How AI rewrote the content funnel

For decades, the marketing funnel has been our favourite metaphor. Awareness at the top, consideration in the middle, conversion at the bottom — simple, structured, and measurable. It gave marketers a way to map intent, predict behaviour, and justify budgets.

But that model wasn’t built for a world where people can ask one AI-driven question and receive an immediate, context-rich recommendation. The traditional funnel didn’t collapse overnight — it eroded quietly, as the way people search and decide changed.

What was the traditional content funnel designed to do?

The funnel was a simplification of how people discovered and chose products.‍

• Awareness (TOFU): broad, educational content — blogs, social posts, thought-leadership pieces — designed to attract attention.‍
• Consideration (MOFU): comparison guides, webinars, case studies — to help prospects weigh options.‍
• Decision (BOFU): testimonials, pricing pages, demos — to convert interest into action.

Each stage had its own tone, metrics, and content types. Marketers built nurture flows to move people from one stage to the next, believing that attention naturally narrowed over time.

And for a while, it worked. People searched broadly, clicked through multiple results, and took time to build trust. The funnel gave us predictability. Then AI search rewrote the rules.

How has AI changed the way people move through the funnel?

In the Google era, discovery happened step by step. Someone might search “how to improve employee engagement”, later refine to “best HR software for engagement”, and finally compare “Employment Hero vs Culture Amp.”

Each query represented a different level of intent.
Now, with AI search, that sequence collapses into one question:
“What’s the best HR platform for medium-sized Australian businesses that integrates with Xero and Slack, supports onboarding, and costs under $10 per user?”
That single query blends awareness, consideration, and decision into one.

Instead of sifting through links, users now expect a complete, personalised answer. AI tools summarise insights from multiple sources, merging education, evaluation, and recommendation into a single conversational response.

In other words, people aren’t moving through your funnel — they’re jumping across it. Discovery, evaluation, and intent now happen simultaneously. So the challenge isn’t just ranking anymore. It’s being understood well enough that AI includes you in its answer.

Why the old content model doesn’t fit anymore

Traditional content strategy is built on sequence. You publish a mix of top, middle, and bottom-of-funnel content. You nurture audiences through gated downloads, retargeting, and email automation. But AI search removes the sequence entirely.

When large language models generate answers, they don’t think in funnels or keywords — they think in context. They look for:

• Clarity: Does this page clearly answer the question?
• Authority: Is this source credible and specific?
• Completeness: Does it cover the “why,” “how,” and “what next”?

This means content from every stage of your funnel can appear side-by-side in an AI-generated response. Your explainer article might be summarised right alongside a competitor’s pricing page.

The structure you built for a linear journey no longer applies — because AI is reorganising it on the fly. For marketers, that’s both unsettling and liberating. It means your job isn’t to guide people through a process. It’s to make sure your content makes sense when the stages blend together.

What is AEO (AI Engine Optimisation)?

If SEO was about helping people find your content, AEO is about helping AI understand it.

AI Engine Optimisation is the process of making your content clear, structured, and authoritative enough for AI to summarise accurately. It’s how you ensure that when AI answers a user’s question, it represents your business correctly.

Here’s the key difference between SEO and AEO:

• SEO is about visibility — being found by humans who click.
• AEO is about interpretation — being understood by machines that summarise.

SEO targets search intent. AEO targets question intent — those compound, conversational queries that combine awareness, comparison, and decision.
In SEO, the goal is ranking.
In AEO, the goal is representation.
When someone asks an AI assistant for advice — not just information — AEO ensures your brand’s expertise is captured in the response.

How does AEO actually work?

When someone asks a question in ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overview, the model analyses language patterns to detect which sources best satisfy the query. It prefers:

• Pages with well-structured hierarchy (clear headings and logical flow).
• Content that defines concepts rather than assuming prior knowledge.
• Examples, comparisons, and data points that make claims verifiable.
• Language that’s concise but contextual — easy to paraphrase safely.

That’s why vague or jargon-heavy marketing copy tends to vanish from AI summaries. The model can’t confidently restate what isn’t clear.

Need a quick read on your AEO strengths and gaps? Book the AEO scorecard.

How can you make your content AEO-friendly?

Optimising for AI search doesn’t mean rewriting everything for machines. It means writing for humans in a way machines can understand.

Here’s what that looks like:

1. Write for questions, not keywords.
   Identify the full, multi-layered questions your audience asks. Example:
   Old: “What is salary packaging?”
   New: “Is salary packaging worth it for teachers in NSW, and which provider makes it easiest to manage?”
   Address the whole question (context, pros, cons, and next step) in one piece.‍
2. Use explanatory subheadings.
   Headings framed as questions (“How does AI change the buyer journey?”) signal to both humans and AI that a clear answer follows.
3. ‍Be explicit about relationships.
   If your platform integrates with specific tools or solves for certain industries, name them. AI understands specificity better than implication.
4. ‍Use plain English.
   Replace jargon with straightforward definitions. Instead of “solutions for synergistic enablement,” write “tools that help teams work together.”‍
5. Demonstrate credibility.
   Include real examples, updated stats, or quotes from recognised sources. AI models are trained to value factual, verifiable information.‍
6. Summarise clearly.
   End each section with a concise takeaway sentence. This helps AI lift summaries accurately — and it helps readers remember your point.

Why this matters for marketers

When AI summarises your industry, it doesn’t just decide whether to mention you — it decides how to describe what you do. That description may become the first (and sometimes only) touchpoint a potential customer sees.

In this environment, brand visibility isn’t measured in page views. It’s measured in semantic authority — how confidently AI systems can explain your value on your behalf.
That’s why the best modern content strategies are shifting from funnels to ecosystems. Instead of mapping a single path, they build networks of interconnected explanations: each piece valuable on its own, but collectively telling a coherent story about your expertise.

When your content ecosystem consistently defines, explains, and contextualises your expertise, AI recognises it as reliable. And in this new landscape, reliability is visibility.

Is the funnel still relevant?

Yes — but not in the way it used to be.

People still move from discovering a problem to deciding on a solution. Those stages of thinking haven’t vanished. What’s changed is where and how they happen.

The funnel has collapsed into a single, conversational layer — a space where discovery, consideration, and decision happen almost simultaneously. Marketers who understand that shift won’t waste time rebuilding old funnels. They’ll focus on making every piece of content capable of answering complete, high-intent questions.

FAQs

1. Is the marketing funnel still relevant in 2025?
The funnel still describes how people think — from awareness to decision — but it no longer describes how they search. AI compresses these stages into one interaction, so marketers need content that serves all three at once.

2. How do I optimise my content for AI search?
Focus on clarity, context, and completeness. Write in plain English, answer full questions, and use structured headings. Make sure every piece of content can stand alone as a trustworthy explanation.

3. Will AEO replace SEO?
No. AEO builds on SEO rather than replacing it. Search engines still drive traffic, but AI engines are increasingly responsible for summarising information. The most future-ready content is optimised for both.

4. What kind of content performs best in AI results?
Educational, specific, and well-structured content — the kind that defines, compares, and contextualises. Pieces that sound like genuine answers rather than marketing pitches are far more likely to be cited.

The funnel didn’t die — it evolved

People still discover, compare, and decide. They’re just doing it faster, through richer questions and smarter tools.

AI hasn’t destroyed the funnel; it’s turned it into a conversation.
And in that conversation, clarity wins.
This is where AEO-aligned content earns its keep — by ensuring your brand’s answers surface when it matters most.

Wondering what’s helping or hurting your visibility? Get the AEO scorecard.