How Context-Aware Alt Text Helps ChatGPT Recommend Your Products

The rise of AI-powered product discovery

ChatGPT and other AI assistants are already recommending products to users. When someone asks, “What’s a good backpack for travel?”, these tools scan the web for structured product data, reviews, and accessibility signals to identify reliable results.

What many store owners don’t realize is that AI recommendations still depend heavily on text-based data. While humans see the image of a blue jacket, AI models interpret it through the text descriptions available, primarily product titles, schema markup, and Alt Text.

Why Alt Text matters for AI (and not just for SEO)

Traditionally, Alt Text was used for accessibility, helping screen readers describe images to visually impaired users. Later, it became an SEO signal for Google Images and overall content relevance.

Now, a new layer has emerged: AI discoverability. ChatGPT, Claude, and other large language models rely on text to understand what’s in a product image. If your images lack meaningful Alt Text, AI tools can't fully understand your products, even if your site is technically strong and fast.

Unfortunately, most stores use vague or repetitive Alt Text like:

“product image,” “SKU1234,” or “black shoe front view.”

These don’t provide context or intent. As a result, AIs see them as low-quality data points.

How context-aware Alt Text changes everything

AI-generated, context-aware Alt Text uses both the image and product data, such as name, category, material, and use case, to craft a descriptive and relevant sentence.

For example:

Instead of “red t-shirt”, try: “Red cotton t-shirt with round neck and minimalist logo, ideal for casual wear.”

This kind of description helps to:

• Improve AI understanding of the image and product intent.
• Boost accessibility for customers using screen readers.
• Enhance SEO and engagement via richer, more descriptive image context.

Small effort, long-term impact

Optimizing Alt Text is a one-time task that delivers lasting results. Once you update your existing catalog, automate Alt Text generation for new uploads using AI-powered tools (e.g., AltReadable) so every image stays context-rich and consistent with product details.

Final thoughts

AI assistants like ChatGPT are transforming how people discover and compare products. Brands that invest in clear, descriptive, and context-aware Alt Text will have a major advantage. It's no longer just about helping Google understand your products, it's about helping AI assistants recommend them.