The way people search for answers is changing fast — and that’s a big deal for product support.
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AEO Tactics for Better Product Support in Regulated Industries
I know when you think about AI, your mind probably goes to all the “cool stuff” — slick marketing campaigns, video generation, personalised recommendations. But AI is starting to make a serious impact in areas you might not expect… like product support.
I work in B2B, in the fire industry — which some might call traditional. But that’s not how it feels from the inside. AI is already changing not just how we market or sell, but how we support the products we make. I recently wrote an article about AI and customer experience in the fire safety space, and what I’m sharing here builds directly on that. (If you’re interested, the link is at the bottom of this article)
So let’s talk support. Not long ago, the typical customer journey meant heading to your website, finding the right section, and downloading a PDF. That’s still the case for many — but it won’t be for long. Increasingly, people will ask ChatGPT, Copilot, or Perplexity first.
And why not? If AI gives them the right answer — instantly, in plain English, or even their own language — everyone wins.
But here’s the catch: most companies still make it hard for AI to even find those answers. They’re buried in PDFs. Hidden behind login walls. Written in a way that only makes sense to someone who already knows the product.
I see this first hand. As a senior marketing and CX leader with responsibility for product support, I know that fire technicians, distributors, and partners don’t want to trawl through 80-page manuals when they’re out in the field. They’ve got a job to do. They want a clear answer, now.
And when you operate in over 150 countries like we do, it’s even more critical. The ability for someone to ask a question in their own language and get an instant, helpful reply — that’s powerful. That’s where AI becomes a real game-changer.
And this is where Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) comes in. It’s not just another acronym — it’s a tactic more and more teams will need to get familiar with. Because if you want AI to find your answers… you need to stop hiding them.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
AI isn’t just changing how people search — it’s changing who they ask first.
We’re now seeing the rise of what some call answer engines — tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, or even Google’s AI Overviews. These aren’t just search boxes anymore. They aim to deliver the answer, instantly — no long lists of links, no trawling through documentation.
That’s a big shift. And it has real consequences for how we publish support content — especially in industries where getting the right answer quickly can impact safety, compliance, or customer trust.
In the fire industry, the stakes are high. Whether we’re talking about the correct way to functionally test a detector, or when we refer to maintenance intervals in our information — for example, referencing the fire code of practice BS 5839–1 here in the UK — people need accurate, clear, and timely answers.
But so much of that critical knowledge is still locked away.
If AI tools can’t access or interpret your support content — because it’s buried in a PDF, hidden behind a login wall, or written in a way that assumes prior knowledge — then the answer simply won’t be there.
That’s not just a CX issue. In regulated industries, it becomes a risk. If your company positions itself as a compliance partner, but the AI engines your customers rely on can’t find your guidance, what message are you really sending?
And I’ll be candid here: for a company like Detectortesters, it’s absolutely vitalthat when people ask technical questions about our solutions, they get our answer — not someone else’s. In fire safety, there’s no room for ambiguity. Our products are designed to help keep people and buildings safe by ensuring that fire systems are tested correctly and work as intended in an emergency.
Giving a potentially wrong answer — even unintentionally — via AI is something we all need to actively minimise. That’s why I believe Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s becoming a core responsibility for anyone involved in product support, customer experience, or compliance.
Common Mistakes Companies Make
Most organisations don’t deliberately hide their answers — it just happens by default. Legacy habits, outdated content systems, and assumptions about how customers search all play a part.
But if you’re serious about making support content AI-friendly, here are the most common traps I see — and yes, I’ve seen them in my own environment too:
- Burying answers in PDFs
PDF datasheets and manuals are often seen as the gold standard in technical industries. But AI engines struggle to extract context from them — especially when content is locked behind navigation layers or isn’t well structured. If your best answers live in a PDF, they might as well be invisible. - Hiding help behind login walls
Internal knowledge bases are useful — but if AI can’t crawl them, it can’t learn from them. Public, indexable content doesn’t replace secure portals, but it complements them. If customers can’t see your support content until after a login, neither can AI. - Using complex, internal-only language
When support articles are written by technical teams for technical teams, they often assume too much knowledge. That’s fine for some audiences — but not when AI is the go-between. If the language is full of jargon or shorthand, the AI might misinterpret it… or skip it entirely. - Lack of structure and formatting
AI understands content better when it’s structured like a conversation — FAQs, headings, bullet points, clear question-answer format. Wall-of-text explanations (however accurate) don’t translate well in the answer engine world. - No interlinking or context clues
A support article might be great — but if it’s not linked to related products, videos, or troubleshooting content, it becomes an orphan. AI models benefit from context, patterns, and relational cues. The more interconnected your support ecosystem, the better it performs.
In regulated sectors like fire safety, these gaps aren’t just inefficient — they’re risky. The cost of a misinterpreted answer, a missed step, or a delayed response could have real-world implications.
Here’s the thing, though: most of these “AI fixes” are really just customer experience best practice.
Avoiding internal jargon? Writing in a clear, conversational tone? Structuring FAQs so they’re easy to scan and understand? These are things many of us were taught years ago in marketing or CX — and we should be doing them anyway.
What AEO does is raise the stakes. It reminds us that good content design isn’t just for humans anymore — it’s also for the AI tools that are now answering our customers’ questions. And that makes getting the basics right more important than ever.
What AEO Looks Like in Practice
Here are some practical elements we’re starting to focus on:
- Writing with questions in mind
Start with the question the user is likely to ask. Format your content to reflect natural language. - Using a clear, conversational tone
Clarity over cleverness — especially across different languages and experience levels. - Structuring content for scanning and scraping
Use headings, bullets, numbered steps, and bolded terms to help AI and people understand faster. - Interlinking related content
Help AI connect the dots and help users navigate between related support content more effectively. - Making content accessible across languages
We’ve seen this ourselves while building our Learning Management System (LMS) at Detectortesters. It’s designed to deliver training content in multiple languages — and one thing we’ve learned is just how critical it is to keep the English version simple and precise.
The clearer the original, the better the AI translations.
My tip, in the nicest possible way? Don’t try to be overly clever in your writing. Stick to plain, well-structured English, and your content will go much further — for humans and for machines.
These aren’t theoretical ideas. These are things I’m actively working on with my team right now — whether it’s how we update our product support FAQs, how we structure knowledge base articles, or how we prepare for AI-powered help agents in the future.
AEO isn’t a job for SEO specialists. It’s a mindset for product, support, marketing, and compliance teams alike. And the good news is — if you care about customer experience, you’re probably already halfway there.
AEO in Regulated Industries — Fire, Safety, Compliance
Let’s take the fire industry — and my own company — as a real example.
We’ve recently seen the UK’s fire detection code of practice, BS 5839–1, updated for 2025. I’ve personally written several blogs and articles explaining how these changes impact testing protocols, particularly around visual inspection, functional testing, and LED checks. Some of the changes are subtle, but as with many regulated sectors, the devil is in the detail.
And that’s the point: in an industry like fire safety, the answer can’t be vague or ambiguous. It needs to be clear, accurate, and actionable — whether it’s delivered by a website, a support agent, or an AI tool.
At Detectortesters, we’ve supported this change actively, including through the national FIA roadshow earlier this year. As someone closely involved — and in regular contact with our customers, fire engineers, and distribution partners — I see first hand that people aren’t just asking for documentation. They’re asking for answers they can trust and use in the field. And they want answers now!
And increasingly, they’re turning to tools like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or even voice assistants to find those answers — especially when they’re on-site or on the move.
If your content isn’t structured to show up in those answers — or worse, if incorrect content from a third party shows up instead — you’re not just risking brand trust. You’re potentially weakening your compliance support too.
This is why AEO is becoming such a critical layer for companies in regulated spaces. It’s not about “chasing clicks” — it’s about making sure that accurate, approved, up-to-date answers are visible, structured, and available whereveryour users look.
And if you ask me, that’s not a nice-to-have. That’s a responsibility.
Final Takeaway: Stop Hiding the Answers
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past year, it’s this: you don’t need to be an AI expert to make AI work for your customers. But you do need to make your content discoverable.
In the age of answer engines, where tools like ChatGPT and Copilot are fast becoming the first stop for support, your most important knowledge can’t stay hidden. It can’t live in PDFs. It can’t be locked behind logins. And it can’t be written in a way that only your product team understands.
That’s where Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) comes in. It’s not a trend — it’s a way of making sure your customers get the right answer, from you, when and where they need it.
Especially in regulated sectors like fire safety, that’s not just smart content strategy. It’s part of your duty of care.
So if you work in product support, marketing, customer success or compliance, I’d encourage you to take a fresh look at your knowledge content — and ask yourself:
👉 Would this be understandable to someone with no context?
👉 Could AI extract a useful, accurate answer from this page?
👉 And most importantly… is our answer going to be the one that shows up?
And here’s something worth reflecting on: even if AI didn’t exist, working hard to make our content clear and accessible should already be our ambition. With the rise of AEO, it just became even more important.
So yes, this article is about AI and AEO. But it’s also about something older and more fundamental — creating helpful, honest, usable content that genuinely serves the people who rely on us.
