{"id":10633,"date":"2025-12-10T18:44:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T00:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/?p=10633"},"modified":"2025-12-10T18:44:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T00:44:49","slug":"why-ai-content-strategies-need-to-focus-on-tasks-not-transactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/?p=10633","title":{"rendered":"Why AI content strategies need to focus on tasks not transactions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Marketer looking at AI-generated answers\" \/><\/div>\n<p>AI chat assistants are not being used the way many marketers expect. Instead of acting as shopping tools or search engines, they function primarily as support systems for cognitive tasks \u2014 writing, planning, analyzing and learning, according to a report by AI SEO agency Dejan. In 2026, optimizing for AI means understanding how users actually engage with assistants, not just assuming commercial behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Petrovic, director of Dejan, conducted an extensive analysis of 3.9 million conversational turns \u2014 covering 613 million words and 4.4 billion characters \u2014 to uncover patterns in real-world AI usage. The results challenge many assumptions in AI content strategy.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Usage patterns: most chats are short and task-oriented<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Median chat length: 2 turns (a single question and answer)<\/li>\n<li>Median session length: 430 words<\/li>\n<li>Over 80% of chats are under 1,000 words<\/li>\n<li>Only 4.2% of sessions exceed 2,500 words, typically involving editing, summarization, tutoring, coding, or data analysis<\/li>\n<li>Mean session length: 732 words, skewed by long document submissions<\/li>\n<li>Assistant output volume: approximately <strong>1.5 times<\/strong> that of user input<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Petrovic noted that user contributions typically account for just <strong>16\u201317%<\/strong> of the session, meaning the assistant generates the bulk of the content.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/what-happens-when-no-one-clicks-anymore\/\">What happens when no one clicks anymore<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Intent breakdown: commercial use is limited<\/h2>\n<p>Petrovic analyzed 24,259 classified sessions across 42 intent categories. He found that 64.6% of sessions had no commercial intent. Users primarily engaged AI for tasks like: <\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Brainstorming (7.7%)<\/li>\n<li>Planning (6.5%)<\/li>\n<li>Emotional support or conversation (6.2%)<\/li>\n<li>Analysis (5.7%)<\/li>\n<li>Learning (4.7%)<\/li>\n<li>Text transformation, including summaries and translations (4.6%)<\/li>\n<li>Content creation (3.9%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Even among the 35.4% of sessions showing commercial intent, the majority were early in the funnel:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Awareness stage: 10%<\/li>\n<li>Consideration: 8.5%<\/li>\n<li>Discovery and decision support: 6.9% combined<\/li>\n<li>Transactional<strong> <\/strong>support: 4.8%<\/li>\n<li>Post-purchase support: 5.1%, including troubleshooting and usage guidance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key insight: AI conversations are cognitive workflows, not queries<\/h2>\n<p>Many marketers and SEOs are optimizing content with a search-first mindset \u2014 assuming AI chats mimic keyword-based queries. Petrovic\u2019s findings suggest otherwise. AI assistants are more often used to support multi-step tasks, rather than making immediate purchases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAI chat use is overwhelmingly non-commercial,\u201d Petrovic stated. \u201cUsers treat assistants as co-pilots \u2014 not sales reps.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Implications for AI content strategy<\/h2>\n<p>Marketers should adjust their approach to AI optimization by:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Prioritizing content that supports awareness and early-funnel exploration<\/li>\n<li>Creating structured, high-context information that agents in longer workflows can reuse<\/li>\n<li>Avoiding overemphasis on transactional keywords in AI-facing content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bottom line: The future of AI content visibility isn\u2019t about gaming intent \u2014 it\u2019s about meeting it. Assistants are becoming tools for cognition, not just conversion. If your content helps users learn, plan, write, or evaluate, it\u2019s far more likely to show up in real-world AI usage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The report.<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dejan.ai\/blog\/how-do-people-use-ai-assistants\/\">How do people use AI assistants?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- START INLINE FORM --><\/p>\n<div class=\"nl-inline-form border py-2 px-1 my-2\">\n<div class=\"row align-items-center justify-content-center nl-inline-container\">\n<div class=\"col-12 pb-1\">\n<p class=\"inline-form-text text-center mb-0\">Fuel up with free marketing insights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-auto pb-2 pb-lg-0\">\n<p class=\"inline-form-text text-center mb-0\">Email:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-8 pe-lg-0\">\n<div class=\"form-nl-inline\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-auto\">\n<p class=\"text-center mb-0\"><a class=\"nl-terms\" href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/terms-of-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"opens in a new tab\">See terms.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- END INLINE FORM --><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/why-ai-content-strategies-need-to-focus-on-tasks-not-transactions\/\">Why AI content strategies need to focus on tasks not transactions<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/\">MarTech<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AI chat assistants are not being used the way many marketers expect. Instead of acting as shopping tools or search engines, they function primarily as support systems for cognitive tasks \u2014 writing, planning, analyzing and learning, according to a report by AI SEO agency Dejan. In 2026, optimizing for AI means understanding how users actually &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/?p=10633\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Why AI content strategies need to focus on tasks not transactions&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"medium":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"large":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"inspiro-featured-image":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"inspiro-loop":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"inspiro-loop@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-masonry":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-masonry@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_cinema":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_portrait":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_portrait@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_square":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ChatGPT-Image-AI-powered-search-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}