Did Austria-Hungary expect another North Sea deployment?

Could Austria-Hungary have expected to send its armoured cruisers to the North Sea as it had during the Second Schleswig War?

Not plausibly by this period, because Germany now had its own cruiser forces and no longer needed Austria-Hungary to fill the earlier naval gap.

Austria-Hungary had operated in the North Sea during the Second Schleswig War, when the German states lacked a useful fleet. That precedent raises the possibility that later cruisers were intended for similar allied service outside the Adriatic. The strategic context had changed by the time these ships were designed because Germany now possessed cruiser forces of its own. An earlier alliance mission could no longer justify the same procurement choice after the partner's capabilities had changed.