Profound

Awin Expands Discovery Intelligence with AI Visibility

Awin announced on 1 July 2026 a set of platform enhancements and a new partnership to measure and improve brand visibility inside AI-driven discovery experiences. The global marketing-technology company revealed a collaboration with ScalePost and additional collaborations with Peec.ai and Profound to capture first-party AI citation data and link those signals to conversion metrics. Awin is launching platform features including “AI Visibility” and “Smart Search” to show when and how brands appear in AI applications, help publishers understand their contribution to discovery, and speed publisher partner selection via natural-language search. The move responds to rising “zero-click” AI answers in search and aims to give advertisers clearer, first-party measurement of AI-driven discovery across the customer journey.

Avenue Z Named Profound Certified Agency Partner

Avenue Z, an AEO-focused digital marketing and PR agency, has been named a Certified Agency Partner by Profound and is part of a select founding cohort authorized to deploy Profound’s AI-search discoverability tools. The certification recognizes Avenue Z’s expertise in AI Search Optimization (AEO) and AEO-for-PR capabilities and integrates Profound’s data intelligence into the agency’s offering. The release cites Profound’s $96 million Series C (led by Lightspeed with participation from Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins) and notes Profound is used by brands such as Target, Walmart and Charlotte Tilbury. The announcement positions the partnership as a way for brands to prepare for expanding generative-search monetization, which industry estimates project could exceed $100 billion by 2030.

AI poisoning threatens brand reputations in LLM search

Marketers are increasingly focused on how large language models (LLMs) and AI-generated search responses portray brands. The article explains “AI poisoning” — coordinated or bad-faith content (fake reviews, forum posts, sponsored pieces) intended to be ingested by LLMs so those systems later surface negative or misleading responses about a rival. It cites research showing low consumer fact‑checking of AI answers and a Skyword survey finding consumers distrust brands when AI responses conflict with brand claims. Practitioners recommend defensive steps such as improving brand content consistency, publishing product/service guides (which ZeroClick Labs estimates account for up to 28% of AI search citations), and using AI‑search-visibility tools (e.g., Profound, Peec). Some experts remain skeptical about how feasible widespread poisoning is given models’ aggregation of many sources and brands’ existing digital reputations.