‑aligned’ actually means

So What Marketing:
And this ‘question‑aligned’ thing – I think I know what it means, but humour me. Marketers love a buzzword.

Copilot:
OK, I’ll spell it out.
‘Question‑aligned’ means your content is structured around the questions buyers actually ask – not the messages you want to push.

For example:

Buyers ask:

• What does this product actually do?
• Who is it for?
• How does it work?
• How is it different from X?
• Does it integrate with Y?
• How much effort is implementation?
• What results can I expect?
• Is it compliant with Z?

AI needs:

Clear, direct, unambiguous answers to all of these – in your own content footprint.

Question‑aligned content looks like:

• FAQ pages that actually answer real questions.
• Product pages written in plain language.
• Case studies with specifics, not adjectives.
• Feature lists that are complete, not curated.
• Comparison pages that are factual, not snarky.
• Pricing explanations that don’t require a sales rep to decode.

So What Marketing:
So instead of ‘messaging pillars’, we need ‘question pillars’.

Copilot:
Exactly.
If you don’t answer the question, AI will – and you may not like the answer.

🛠️ Round 5: What AI‑ready content actually looks like

So What Marketing:
Fine. Give me the checklist. What does AI‑ready content actually look like?

Copilot:
It’s:

• Clear
• Consistent
• Specific
• Question‑aligned
• Evidence‑based
• Machine‑legible
• Written in language a buyer and an LLM can understand
• Free from contradictions
• Structured so AI can summarise it accurately.

So What Marketing:
So basically everything marketing claims to do but often doesn’t.

Copilot:
You said it, not me.

🛰️ Round 6: What AI can actually read (and what you need to do about it)

So What Marketing:
We’ve talked about clarity and consistency, but what about channels, media? What can AI actually read? And what should we be doing to help it?

Copilot:
Short answer: AI can read almost anything that’s text‑based or can be turned into text.
Longer answer: some formats are easy, some are painful, and some are invisible unless you help.

Let’s break it down.

1. Websites

AI can read:

• On‑page copy, navigation labels, Alt text, structured data, blog posts, FAQs, product pages, pricing pages.

What you should do:

• Use clear headings.
• Avoid jargon.
• Make sure every page answers a real buyer question.
• Keep terminology consistent.
• Add schema/structured data where possible.

2. PDFs, slide decks, whitepapers

AI can read:

• All text, tables, captions, appendices.

AI struggles with:

• Images of text, diagrams with no labels, dense, unstructured content.

What you should do:

• Export as real text, not flattened images.
• Add alt text to diagrams.
• Use clear section headings.
• Include an executive summary that actually summarises.

3. Video

AI can read:

• Transcripts, Subtitles, Descriptions, Titles.

AI cannot read:

• The video itself, visuals with no narration, on‑screen text unless captured in the transcript.

What you should do:

• Always include transcripts.
• Add proper subtitles.
• Put key points in the description.
• Don’t rely on visuals alone to convey meaning.

If your video doesn’t have a transcript, it’s effectively invisible to AI.

4. Audio (podcasts, webinars, interviews)

AI can read:

• Transcripts, show notes, episode descriptions.

What you should do:

• Publish full transcripts.
• Use descriptive titles.
• Add time‑stamped summaries.

5. Social posts

AI can read:

• The text, the hashtags, the alt text on images, the comments.

What you should do:

• Keep terminology consistent with your website.
• Use alt text.
• Avoid cryptic “if you know you know” posts.
• Make sure your POV posts still contain facts.

6. Images

AI can read:

• Alt text, captions, surrounding copy.

AI cannot read:

• The image itself (unless OCR is applied, and even then it’s hit and miss).

What you should do:

• Add alt text that actually describes the content.
• Avoid embedding key information only in images.

7. Third‑party content

AI can read:

• Analyst reports, review sites, press releases, partner pages, industry blogs.

What you should do:

• Make sure your messaging is consistent everywhere.
• Correct outdated or inaccurate listings.
• Provide partners with up‑to‑date boilerplate.

8. Internal content that leaks into the public domain

AI can read:

• Public help docs, API documentation, knowledge bases, support forums.

What you should do:

• Make sure these don’t contradict your marketing.
• Clean up legacy content.
• Add clear definitions and explanations.

So What Marketing:
So basically, if it can be turned into text, AI will read it. And if it can’t be turned into text, we should help it.

Copilot:
Exactly. If you want AI to understand you, you have to give it something it can actually digest.

So What Marketing:
So transcripts, alt text, structured data, consistent language…
It’s not glamorous, but it’s the difference between being findable and being guessable.

Copilot:
And in an AI‑mediated buying journey, ‘guessable’ is not a strategy.

🧵 Final Round

So What Marketing:
So if we actually start doing all this – the clarity, the consistency, the question‑alignment, the evidence, the differentiation-that-isn’t-fluff – our content is better placed to be found, understood, and reused by the AI our prospects are already asking.

Copilot:
Exactly. Think of it as SEO for AI – but instead of optimising for keywords, you’re optimising for comprehension.

So What Marketing:
And the sooner we start, the sooner it becomes second nature.

Copilot:
There’s no ‘later’ in this shift. Buyers are already using AI. The only question is whether the AI is using your content… or someone else’s.

So What Marketing:
Right then. Time to make sure the machines don’t get the wrong end of the stick.