CMO Tribune
Voices

Topic: AI and search. Recorded on 23 October 2026.

We record that Ann Handley said this, where and when, in our own words. The post stays where it was published; the embed loads only if you ask for it.

Ann Handley

Author, keynote speaker and Partner at MarketingProfs, MarketingProfs

On empathy for the individual searcher in search optimization

Newsletter or blog post, Ann Handley, . Read the original

Our takeOpinion

An author, keynote speaker and Partner at MarketingProfs raises how search content can address the worry behind a query, at a time when AI answers absorb clicks and generic content floods the field. A reader can take from it that a query about software often hides a fear of an expensive mistake, so a page that opens with the buyer's concern may serve better than another feature comparison. The text also says to talk to customers or to support and sales staff before rewriting a page, to read social threads for complaints and confusion, and to avoid asking an AI tool for the worries, since it offers only predictable ones. This applies to marketing teams with a considered purchase, where the buyer carries real doubt, and to those who can reach customer-facing colleagues. The evidence is a single illustrative scenario with no measured results, so it would transfer poorly to low-consideration purchases, where a plain comparison may be all the buyer wants.

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Why this is here

A Voices entry passes four tests: the post makes a specific claim, a reader at another company could use it, it is the author's own work, and it does not sell the author's employer. Two separate model reviews have to agree that it passes before it is listed.

The label and the take are ours. The take is the editors' opinion, written only from what we read and named in the line under it; it says what a reader can use and where the post stops short. The role shown comes from our own list of people, checked against a page that states it.

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