Brave Bison’s Abbey Grocott looks at how to produce content that works for AI algorithms
An Amazon effect is taking hold of AI: If consumers successfully use a platform for one task and find it easy to complete others in the same place, they stay. ChatGPT and its competitors are becoming the default for everything from drafting emails to finding a therapist. Just as Amazon quietly replaced Google for product searches, AI is building a search user base fast.
According to McKinsey, half of consumers globally now use AI-powered search. Overall, analysis claims AI-native platforms have already built a share of overall volumes of up to 5% - still small, but a steep rise from a standing start in 2023.
As that share grows, brands need to think differently about how content is created to ensure it can be surfaced in response to prompts. That challenge increasingly applies to video, not just written pages.
Clarity and context are king
The first thing to realise about AI search is that systems do not interpret content in the same way people do. If meaning is implied rather than clearly stated, the technology fills the gaps, to varying success.
That creates a problem for video content. Brands have spent years treating video as a format built around emotion, storytelling and production value. But AI cannot extract a useful answer from a polished brand film if the structure is not there. A slick edit or strong creative idea may work for human attention, yet still leave the content functionally invisible to AI systems.
The formats that tend to perform more effectively are the ones built with a clear question in mind, followed by a direct answer and then deeper explanation. In practice, that means explainer content, how-to formats and straightforward demonstrations are often better suited to AI visibility than campaign-led films designed primarily for reach.
Short-form video has already trained people to expect immediate, specific answers. AI search is rewarding that same instinct at a structural level.
Video needs to be readable
AI does not understand video in the way viewers do. It relies heavily on the supporting signals around it: transcripts, captions, titles, descriptions and on-screen text. Those are not secondary details. They are often the clearest route AI has into what the content is about and whether it is relevant to a user’s question.
If those elements are vague or missing, the video becomes much harder to interpret, no matter how good it looks. A brand may have invested heavily in production, only to discover the asset offers little value in AI search because the answer is buried or the core topic is never stated plainly enough to be parsed.
This is where many brands are still falling short. Video is often planned around content calendars, launches or campaign moments, rather than around real search intent. It is built to land in feeds, not to answer questions. That creates a growing visibility gap between brands producing attractive video and brands producing useful video.
Four stages of content maturity
Some brands are already adapting to this shift. Many others are still treating video as a top-of-funnel awareness play, separate from search behaviour. There are four stages of content and context maturity.
A reactive phase comes first. At this stage, video is still being created around campaign priorities, with little thought given to the questions audiences are actually asking.
Adaptive brands are further along. They are starting to shape video around specific user needs, building content that answers clear questions and adding stronger captions, transcripts and descriptions to support visibility.
The strategic stage follows. This is when brands begin to treat video as part of a broader answer ecosystem. SEO, content, social and production teams are aligned around intent, structure and discoverability.
The final, most mature, phase is predictive. These brands track emerging questions and shifts in behaviour, then build video formats designed to meet them early. Most of the impact is decided before the video is even made.
Simplify to unlock reach
The shift underway is not away from creativity, but video now needs to do more than capture attention. It needs to communicate clearly enough to be understood, extracted and reused by AI systems.
This means being more disciplined about structure. Lead with the question. Answer it early. Use captions and on-screen text with intention. Treat transcripts as part of the asset, not admin. Build video around what people genuinely want to know, rather than what the content calendar says needs to go out this week.
Clearer video is more accessible for audiences, and it is more visible in AI search. As AI becomes a more prominent discovery layer, that visibility will increasingly separate the brands that are easy to find from the ones that are simply well produced.
Abbey Grocott is head of content strategy at Brave Bison
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