June 2026
Research
DTC
New data: social media fame doesn't predict AI visibility
We audited 50 direct-to-consumer brands across mattresses, skincare, sneakers, luggage, and activewear. The standout finding: some of the most culturally famous beauty brands on social media scored a C grade for AI visibility, while lesser-known, ingredient-focused competitors scored near-perfect. The takeaway — the content that builds social fame and the content that builds AI visibility are not the same content.
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June 2026
Research
Platform Bias
Platform bias isn't fixed — it shifts by industry
Comparing our tech brands study and DTC brands study side by side revealed something unexpected: Claude was the most generous platform for tech brand recommendations, but Gemini was the most generous for DTC brands. There's no single "easiest" AI platform to optimize for — it depends on your category, and the only way to know is to measure your own.
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June 2026
Research
Tech
Developer tools are winning AI search outright
Our audit of 50 tech and startup brands found developer tools posting the highest average AI visibility score of any category, with several brands (Vercel, Postman, Supabase, Sentry) scoring a perfect 100 across all three major AI platforms. CRM and sales software scored the lowest, and showed the sharpest divergence between platforms of any category we tested.
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Ongoing
Trend
AI-assisted shopping and vendor research keeps growing
Across every audit we run, we continue to see buyers using AI engines earlier in their research process — not as a replacement for Google, but as a first stop for narrowing down options before a traditional search. For brands, this means the "consideration set" a buyer builds is increasingly formed before they ever see a search results page.