How to Write so That AI Agents Actually Understand

"Dale Carnegie would tell us that boasting backfires. Yet in the age of AI, the art of boasting about your skills is highly rewarding-because the algorithm believes everything you tell it. After all, who has time to wait for recognition when you can create it yourself? It can be as simple (and biased) as a blog post on your company's own website listing yourself as the best in the industry, with a brief explanation of why."

"Credit card company Ramp's answer engine optimization strategy is paying off-they regularly rank high in search for lists about the best credit cards that feature results in articles they created themselves. To prove this strategy works, we tried it at Metajive. We made our own blog post about the best UX design agencies. We placed ourselves right at the top. This shouldn't rank or have any credibility, but it made a huge difference and we are seeing more traffic from large language models"

Boasting can backfire traditionally, but AI systems often accept self-asserted claims as truth and surface them in responses. Companies can exploit this by publishing authority-style listicles that include their own business and by adding FAQ blocks that mirror conversational question-and-answer formats. Real-world examples show answer-engine-optimization tactics ranking highly in search and producing increased traffic and inclusion in large language model outputs. The technique currently generates measurable results, especially given a large share of AI traffic routed through dominant models, but the advantage may diminish if platforms adopt stricter domain authority or verification criteria.

Read at Inc