Blog traffic is flat. AI overviews are eating your clicks. And CMOs everywhere are asking the same thing: why invest in content if it’s not driving pipeline?

We’re entering the era of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), where your content isn’t just ranked — it’s cited by AI agents, surfaced in overviews, and routed directly to buyers. This is a new organic channel that’s growing exponentially while traditional blog traffic decays.

The answer isn’t to publish more. It’s to build systems that turn content decay into pipeline growth. The CMOs who get this are investing in AEO like a brand channel and they’re seeing real results. 

The ones who don’t? Their content is becoming invisible.

Take Webflow, for example. 

Signups jumped from 2% to nearly 10% in just a few months. That spike didn’t come from paid. It came from a strategic content refresh engine built by a content engineer and powered by AirOps workflows. They 10x’d production, accelerated refresh cycles, and saw 40%+ traffic gains within days.

Read more about how Webflow drove 40% more traffic with AirOps.

Content engineering is how high-growth teams win in this Google-reset world. It’s not just a speed boost or a tweak to. your blog. It’s how you stay visible, brand-aligned and wield influence while generating pipeline.

The AI shift has created a new organic growth channel (AEO), and 10x content engineers are the role that unlocks it.

Strategy is Not the Bottleneck (But Execution Is)

Most SEO and content teams know the strategy. The briefs are being written, the slugs are getting optimized, but the clicks are down. Meanwhile, your competitors are launching hundreds of optimized pages through engineered workflows. They're not just moving faster. They're capturing pipeline you’re missing.

The old manual, SEO tasks scale poorly without systems (think content refreshes, optimizations, and internal linking). And without systems, high-potential pages sit outdated while your competitors are earning AEO citations and winning mindshare. Content engineers build the engines that make that pipeline visible again.

According to the AirOps 2025 State of Content Teams report, content creation is bottlenecked not by lack of ideas but by execution inefficiencies:

• 65% of time goes to research and ideation
• 40% of teams are slowed by content creation itself
• 26% of resources are swallowed by manual SEO tasks

Enter the Content Engineer, A Systems Thinker

A content engineer is a hybrid operator: part technologist, part content systems architect. They build the infrastructure that turns high-intent queries into pipeline, not just clicks.

Think of it this way:

• A content strategist tells you what to create.
• A writer produces a piece at a time.
• An SEO specialist fine-tunes for visibility.
• A content engineer builds the system to do all of this 100x faster.
• ...while also maintaining brand consistency and preparing content to be found via AEO and cited by LLMs.

48% of Companies Are Already Hiring for It

The shift is already underway. Nearly half of companies are hiring for AI-specific roles on their content teams—like prompt engineers, technical content ops, and yes, content engineers.

That stat is likely outdated, as top companies like Meta, Ramp and Vercel are formalizing content engineer roles and the hiring momentum is accelerating across B2B SaaS and agencies.‍

Why? The urgency is clear:

These aren’t just workflow hires. They’re growth hires.

According to the AirOps 2025 State of Content Teams report:

• Only 17% of teams have fully integrated AI into their content workflows
• 72% plan to increase AI investment this year
• 82% say maintaining quality at scale is their top challenge

Content engineers are how teams scale from AI experiments to high-performing, always-on execution across the funnel.

The Content Engineering Bet That Paid Off at Carta

When Carta’s leadership saw the opportunity in AEO, they didn’t hesitate.

Their CMO greenlit an investment in the AirOps cohort, and Lucy Hoyle — then a content manager — became the point person. She didn’t just implement tools. She built a system. Within weeks, Carta had scalable content operations that drove brand trust and real results in AI search.

“There’s so much we can automate with AI now, but there’s still a lot it can’t do on its own,” she said. “As we train LLMs, we also need to upskill humans to work alongside these models.”

After joining the AirOps cohort, Lucy’s title evolved and her role expanded. She became a bridge between content, strategy, and systems.

Carta built a growth engine by someone who now has visibility across the org and influence over how AI gets implemented.

And that’s the pattern: the first content engineer becomes the go-to operator everyone else turns to to define the new system for growth.

It’s About Pipeline-Driving Systems Over Headcount

Hiring more people is slow, expensive, and hard to maintain quality.

Content engineers flip that model. They build systems that scale content like software, to deliver more output, stronger visibility, and consistent quality, without ballooning headcount.

Here’s what one content engineer can ship:

• A refresh engine that updates hundreds of pages with AI-generated insights
• An automated QA system that flags outdated data or off-brand tone
• Structured content pipelines designed to win citations in AEO & AI overviews
• Internal link maps that optimize crawl efficiency and content depth

This is how modern teams win visibility, scale brand impact, and generate pipeline from channels that didn’t exist two years ago.

What a Content Engineer Can Build in 30 Days

This isn’t theory. These are real builds from the AirOps cohort that were built and delivered in under a month and already driving traffic, citations, and conversions.

• A content refresh pipeline that updates 500+ pages based on AI overview gaps
• An AI QA system that flags outdated stats or off-brand tone
• A modular blog-to-LinkedIn automation that cuts social publishing time in half
• Internal link maps that update weekly based on new content
• Persona-driven content brief generator that scales MoFu production

These are the kinds of builds AirOps content engineer cohort members delivered in their first month.

Jose Perez, Senior SEO Manager at Vanta, saw the shift coming. His team was buried under aging content and slow refresh cycles while AEO began influencing search behavior.

So he built a system.

"Refreshing content across multiple pages previously felt overwhelming, often spanning multiple weeks from planning to completion. Now, I can prepare content refreshes ready for SME input and review in one day,” Jose said.

His workflow also saves ~1 hour per article by analyzing AI-generated overview gaps and flagging exactly what needs to be updated. That time gets reinvested into quality content that’s more likely to be cited in LLMs and show up where it matters.

Real Results, Real Fast

The results speak for themselves. 

As mentioned earlier, Webflow made incredible gains using AirOps to appear in AEO and to rank higher in Google, Vivian Hoang, SEO and AIO lead at Webflow, joined the AirOps Content Engineering Cohort after her team partnered with AirOps to overhaul their content systems.

In just weeks, Webflow:

• Saw a 40%+ increase in traffic to refreshed content within days of publishing
• Grew AI-attributed signups from 2% to nearly 10%
• 10x’d content production while maintaining editorial quality
• Automated refresh workflows, turning a slow manual process into a scalable system
• Built a webinar-to-blog pipeline that extracts insights and publishes structured posts in minutes
• Created modular, schema-rich content designed to win citations in AI overviews and improve ranking across emerging surfaces

More importantly, the team shifted its mindset from shipping volume to winning visibility in an AI-first search world.

“Instead of asking how I can do this faster, I now ask how I can build a system that does it without me,” Vivian said.

You can read more about their results in this AirOps case study and on the Webflow site.

The Skills That Unlock Compounding Gains

The best content engineers do more than ship workflows. They build the infrastructure that turns content into visibility, influence, and pipeline across every search surface.

These three skill areas are the foundation for winning AEO, scaling content quality, and making AI actually deliver.

1. Content Strategy & Audience Understanding

• Aligns content with business goals and evolving buyer journeys
• Builds scalable content frameworks tied to personas and funnel stages
• Designs modular content assets that can be reused, repurposed, and personalized
  

2. System & Workflow Automation

• Reduces friction in production without compromising quality
• Builds refresh, publishing, QA, and content repurposing systems
• Treats content operations like product infrastructure—designed to scale
  

3. Technical & SEO Expertise

• Defines schema, internal linking, and content structure optimized for AI search
• Uses structured data and modular architecture to improve extractability and ranking
• Makes content more discoverable for humans and AEO

Oshen Davidson, a content engineer at AirOps, shared this advice:‍

“Keep building. Even small ideas are worth turning into something real. The more time you spend creating workflows, the faster your skills level up.”

Content Engineers & AI Can Change Your Marketing Culture

Content engineering doesn’t just improve output—it transforms how marketing teams work.

When Carta brought Lucy into this role, it sparked a wave of curiosity and collaboration. Teams began coming to her with ideas. Campaign planning, email automation, content personalization—all of it became fair game for scalable, AI-powered workflows.

Connor Beaulieu, Senior SEO Analyst at LegalZoom, saw the same effect:

“Getting other people excited about the possibilities in this space has been my biggest win. After making a couple of custom workflows for other teams, I now have people asking questions, getting involved, and thinking of ways that automation and content engineering could help them scale their own initiatives.”

This kind of internal momentum doesn’t happen from a playbook or a pilot. It happens when one content engineer ships results and shows others what’s possible.

CMOs: Flip Content Decay Into Pipeline Growth

If you're a CMO, you probably aren’t struggling with ideas. You're struggling with impact. You’ve already invested in strategy, SEO, and a content team. But if your top-performing pages aren’t getting refreshed, structured, or discovered in LLMs, then you’re leaking pipeline.

The fix isn’t publishing more. It’s building systems that protect, scale, and optimize what already works. That’s the content engineer’s job.

According to the AirOps 2025 State of Content Teams report:

• Teams with content engineers see 25–35% productivity gains
  
• 30–50% of repetitive tasks are eliminated
  
• They get clearer attribution from content to pipeline, not just traffic

Hiring one content engineer can 5x the output of your existing team and build the systems that make revenue attribution clear. That’s an investment in performance, not a budget increase. 

What to Look for When Hiring a Content Engineer

Not every content strategist or SEO is ready for this role—but when you find the right person, they’ll transform how your content drives pipeline.

The best content engineers share a unique mix of traits:

• Industry background: Typically from B2B SaaS, high-growth B2C, or performance-driven agencies
  
• Experience level: 3–5+ years who are strong operators who’ve shipped real business results
  
• Functional path: Come up through growth, content, SEO, or technical roles—but now want closer ties to revenue
  
• Core skills: Fluent in systems thinking, AI tools, and scalable content strategy
  
• Mindset: Curious, creative, and obsessed with building efficient, repeatable workflows
  
• Aspirations: They want to lead from the front. These are your future Heads of AI, not just individual contributors

One example is Valeria Frolova, a full-stack SEO and content engineer at Docebo.

“We now identify outdated content and conduct research 2.5x faster while personalizing workflows to each keyword or search intent,” she said. “It transformed our process from reactive to truly strategic.”

This is a career-maker role. When someone builds the systems that power your top-performing content, they don’t just boost your metrics—they become irreplaceable.

 Tip for CMOs: Use this as your job description. Hire someone who builds systems. 

Is Your Team Ready to Win in AEO & Organic Search?

You don’t need a massive content team to justify a content engineer, but you need one that’s proactive. You need one that’s ready to build content systems that generate pipeline, not just pageviews.

A content engineer helps you create the content that wins:

• Content that gets cited in AI overviews
• Content that ranks in a fragmented search landscape
• Content that supports brand integrity and drives measurable pipeline
  

If your team:

• Publishes 20+ pieces per month but struggles with consistent quality
• Has tested AI tools but lacks structured, scalable workflows
• Can’t connect content performance to revenue outcomes
• Still handles refreshes and optimization as case-by-case projects
  

…then you’re overdue for a content engineer. 

This is the person who builds the system that helps you win citations, dominate rankings, and stay brand-accurate.

Still Waiting? Your Competitors Aren’t.

The ground beneath traditional SEO is shifting fast. AI search is changing how content gets discovered, evaluated, and cited. Google is compressing visibility, and the old way is no longer enough to compete.

As we enter this new terrain, you need a way to visualize, take action, and measure your performance in AEO because that’s where the next wave of growth will come from.

As one content director told us: “AI is like the power saw. It won’t build the house, but it sure as hell helps you build faster. Teams not adopting AI will become redundant.”

The teams winning now? They’re not just experimenting. They’re operationalizing AI. 

They’re hiring content engineers and building systems to scale content like software — fast, repeatable, structured, and brand-safe.

Content engineers are how you:

• Win citations
• Dominate rankings
• Stay brand-accurate
• And grow pipeline from the most rapidly expanding search surface in years

If your strategy is solid but your results are flat...If your AI tools feel promising but chaotic...If your content needs a massive overhaul for this era…

You don’t need more content. You need a system. You need a content engineer.

The ground is shifting. AI is compressing visibility, and AEO is the new growth frontier and this is a transformation of your team, not just a tweak. 

You can’t afford to wait. Your competitors aren’t.

Want to learn more about how to drive pipeline with content engineering? Schedule a call with our team to learn more.