Observed Signal · Jun 30, 2026 · Product Launch · Source: https://martechseries.com/feed/ · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Profound Launches Profound Index for AI Search Visibility
Profound announced the launch of the Profound Index at Zero Click New York, positioning the product as an industry benchmark for brand visibility inside AI-generated answers and recommendations. Built on more than 1.5 billion real-user prompts across 50+ industries and major LLMs, the Index provides daily updates and visibility into signals that drive AI Search performance. Early findings show model updates reshaping which brands appear in AI answers — for example, competitors are gaining visibility inside ChatGPT 5.5 and brands such as IKEA, Travelocity, Ambetter, Humana and Aetna showed significant platform-specific movement. The Profound Index is available immediately to Profound customers (full data) with a preview experience for non-customers via registration.
Introduces a daily benchmark and large dataset (1.5B prompts) for measuring brand visibility inside AI-generated answers, helping marketers adapt to AI-driven discovery — relevant but not a platform-wide policy change.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Profound launched the Profound Index at Zero Click New York as a benchmark for AI Search visibility.
- The Profound Index is built on more than 1.5 billion real-user prompts across 50+ industries and major AI platforms/LLMs.
- The Index updates daily and surfaces signals driving AI visibility across industries.
- Early findings include ChatGPT 5.5 recommending competitors (Anthropic, Mistral, OpenRouter, Groq) and brand-specific shifts (IKEA +19% on ChatGPT but -11% across AI platforms; Travelocity/Orbitz/Priceline down 35–56% on ChatGPT; Ambetter and Humana down >50% while Aetna gained visibility).
- Profound customers can access full Index data immediately; non-customers can access a preview and deeper analysis via registration.
Connected Companies & Entities
11 Entities mapped“Profound, the marketing platform for the AI era, announced the launch of the Profound Index at Zero Click New York, the company’s second ann...”
“ChatGPT 5.5 is recommending competitors more often, with Anthropic, Mistral, OpenRouter, and Groq all gaining visibility within ChatGPT-gene...”
“ChatGPT 5.5 is recommending competitors more often, with Anthropic, Mistral, OpenRouter, and Groq all gaining visibility within ChatGPT-gene...”
“ChatGPT 5.5 is recommending competitors more often, with Anthropic, Mistral, OpenRouter, and Groq all gaining visibility within ChatGPT-gene...”
“ChatGPT 5.5 is recommending competitors more often, with Anthropic, Mistral, OpenRouter, and Groq all gaining visibility within ChatGPT-gene...”
“IKEA is up 19% on ChatGPT while down 11% across AI platforms overall....”
“Health insurance visibility has been reshuffled. Ambetter and Humana are down more than 50%, while Aetna is one of the few major brands movi...”
“GlobeNewswire is one of the world's largest newswire distribution networks, specializing in the delivery of corporate press releases financi...”
“"People are asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other AI systems for recommendations, advice, and answers."...”
“MarTech Series is a leading publishing platform that provides daily updates on marketing technology news, in-depth interviews with industry ...”
“"People are asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other AI systems for recommendations, advice, and answers."...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Profound Launches Ads Studio for AI Search Ads
Profound announced Ads Studio on July 8, 2026 at its Zero Click New York AI marketing summit. Ads Studio is a product for planning, measuring and generating advertising specifically for AI-powered search and conversational experiences. The platform leverages Profound’s Prompt Volume dataset of more than 1.9 billion real-user prompts to provide visibility into ad placements in real user conversations, benchmark Paid Share of Voice against competitors, and produce an Ads Relevance Score measuring audience match, actionability and brand relevance. Ads Studio can auto-generate and score hundreds of ad candidates, recommend creatives and optimize campaigns based on conversational context. James Cadwallader, Co-founder and CEO of Profound, is quoted explaining the shift from keyword to conversation optimization in AI Search advertising.
SearchInsight.ai Launches AI Search Visibility Tool
SearchInsight.ai announced the launch of an AI search visibility platform designed to give agencies, brands, and in-house marketing teams affordable visibility into how they appear inside AI copilots and search engines. The product tracks prompts and responses across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Grok and Google AI (including Google AI Mode/Overviews), captures brand mentions and full responses, analyzes competitor share-of-voice, surfaces fan-out query data, and provides action-oriented recommendations. The company launched a starter plan at $59/month (100 tracked prompts, 3 AI engines, 2 seats) with a 14-day free trial and positions the product for smaller teams priced out of enterprise tools. The article cites independent estimates about AI search scale and emphasizes the need for visibility as AI answers become a routine research channel.
AI search marketing startup Profound raises $180M Series D at $1.8B valuation
Profound, a marketing software startup that helps brands appear in AI search results, announced a $180 million Series D funding round at a $1.8 billion valuation, just seven months after its $96 million Series C. The round was co-led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, with participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and South Park Commons. The company, which launched two years ago as an analytics platform, now focuses on generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO), helping businesses understand how AI systems influence consumer brand discovery. Profound reports revenue growth of 3x in the past six months and serves over 1,000 enterprise customers, including Comcast, The Estée Lauder Companies, and Walmart. The funding will likely support expansion and product development in the rapidly growing AI search optimization space.
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