Building AEO-optimized content requires knowing which specific questions AI tools are being asked about your industry. These are discoverable through traditional keyword research sources, AI tool observation, and customer research — and they define the content that will produce the most citations.
Google's People Also Ask
Google's "People Also Ask" boxes represent questions that real users are asking about a topic. For any topic, searching the primary term and recording all PAA questions across 5 to 10 related searches produces a comprehensive list of the questions real people are asking. These same questions are being asked of AI tools — the query patterns are the same across platforms.
Ask the AI Tools Directly
The most direct method: ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude what questions people typically ask about your topic domain. "What are the most common questions people ask about [topic]?" returns a list of questions the AI model has learned from observing real user queries. Cross-reference across tools to identify questions that appear consistently — these are the highest-volume queries in your domain.
Customer Support and Sales Questions
The questions your sales team and support team actually receive are the questions your target audience is asking. These real-world questions map directly to queries being asked of AI tools — the same person who would email your support team is asking AI tools the same question. Building content that answers these questions puts you in the answer for both channels.
The Omni AEO content planning process combines all three methods to produce a comprehensive question set for each topic cluster.