A proposed file that summarizes a site for AI agents. The current reality: Google has explicitly stated it doesn't use it for Search or AI Overviews, and no major lab has confirmed it as a signal in their search products; it mainly makes sense for technical documentation aimed at agents. It doesn't hurt, but it isn't the main lever.
Below: how to check whether the AI bots actually visit your site, what sitemap and robots.txt still do, and whether you need special technology.
Updated 2026-07-14 · Websem, AEO questions base
In your server logs or your CDN (Cloudflare has dedicated AI crawler reports): look for user agents like GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, then see which pages they read and how often. It's the most concrete sign of AI's interest in your site.
They remain the basic contract with every bot: the sitemap speeds up discovery of new pages, robots.txt decides who gets in — including AI bots, with separate directives for training and for search. Check that you're not accidentally blocking them with old rules.
Almost never: an indexable, fast site with clean HTML and structured data covers the technical side. What actually makes the difference is topical coverage — answering the questions buyers ask — and the ecosystem of external sources, not the technical platform.
This question is part of a base of 124 answers about AEO across 12 categories — from how LLMs work to budget, measurement and deliverables.