---
id: "action-define-customer-needs-clearly"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["\\\"§ Brands", "Consumer Needs", "and Products\\\""]
tags: ["product-positioning", "consumer-intent"]
related: ["claim-search-queries-are-need-based"]
action: "Clearly define and position products around specific customer needs rather than relying on brand name searches."
outcome: "The brand will align with the need-first decision-making process of AI agents, increasing the likelihood of being surfaced for functional queries."
speakers: ["Jur Gaarlandt", "Wesley Korver", "Nathan Furr", "Andrew Shipilov"]
sources: ["geo"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-geo"
originDay: 3
articleStem: "hbr-cl-92-ai-agents-changing-shopping"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/02/ai-agents-are-changing-how-people-shop-heres-what-that-means-for-brands"
sourceTitle: "AI Agents Are Changing How People Shop. Here’s What That Means for Brands."
---
# Define Customer Needs Clearly

**Action:** Clearly define and position products around **specific customer needs** rather than relying on brand-name searches.

**Expected outcome:** The brand aligns with the **need-first** decision process of AI agents, increasing the likelihood of being surfaced for functional queries.

AI agents do not begin decision-making by looking at individual products or brands; they focus on the consumer's underlying need (e.g., "best phone charger for travel"). Brands must audit their positioning to ensure they clearly articulate *which* customer needs they serve and *how* they uniquely address them — the primary vector through which agents filter options. This is the operational response to [[claim-search-queries-are-need-based]].

**Enrichment note:** This maps directly onto AEO guidance to structure content so AI assistants can *answer the functional question* ("best laptop for coding") — need expressions, not branded keywords, are the discovery surface.