Your 2026 content strategy for AI agents

The quick answer

To win in an AI-driven search world, your 2026 content strategy must evolve. Here is the plan:

1. Adopt a two-pronged content strategy: Create top-of-funnel (TOFU) content for humans to build trust, and bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) content for AI agents to execute tasks.
2. Optimize BOFU content for agents: Make your pricing and product pages technically perfect with structured data so AI can transact without friction.
3. Focus TOFU content on earning mentions: Double down on high-value guides and articles designed to become the cited source in AI-generated answers.
4. Shift your KPIs from clicks to mentions: Measure success by how often your brand is mentioned or cited in AI Overviews and chatbot responses.

The new search journey is here

The way customers find and choose businesses is changing. Instead of clicking through ten blue links, they are asking AI for answers, summaries, and recommendations. This new behavior demands a new content strategy.

Your future wins depend on signals that AI models see, not just the pages a user visits. This means preparing for a world where AI agents do the work. The goal is to influence the user during their selection process and enable the agent during the execution process.

This two-pronged approach, outlined in the original article from searchengine land, splits your focus into two clear jobs: winning trust and winning the transaction.

Part 1: Win trust with top-of-funnel content

The first part of your content strategy focuses on the human user. During the research phase, users turn to AI for answers to questions like, "What are the best tools for X?" Your goal is to be the brand mentioned in that answer.

Top-of-funnel (TOFU) content like guides, educational posts, and how-to articles is more important than ever. While direct traffic from these pages might level off, their value has shifted. Their new job is to earn mentions and citations within generative AI answers.

Become the cited source in AI answers

When a generative AI tool like an AI Overview or a chatbot answers a user's question, it often cites its sources. Being that source builds immediate authority and trust. This is where high-quality SEO content becomes a critical asset.

Create content that is authoritative, comprehensive, and clearly structured. Use clear headings, lists, and direct answers. This makes it easy for AI models to parse your information and reference you as the expert.

The new goal isn't just to rank, but to be the entity referenced in the answer. An answer that says, "Company X is often recommended for..." is the new top-ranking position.

Why TOFU content builds your brand

Users complete their early research inside AI environments. They see brands mentioned and cited repeatedly. This visibility builds familiarity and trust long before they are ready to make a purchase decision.

Do not abandon your blog or resource center because direct conversions are down. These assets are now your primary tools for brand building in the AI era. Every mention is an impression that positions you as a leader, influencing the user's eventual choice.

Part 2: Win sales with bottom-of-funnel content

The second part of the strategy is optimizing for AI agents. Once a user decides what they want, they may instruct an agent to complete the purchase or booking. In this scenario, a human will never see your bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) page.

Your BOFU content, such as pricing pages, calculators, and feature comparisons, must be built for machine readability and transactional efficiency. The agent needs to navigate, compare, and act without hitting any roadblocks.

Achieve technical perfection on BOFU pages

Friction kills conversions, especially when the "user" is a machine. Your BOFU pages must be technically flawless. This is a core part of modern website design and development.

Follow this checklist for agent-ready BOFU content:

• Use clean, structured data: Implement schema markup for products, pricing, and services. This labels your content so agents can read and understand it without guessing.
• Provide accessible APIs: Where relevant, give agents a programmatic way to retrieve data like product availability or pricing.
• Structure data clearly: Use simple HTML tables and clear data structures on pricing pages, calculators, and comparison charts. An agent must be able to extract and compare features easily.

Design for agent execution

Assume your next customer is a bot. Remove anything that could confuse an automated process. Complex forms, unclear calls-to-action, pop-ups, and slow page loads can cause an agent to fail and move to a competitor's site.

Your Core Web Vitals and overall site performance are critical. The easier you make it for an agent to complete a task on the user's behalf, the more likely you are to win the final transaction.

Shift your metrics: from clicks to mentions

Traditional SEO metrics like impressions, click-through rate, and sessions are becoming less reliable indicators of success. Your new content strategy requires new KPIs.

In the age of AI, being mentioned is the new click. Visibility within a generative answer is often more valuable than a link on a search results page, especially for top- and middle-funnel queries.

What to track in your new content strategy

Start measuring and optimizing for the signals that build trust with AI models. These are your new levers for driving revenue.

Track these key metrics:

• Mentions in AI answers: How often is your brand name appearing in AI Overviews and chatbot responses for your target topics?
• Citations of your content: How often are your articles and guides being used as a source to back up an AI-generated answer?
• Structured visibility signals: Is your schema markup being used to create rich results or inform AI responses about your pricing and features?

These metrics demonstrate your authority and influence. They are leading indicators of future sales, even if they don't generate a direct click today.

Your AI-ready content action plan

Adapting your content strategy for 2026 is a tactical process. You do not need to throw away what works. You need to expand your focus to account for both human researchers and AI agents.

Follow these steps to implement your new plan:

1. Audit your content: Separate your content into TOFU (guides, articles) and BOFU (pricing, features).
2. Reinforce your TOFU content: Identify your most authoritative articles. Update them to be more comprehensive, structured, and citable. Focus on answering user questions directly.
3. Rebuild your BOFU pages for machines: Audit your pricing, calculator, and comparison pages. Implement structured data (schema) and simplify layouts for machine readability. Remove any friction points.
4. Update your reporting: Start tracking brand mentions and citations in AI answers as a primary KPI for your TOFU content strategy.
5. Think two-pronged: For every new piece of content, ask: Is this for building trust through mentions (TOFU)? Or is this for enabling transactions by agents (BOFU)? Optimize accordingly.

By focusing on both mentions and machine-readability, you prepare your business to win trust early in the AI journey and convert efficiently at the end.