In a world where WordPress remains Europe’s favorite platform for personal sites, blogs, and small business pages, understanding how people actually use AI chat tools matters more than ever. A sweeping analysis by Dan Petrovic, director of the AI SEO agency Dejan, dives into millions of conversational turns to reveal how real users interact with AI assistants. The headline takeaway is striking: most chats carry no commercial intent, and conversations tend to end after only a couple of turns. For publishers, marketers, and WordPress enthusiasts—even those hosting sites with free WP plans—these insights recalibrate what it means to optimize for AI and shape content that genuinely helps users, not just captures clicks.
Why this matters for WP in EU readers. If you’re building and maintaining WordPress sites across Europe, you face a diverse audience speaking many languages, with strict data privacy expectations and a strong demand for practical guidance. Petrovic’s findings suggest a pivot from chasing keyword-heavy, transactional queries toward creating resources that support problem solving, planning, and learning. That shift aligns with EU users’ preference for trustworthy, high-value content and with the realities of how AI assistants are used in everyday tasks. In practice, this means your editorial strategy should center on problem-first content, multi-step workflows, and AI-friendly formats that assist users throughout their journey—from awareness to post-purchase support.
Rethinking AI in the real world: what the numbers actually show
The analysis spans an unprecedented scale: 4.4 billion characters, 613 million words, and 3.9 million conversation turns. Across this vast dataset, a consistent pattern emerges that should inform how WP-focused sites craft content and how product teams design AI-powered features on WordPress-hosted experiences.
What users do when they chat with AI
Petrovic grouped 24,259 sessions into 42 intent categories and found that most AI chats aren’t driven by an intent to buy. About two-thirds of interactions fall outside any purchase funnel, indicating the dominant use cases revolve around creation, cognition, and conversation rather than commerce. This aligns with the broader reality that AI assistants act as creative partners, cognitive aides, and friendly collaborators rather than storefronts.
- Other: 25% — This bucket includes jailbreak attempts, roleplay, and highly specialized requests. It’s a reminder that users test the AI’s boundaries as they explore capabilities beyond straightforward tasks.
- Brainstorming: 7.7% — Teams and individuals lean on AI to generate ideas, outlines, and approaches to problems they’re facing.
- Planning: 6.5% — Users map out projects, content calendars, and development roadmaps with AI as a collaboration partner.
- Conversation / emotional support: 6.2% — People seek clarity, reassurance, and engagement, underscoring the importance of a human-friendly tone and trust in automated interactions.
- Analysis: 5.7% — Data interpretation, trend spotting, and critical thinking tasks show how AI assists but does not replace human judgment.
- Learning: 4.7% — Educational use cases range from quick tutorials to deeper, guided explanations.
- Transformation (summaries, translations): 4.6% — The AI acts as a translator, summarizer, or distiller of information, a task that’s particularly valuable for multilingual EU audiences.
- Creation (writing, code, docs): 3.9% — The assistant helps generate content, write drafts, code snippets, or documentation that users can refine.
35.4% of chats showed any commercial intent. This means that roughly one in three conversations did touch on buying or product discovery, but the majority of those touches occur in early funnel stages. To put it plainly: the moment AI enters shopping territory, it’s often in a contextual, exploratory, or informational mode rather than a hard sales pitch.
Petrovic also highlights several nuanced patterns that matter for content strategy and site design. For instance, awareness and consideration components together account for 18.5% of chats, signaling a fertile ground for product content that informs rather than pressures. Post-purchase needs, at 5.1%, outpace transactional support and even some discovery signals, suggesting that users frequently turn to AI to understand how to use a product or service better rather than just deciding whether to buy it in the first place.
Bottom line: AI assistants are used far more for creation, cognition, and conversation than for commerce. That’s a powerful reminder to focus on helpful, enduring content that supports a user’s life and work, not just a quick sale.
The report, available in full at Dejan, offers a comprehensive breakdown of intents and behaviors that writers and marketers can translate into practical actions for WordPress sites. You can read the full study here: How do people use AI assistants?
How this reshapes content strategy for WordPress sites in Europe
For WordPress publishers operating in Europe, the implications of Petrovic’s findings are concrete. They point toward a content strategy that prioritizes usefulness, multi-step user journeys, and AI-friendly content formats that are easy to consume, skim, and repurpose. Let’s unpack what this means in practice, with examples you can adapt to a WP site or a WP-hosted experience on a European hosting footprint.
Shift from keyword-stuffing to problem-centric content
Traditionally, many sites optimized for short, keyword-driven queries. The new data suggests readers aren’t asking linear, transactional questions; they’re asking for help with problems, ideas, and planning. For a WP in EU audience, this means creating problem-centered hub pages, tutorials, and how-to guides that address real user pain points across languages. Think multi-language how-tos for handling common WordPress tasks, such as choosing a theme, optimizing images for performance, or configuring privacy-friendly analytics—each presented with clear, step-by-step directions that a user can follow with or without AI assistance.
Support multi-turn tasks with modular, AI-friendly formats
The median session length of 430 words suggests that most users want concise guidance that can be expanded if needed. To support multi-turn conversations, publish content in modular chunks: short introductory blocks, expandable details, and follow-up prompts. For WordPress editors, this translates into content blocks that AI tools can reuse: query-ready FAQs, expandable accordions for deeper dives, and clearly labeled sequences like “Step 1: Identify your goal; Step 2: Gather data; Step 3: Generate options.” Such formats enable AI assistants to paraphrase, summarize, or translate content in EU languages without losing nuance.
Optimize for discovery, awareness, and early-stage consideration
With awareness and consideration together constituting a meaningful portion of AI interactions, you should design product and content journeys that educate users about capabilities first, then guide them to solutions. In a WordPress context, this could mean creating robust explorer pages that contrast feature sets, pricing, and outcomes in a way that’s accessible to non-technical readers. Use this emphasis to structure your editorial calendar around topic clusters, practical case studies, and comparison sheets that AI tools can summarize and recirculate in different formats and languages.
Elevate post-purchase support and “how-to” content
Post-purchase needs outpace transactional support for many AI users, underscoring the demand for content that helps users get the most from a product or service. For WP-hosted experiences, this implies a stronger emphasis on onboarding content, maintenance checklists, and troubleshooting guides. It also means creating templated support documents that AI can tailor to a given user’s context—potentially shortening time-to-resolution for common problems and improving satisfaction metrics across European audiences who value practical, hands-on help.
Practical takeaways for WP in EU editors and developers
Whether you manage a blog, a tech site, or a community hub on WP in EU, these insights translate into concrete actions. Below are a series of recommendations that integrate creation, cognition, and conversation—precisely the three domains where AI shines, according to Petrovic’s findings.
Editorial design that plays well with AI assistants
- Publish problem-first content with a clear goal for the reader. Always pair an introductory summary with a longer explanation to accommodate both quick queries and deeper dives.
- Use consistent, simple headings (H2s and H3s) that AI can parse reliably. Clear headings improve the likelihood that AI tools summarize, translate, or outline your content accurately.
- Provide keyword-friendly, but user-centric, meta descriptions and structured data. This improves discoverability for AI-assisted search as well as traditional search engines.
- Include ready-to-use templates and code snippets that editors can adapt to multiple languages and WordPress contexts, ensuring a smooth handoff to AI for refinement.
Content formats tailored for AI-assisted tasks
- Guides that facilitate two-stage learning: quick-read overviews followed by deeper sections for advanced readers.
- Checklists, how-to lists, and decision trees that AI can convert into step-by-step workflows or translated versions.
- Data-driven posts with embedded examples and templates that can be summarized, transformed, or reworked by AI without losing meaning.
- Code repair and optimization tutorials that include before/after examples and explanation blocks suitable for AI summarization and translation.
AI-enabled workflows for content teams
- Editorial planning: use AI to draft outlines, suggest headings, and estimate word counts for multi-language coverage.
- Localization and translation: create language-agnostic framing first, then generate translations with human review to preserve nuance and legal precision—especially important for EU audiences under GDPR considerations.
- Summarization and repurposing: convert long-form posts into short social snippets, newsletters, or FAQ entries to extend reach across channels.
Privacy, compliance, and data handling in Europe
EU readers expect strong data protection. When you publish AI-enhanced content or deploy AI features on WordPress, ensure your privacy policy reflects data handling, caching, and any third-party services involved. If you collect user inputs via contact forms or chat widgets, clearly state how data is stored, used, and whether it’s shared with AI providers. Opt for data localization where feasible, and provide users with easy opt-out options. These practices support trust, a cornerstone of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust) for Google and for European readers alike.
Temporal context and trends: what to expect in 2025–2026
The landscape around AI assistants is evolving rapidly. The Dejan study captures a snapshot of behavior that’s likely to shift as AI tools become more capable, more privacy-conscious, and more integrated into everyday workflows. Here are key trends WP in EU editors should monitor as the era of AI-assisted search matures.
Growing sophistication in non-commercial use
As AI conversational agents improve, users will rely more on creative and cognitive tasks—drafting, planning, analyzing, and learning—rather than direct purchasing signals. For WordPress publishers, this underscores a long-term opportunity to build evergreen, high-value content ecosystems that help readers at every stage of their journey.
Long-form interactions and complex tasks persist at the high end
Although most chats stay short, a meaningful minority pushes into 2,500 words or more. These longer interactions often involve complex editing, coding, tutoring, or data analysis. For sites hosting technical tutorials, coding guides, or data-driven stories, anticipate demand for AI-assisted expansions and multi-modal content that integrates text, code, and visuals across languages.
Quality signals and trust rise in importance
With a notable share of chats lacking commercial intent, searchers (including EU users) value content that demonstrates expertise, accuracy, and trust. E-E-A-T signals—especially experiential knowledge, authoritativeness, and transparent expertise—will matter more as AI continues to mediate information. WordPress sites that publish author bios, transparent sourcing, case studies, and verifiable data will fare better in AI-influenced discovery and traditional ranking alike.
Conclusion: translating AI insights into a better WordPress experience
The Dejan analysis serves as a reality check for anyone chasing aggressive, commerce-first optimization in an era where AI chat interactions are often exploratory, collaborative, or educational. For WP in EU readers, the message is clear: design for people who are learning, planning, and solving problems, not just for those ready to purchase. By prioritizing problem-centered content, modular formats, and clear, language-rich guidance, you can create WordPress experiences that scale across languages and contexts while remaining trustworthy and easy to navigate—even when AI helps you draft, summarize, or translate. In short, the future of AI-enabled content in Europe belongs to editors who combine practical usefulness with the transparency and precision that readers expect from reputable WordPress sites.
For a deeper dive into the data and methodology, see the original report: How do people use AI assistants?
FAQ
- Q: Do AI chats mostly avoid commercial intent?
A: Yes. In Petrovic’s study, roughly 65% of chats fell outside any purchase funnel, underscoring a broad preference for non-commercial uses like brainstorming, planning, analysis, and learning. - Q: How should WP editors adjust content strategies in light of these findings?
A: Focus on problem-first content, create modular, AI-friendly formats, and build multi-language resources that support discovery, learning, and post-purchase guidance rather than hard selling. - Q: What does this mean for EU privacy and data handling?
A: As AI becomes more embedded in WordPress experiences, prioritize data locality, clear consent, transparent data usage, and compliance with GDPR. Trust is essential for long-term engagement. - Q: How can I apply these ideas to a WordPress blog or hosting service?
A: Start with topic clusters that answer real user problems, publish concise overviews with deeper dives, and offer AI-ready templates you can translate or adapt. Pair this with an easy-to-find FAQ and robust onboarding content for new readers. - Q: Will AI replace human editors?
A: Not in the near term. AI augments human editors by handling repetitive tasks, drafting, and translation, but human oversight remains essential for accuracy, nuance, and trust—especially in Europe’s diverse languages and regulatory environments. - Q: How can I measure success of AI-friendly content?
A: Track engagement metrics like time on page, scroll depth, and re-visits, as well as completion rates for multi-step guides. Also monitor language coverage, translation quality, and user feedback on how helpful the AI-assisted content feels.
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