Answer engine optimization adds value to chatbot responses. Its catching on with creator marketers.

Creator agencies are helping brands navigate the nascent field of answer engine optimization (AEO). The latest companies steering the citations of AI chatbots are Influencer and Profound, who have joined forces to build an AEO offering for their clients.

As AI chatbots have gained popularity, their preferred sources have changed. Reddit was an early favorite, but the tide has since shifted in YouTube’s favor. These days, the volume of Reddit citations is a fraction of what it used to be.

Marketing strategies have evolved to meet changing demands for information. Before the dawn of the chatbots, when Google dominated search, the field of search engine optimization (SEO) hit its peak. SEO declined for several reasons — some of which have nothing to do with AI — and Reddit’s early success as a chatbot source prompted other platforms to adopt conversational features.

The malleability of chatbot sourcing led to the launch of the first AEO-powered brand campaigns. Zoom recently made a splash by commissioning creator videos that are designed to be cited by AI engines. Through that process, the bots will (theoretically) serve answers that reflect Zoom’s pivot to an end-to-end work platform.

Recent research from Jellyfish showed that YouTube creator content now appears in 25% of AI chatbot responses, so marketers are adapting once again. Later launched one of the first Creator AEO agencies

Influencer Co-Founder Caspar Lee knows a thing or two about adaptability. He rose to prominence as a YouTube vlogger before launching his own agency, becoming one of the first creator-founders in the process. Now, Influencer is moving into the AEO era. Its AI marketing partner, Profound, will determine the creators and content types that show up most frequently in chatbot responses. Influencer will then use that information to inform its work with clients.

“Creator marketing has entered a new era. It now shapes what people think, trust and buy, as well as what AI understands and recommends,” said Influencer Co-Founder and CEO Ben Jeffries in a statement. “By uniting Profound’s intelligence with Influencer’s global creator capabilities, we are creating an entirely new model for how brands compete in AI-led discovery. Creator-First AEO gives brands the power to understand the answer, strengthen the evidence behind it and influence what gets recommended next.”

Chatbot sourcing trends shift so rapidly that it’s impossible to predict how relevant practices like AEO will be over the coming years. It’s clear, however, that the winners of the AI chatbot era will be the players who can best read the shifting winds. Influencer is showing that it can bring that approach to brands.