We analysed 60 AI search responses across six providers to understand how Boardy appears when potential customers ask AI for recommendations. Here's what we found, why it matters, and what businesses should actually be doing about their AI visibility. https://x.com/i/article/2117224730092773376
What 6 AI Assistants Revealed About Boardy's Visibility
We analysed 60 AI search responses across six providers to understand how Boardy appears when potential customers ask AI for recommendations. Here's what we found, why it matters, and what businesses should actually be doing about their AI visibility.
The next customer might never Google your business.
They might ask ChatGPT.
"What's the best platform to find investors for my startup?"
"Which CRM should I use for my sales team?"
"Recommend a marketing agency that can help my business scale internationally."
Within seconds, they receive an answer.
A shortlist of companies. A few explanations. Sometimes direct links to the websites.
And just like that, a buying decision has already started.
The customer hasn't visited Google. They haven't searched through ten different websites. They haven't clicked on your advertisement.
They're relying on an AI engine to help them decide who deserves their attention.
Now consider this:
What if your company is genuinely good at what it does, has paying customers, a strong product and a decent website, but AI engines rarely mention it when potential customers ask relevant questions?
That's an entirely different kind of visibility problem.
And it's one we wanted to investigate.
For this analysis, we picked Boardy, an AI-powered networking platform, and examined how discoverable it is across major AI search engines.
We didn't just search for its brand name.
We approached the exercise as potential customers looking for solutions to the problems Boardy claims to solve.
The findings were interesting.
More importantly, they reveal what businesses should start doing if they want to become part of AI-generated recommendations.
PART 1: THE BOARDY EXPERIMENT
01. How visible is Boardy across AI search?
We constructed 10 commercial-intent prompts based on Boardy's product categories and tested them across six AI providers:
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
- Perplexity
- Grok
- Google AI Overviews
That gave us 60 completed AI search runs.
We measured three things:
1. Brand mentions
How frequently does the AI engine actually mention Boardy in its answer?
2. Brand citations
How frequently does the AI engine link directly to Boardy's website?
3. Competitive visibility
Which alternative products appear in the same conversations, and which sources are influencing the recommendations?
Here's the snapshot.
The numbers tell an interesting story.
Boardy appeared in approximately 6 out of 60 completed responses.
Its website was cited in approximately 3.
This doesn't mean Boardy has no organic visibility or that customers aren't discovering it through other channels.
It means that in our particular set of buyer-intent searches, Boardy had limited representation.
And that's a very different problem from traditional SEO.
02. The gap between what Boardy does and what AI recommends
We didn't only test generic searches.
We created prompts around different customer requirements.
For example:
- Finding relevant investors.
- Finding prospective customers.
- Connecting with potential hires.
- Getting introductions to experienced professionals.
- Discovering relevant networking platforms.
- Finding services that automate professional introductions.
One prompt stood out.
"Which AI networking service should I sign up with to get introductions to investors relevant to what I'm building?"
Boardy's results:
- 50% mention rate.
- 33% citation rate.
This was its strongest result.
But when we moved into customer introductions, talent discovery and several other use cases, Boardy received zero mentions.
This tells us something important.
A company can have multiple product capabilities, but AI engines might associate it more strongly with only one particular use case.
That creates an opportunity to improve how the wider brand proposition is communicated, understood and represented across the web.
03. Who is appearing in the same conversations?
We also looked at the other companies appearing around Boardy's category.
The report identified:
- Lunchclub
- Intros AI
- Articuler
- CoffeeChats
- GIGI
Across the audit, competing brands had a 10% mention rate and a 3% citation rate.
The important question isn't simply whether competitors are getting mentioned.
It's why they're entering the conversation, which sources are supporting their visibility and whether Boardy has comparable coverage across the relevant buyer-intent categories.
This is exactly the kind of competitive intelligence businesses need before investing in an AI search strategy.
04. Where is AI getting its information?
We examined the sources appearing throughout the captured search journeys.
The most frequently consulted domains were:
These are appearances across the full audit, not Boardy-specific citations.
But they demonstrate something important.
AI search visibility isn't built exclusively on your website.
Your brand's information footprint exists across the internet.
Industry publications, comparison websites, community discussions, directories, professional networks and authoritative third-party sources all contribute to the information AI engines can retrieve.
If your business only talks about itself on its own website, you're potentially missing a significant part of the discovery ecosystem.
And this brings us to the real opportunity.
PART 2: WHAT ACTUALLY MAKES A BRAND VISIBLE IN AI SEARCH?
05. SEO and AEO are not the same job
Traditional SEO largely focuses on improving your visibility in search engine results pages.
You research keywords, optimise pages, improve technical performance, build relevant links and work towards stronger rankings.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) extend the focus.
The objective is to make your brand discoverable and accurately represented when AI-powered search systems answer questions related to your industry.
Consider two different searches.
Traditional search:
"Best CRM software for B2B companies"
A user gets a list of search results.
AI search:
"I'm running a B2B company with a five-person sales team. I need a CRM that can automate follow-ups, track deals and integrate with our existing tools. What should I use?"
The AI may compare products, explain trade-offs, recommend alternatives and reference supporting sources.
The second interaction is much closer to a buying conversation.
Your brand needs to be understood in the context of that conversation.
This requires more than adding keywords to existing pages.
It requires a coordinated strategy across:
1. Brand and entity positioning.
1. Technical discoverability.
1. Content and topical authority.
1. Third-party authority and digital PR.
1. Competitive positioning.
1. AI visibility measurement.
1. Conversion optimisation.
Here's how we approach it at Continum.
PART 3: HOW CONTINUM HELPS YOUR BRAND GET DISCOVERED IN AI SEARCH
We don't start by writing 30 articles and hoping ChatGPT picks them up.
We start by understanding how AI currently sees your business.
Then we build the infrastructure, content and authority needed to improve that visibility.
06. Phase one: AI visibility intelligence and research
First, we need to understand the current state of your brand.
Before changing anything, we establish a baseline.
We conduct a structured audit across relevant AI search providers, buyer-intent prompts and competitor brands.
What we investigate
A. Brand mention analysis
We identify how frequently your brand appears in AI-generated answers.
We look at:
- Brand mentions.
- Recommendation frequency.
- Position within recommendations.
- Context in which the brand appears.
- Accuracy of the information.
- Differences between AI providers.
A mention in a random answer isn't necessarily commercially valuable.
We care about whether your company appears when someone is actively looking for a solution you provide.
B. Citation analysis
We examine whether AI engines link to your website.
We identify:
- Which pages are cited.
- Which pages are ignored.
- Which third-party sources are referenced.
- Which domains repeatedly appear.
- Whether citations support your positioning.
- Whether competitors are receiving more citations.
This helps us understand what information is being used to construct AI answers.
C. Prompt and buyer-intent research
This is one of the most important parts of the process.
We don't randomly generate questions.
We map the questions your potential customers are likely to ask at different stages of their buying journey.
For a B2B SaaS company, this could look like:
We then test these prompts across the relevant AI providers.
D. Competitor intelligence
We identify the brands that AI engines are already recommending.
For each relevant competitor, we investigate:
- Which prompts trigger their mentions.
- Which pages are being cited.
- Which publications mention them.
- Which comparison articles feature them.
- Which communities discuss them.
- What positioning they own.
- Where their visibility is strongest.
The output is a competitive visibility map.
You should know exactly where your competitors are entering conversations that your brand is missing.
What you receive
- Initial AI visibility report.
- Brand mention and citation analysis.
- Buyer-intent prompt database.
- Competitor visibility breakdown.
- Source and citation mapping.
- Prioritised opportunity assessment.
This becomes the baseline against which we measure subsequent work.
07. Phase two: Brand positioning and entity optimisation
Make sure AI understands what your company actually does.
This is where many businesses have an underlying problem.
Their websites describe their services, but they don't establish a sufficiently clear and consistent picture of the company.
For example, a company might describe itself as:
"An innovative technology partner helping businesses achieve digital transformation."
That sounds professional.
But what does it actually do?
Who does it help?
What category does it belong to?
What problems does it solve?
Why should somebody choose it over alternatives?
If these answers are unclear or inconsistent across the web, it becomes harder for AI systems to build a reliable picture of the business.
What we do
A. Define your category positioning
We establish the categories your brand should be associated with.
For example, a company selling sales automation software might need to establish clear associations with:
- AI sales automation.
- B2B sales engagement.
- Lead qualification software.
- Automated sales follow-ups.
- Multichannel sales communication.
These aren't just keywords.
They represent different ways customers might describe the problem they're trying to solve.
B. Build your brand's entity footprint
We review how your company is represented across:
- Your website.
- About and product pages.
- Founder profiles.
- LinkedIn.
- Relevant business directories.
- Industry publications.
- External company profiles.
- Other authoritative sources.
We look for inconsistencies in the company name, product descriptions, category, leadership information and brand positioning.
Where appropriate, we improve the consistency and completeness of these references.
C. Create a structured brand knowledge source
We develop a clear reference structure containing:
- Company description.
- Products and services.
- Target audiences.
- Core use cases.
- Differentiators.
- Founder and leadership information.
- Key product facts.
- Pricing information where appropriate.
- Frequently asked questions.
- Verified proof points and case studies.
This gives your website and supporting content a consistent source of truth.
D. Strengthen your website's information architecture
We review whether the website clearly communicates what your business does.
This could involve restructuring:
- Homepage positioning.
- Product pages.
- Service pages.
- Industry-specific landing pages.
- Use-case pages.
- Comparison pages.
- About pages.
- FAQ sections.
We want every important page to communicate a clear purpose.
The outcome
A more coherent brand presence across your own website and the wider web.
The objective is to reduce ambiguity around what your business does, who it serves and when it is relevant.
08. Phase three: Technical AI search optimisation
Make your website accessible, discoverable and understandable.
You could have the best content in your industry.
But if search systems cannot properly access or interpret important parts of your website, that content may not contribute as effectively to discovery.
We conduct a technical review of your website.
What we work on
A. Crawlability and indexability
We inspect:
- Robots.txt configuration.
- XML sitemaps.
- Canonical tags.
- Noindex directives.
- Redirect chains.
- Broken pages.
- Important pages blocked from crawling.
- Duplicate content.
- Orphaned pages.
We also review access for relevant search crawlers and AI retrieval systems where their documented access requirements allow it.
B. Structured data and schema markup
We implement appropriate structured data to help search systems interpret important information.
Depending on the business, this can include:
- Organization schema.
- WebSite schema.
- Product schema.
- Service schema.
- Article schema.
- Person schema.
- BreadcrumbList schema.
- SoftwareApplication schema.
- Relevant FAQ content structured appropriately.
Schema isn't a shortcut to AI recommendations.
It is one part of making the information on your website more explicit and machine-readable.
C. Internal linking architecture
We map relationships between important pages.
For example:
Homepage → Product category → Specific use case → Supporting guide → Case study.
This helps establish topical relationships and gives users a better route through your content.
D. Content accessibility
We check whether critical information is accessible in a clear, crawlable format.
We review:
- JavaScript-rendered content.
- Important content hidden behind interactions.
- Page loading issues.
- Mobile accessibility.
- Image alt text.
- Metadata.
- Heading hierarchy.
- Page structure.
E. AI-specific technical considerations
We review relevant AI crawler access, documented bot policies, server responses and content accessibility.
We can also evaluate whether an llms.txt file is useful for the particular website, while treating it as an optional convention rather than a proven ranking factor.
The outcome
A technically healthier website with clearer information architecture and fewer avoidable barriers to discovery.
09. Phase four: AI-first content engineering
Build the information your potential customers are looking for.
This is where the strategy becomes visible.
Most companies create content around what they want to announce.
We create content around what potential customers want to understand.
There's a difference.
A company might publish:
"Introducing our new AI-powered CRM."
But its potential customer might be asking:
- What is the best CRM for a B2B startup?
- How do I automate sales follow-ups?
- Which CRM integrates with WhatsApp?
- What are the alternatives to HubSpot?
- How can I reduce the time my sales team spends on manual data entry?
These are different content opportunities.
Our content framework
A. Category-defining content
We establish your brand's presence around the core category it operates in.
Examples:
- What is AI sales automation?
- How does AI-powered lead qualification work?
- The complete guide to B2B sales engagement.
- How modern sales teams automate prospect follow-ups.
These resources help establish the category and provide context for your product.
B. Buyer-intent articles
We build content around the questions potential customers ask before making a purchase.
Examples:
- Best AI sales automation tools for B2B businesses.
- Best CRM platforms for early-stage startups.
- How to choose an outbound sales automation platform.
- What to look for in an AI customer support solution.
These articles should provide genuine comparisons, criteria and useful recommendations.
Where your product is relevant, we explain why.
We don't manufacture fake reviews or pretend that every comparison should favour your brand.
C. Alternative and comparison pages
These are particularly important for commercial-intent discovery.
Examples:
- Alternatives to HubSpot.
- Product A vs Product B.
- Best alternatives to Salesforce for smaller teams.
- Comparing AI sales automation platforms.
We develop comparison content based on actual features, use cases, pricing and differentiators.
D. Problem-solution content
We identify the problems customers are actively trying to solve.
For example:
E. Original research and data-led content
This is where brands can build something more defensible.
Instead of simply rewriting existing information, we help create original resources:
- Industry surveys.
- Market research.
- Benchmark reports.
- Product studies.
- Data-led insights.
- Customer research.
- Proprietary statistics.
Original information gives other publishers and researchers a reason to reference your brand.
It can also help differentiate your content from the thousands of generic AI-generated articles being published every day.
F. Content refresh and optimisation
We don't only publish new content.
We review existing pages to identify:
- Outdated information.
- Missing questions.
- Weak explanations.
- Unsupported claims.
- Missing comparison details.
- Poor content structure.
- Missing internal links.
- Opportunities to include original evidence.
We update content where doing so genuinely improves its usefulness.
What you receive
A content strategy built around your commercial categories, buyer-intent prompts and competitive gaps.
Depending on the engagement, this can include:
- Content architecture.
- Editorial calendar.
- Category pages.
- Buyer-intent articles.
- Comparison and alternative pages.
- Product-led educational content.
- Original research.
- Existing content optimisation.
The goal isn't to publish the most content.
It's to build the most useful and relevant information footprint for your category.
10. Phase five: Digital authority and third-party visibility
<small>Your website cannot be the only place talking about your brand.</small>
Remember the Boardy audit?
Reddit, LinkedIn, industry resources and third-party publications appeared repeatedly in the captured search landscape.
This is why we treat off-site visibility as a core part of AEO/GEO.
Your brand needs to exist in the places where your category is already being discussed.
What we do
A. Digital PR and editorial outreach
We identify relevant publications, journalists, industry websites and editorial opportunities.
We work towards earning coverage through:
- Industry commentary.
- Founder interviews.
- Original research.
- Data-led stories.
- Product announcements.
- Expert contributions.
- Relevant editorial features.
The emphasis is on relevant, credible coverage.
Not mass-produced press releases sent to hundreds of irrelevant websites.
B. Relevant industry publications
We identify the publications that matter in your industry.
For a B2B SaaS company, that could mean technology publications, startup resources, SaaS communities and specialist industry platforms.
For a D2C company, the source landscape could be completely different.
We build a source map based on your category and customer behaviour.
C. Community visibility
We identify relevant communities where your target audience already asks questions and discusses products.
This may include:
- Reddit communities.
- Founder communities.
- Professional forums.
- Industry groups.
- Relevant Q&A platforms.
We focus on meaningful participation, expert contributions and useful answers.
No fake accounts. No manufactured reviews. No spam.
D. Third-party comparison and directory presence
We investigate which comparison platforms, software directories and industry listings are relevant to your category.
Where suitable, we work on improving your presence through accurate product information, complete profiles and useful supporting content.
E. Founder and leadership visibility
In many B2B categories, the founders and leadership team contribute to the credibility of the business.
We can strengthen their external presence through:
- Expert articles.
- Founder interviews.
- Industry commentary.
- Relevant professional profiles.
- Original insights.
- Consistent company references.
The outcome
A stronger, more consistent presence outside your website.
The goal is to create more relevant, credible information about your brand across the wider web.
This is one of the areas where an effective AI visibility strategy becomes much bigger than traditional on-page SEO.
11. Phase six: Citation acquisition and source gap optimisation
Find out which sources are influencing recommendations, then build a strategy around them.
This deserves its own layer.
During our audits, we don't only look at whether a brand is cited.
We investigate the pages and domains that appear in AI-generated answers.
For example:
Suppose a competitor is consistently appearing in responses to:
"Best AI tools for customer support."
We investigate the sources behind those responses.
Perhaps the competitor appears in:
- Three industry comparison articles.
- Two software directories.
- A relevant industry publication.
- Several community discussions.
We then ask:
Why is our client absent from those sources?
Is the competitor's product information more complete?
Does it have better editorial coverage?
Is its category positioning clearer?
Are there useful comparison opportunities?
Our process
1. Identify high-frequency citation domains.
1. Separate relevant sources from incidental search results.
1. Identify the specific competitor pages being referenced.
1. Find missing brand coverage.
1. Prioritise publications and sources based on relevance and credibility.
1. Develop outreach and content opportunities.
1. Monitor whether those sources begin appearing in subsequent AI search responses.
We don't promise that a publication will be cited by ChatGPT simply because we secure coverage there.
The objective is to improve the availability and quality of relevant information about your business.
12. Phase seven: Continuous AI visibility monitoring
AI search is dynamic. Your strategy cannot be a one-time exercise.
One of the biggest mistakes a company can make is running an AI visibility audit once, making a few website changes and assuming the work is complete.
AI-generated answers change.
Sources change.
Competitors publish new content.
Products launch.
Search systems update their retrieval and ranking mechanisms.
We therefore build a recurring measurement process.
What we monitor
We also maintain a prompt database.
This is important because comparing completely different prompts every month would produce misleading conclusions.
We want a consistent set of buyer-intent questions that can be retested across providers.
We then supplement those with new prompts as your market evolves.
Monthly reporting
You'll receive a view of:
- What improved.
- What declined.
- Which new prompts trigger mentions.
- Which pages are getting cited.
- Which competitors are gaining visibility.
- Which source opportunities were secured.
- What we are prioritising next.
This keeps the work accountable to measurable outcomes.
PART 4: WHAT WORKING WITH CONTINUM ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE
13. The first 90 days
We don't approach AI visibility as a collection of disconnected tasks.
We structure the engagement around research, implementation and measurement.
Here's how a typical first 90 days could look.
Days 1–15: Research and strategy
Primary objective: Understand the current visibility gap.
Workstreams:
- AI visibility audit.
- Competitor analysis.
- Buyer-intent prompt research.
- Citation source mapping.
- Brand positioning review.
- Technical website audit.
- Existing content analysis.
- Opportunity prioritisation.
Deliverables:
- Baseline visibility report.
- Competitor visibility map.
- Prompt database.
- Technical recommendations.
- Content opportunity map.
- 90-day execution roadmap.
Days 16–30: Foundation and optimisation
Primary objective: Fix the fundamentals.
Workstreams:
- Brand positioning refinement.
- Entity consistency review.
- Website information architecture.
- Technical SEO and AI crawler review.
- Structured data implementation.
- Internal linking improvements.
- Core landing page optimisation.
- Content architecture.
Deliverables:
- Updated brand messaging framework.
- Technical implementation checklist.
- Optimised core pages.
- Structured data improvements.
- Content production roadmap.
Days 31–60: Content and authority
Primary objective: Build a stronger information footprint.
Workstreams:
- Category-defining content.
- Buyer-intent articles.
- Comparison content.
- Alternative pages.
- Product-led educational content.
- Editorial outreach.
- Third-party profile improvements.
- Relevant community participation.
- Digital PR opportunities.
Deliverables:
- Published and optimised content.
- External authority outreach.
- Relevant third-party placements where secured.
- Updated comparison and category pages.
- Citation opportunity tracking.
Days 61–90: Measurement and expansion
Primary objective: Understand what is working and scale the opportunities.
Workstreams:
- Repeat AI visibility testing.
- Mention and citation comparison.
- Competitor movement analysis.
- Source gap analysis.
- Content performance review.
- Technical follow-up.
- Additional prompt research.
- Next-quarter prioritisation.
Deliverables:
- Updated AI visibility report.
- Baseline versus current performance comparison.
- Competitor movement report.
- Citation source analysis.
- Next-quarter execution plan.
Important: This is an illustrative execution roadmap. Actual publishing volume, technical work and third-party placements depend on the client's website, industry, resources and engagement scope. AI visibility improvements are not guaranteed within a fixed timeframe.
PART 5: WHO SHOULD BE INVESTING IN AI VISIBILITY?
14. This isn't just for SaaS companies.
AI search visibility is relevant to any business whose customers research, compare and evaluate solutions before purchasing.
B2B SaaS
If someone asks ChatGPT for the best software in your category, your product should have a chance of entering that consideration set.
Opportunities:
- Product recommendations.
- Software comparisons.
- Alternative searches.
- Category visibility.
- Integration-related searches.
Service businesses and agencies
Potential clients increasingly research service providers before booking calls.
Opportunities:
- Best agencies in a particular category.
- Service provider comparisons.
- Industry-specific recommendations.
- Location and market-based searches.
- Expertise and credibility searches.
D2C and ecommerce brands
Customers use AI to research products, compare features and find alternatives.
Opportunities:
- Product discovery.
- Category recommendations.
- Product comparisons.
- Buying guides.
- Brand and product information.
Fintech and financial technology
Potential customers research platforms, providers and financial tools.
Opportunities:
- Product comparisons.
- Use-case recommendations.
- Category-specific discovery.
- Educational resources.
- Trust and authority building.
Healthcare and professional services
Customers often research providers, services and treatment information before making decisions.
These categories require particularly careful attention to factual accuracy, authoritative sources, regulatory requirements and trust.
The strategy must be adapted to the standards of each industry.
PART 6: WHY CONTINUM?
15. We don't sell you another content package.
The market is already full of agencies offering SEO retainers, blog packages and backlink campaigns.
Our approach is different.
We start with a question:
When someone asks AI for a solution that your business provides, does your brand appear?
If it doesn't, we investigate why.
We then work across the different layers that contribute to AI search visibility.
We connect AI visibility with the rest of your growth strategy.
Because being mentioned by AI is only one part of the equation.
The next step is getting that person to your website, communicating your value and converting them into a customer.
That's where our wider acquisition and conversion capabilities become important.
We don't want your company to have a higher AI mention rate and nothing else to show for it.
We want to build a discovery channel that contributes to commercial growth.
PART 7: LET'S FIND OUT HOW AI SEES YOUR BRAND
16. Your competitors might already be part of the conversation.
While you're investing in traditional search, paid acquisition and content marketing, potential customers are exploring another discovery channel.
They're asking AI which products to use.
Which companies to trust.
Which agencies to hire.
Which platforms are worth paying for.
And those answers are influencing consideration.
The question isn't whether every customer will use AI to discover your business.
The question is whether your company is prepared for the ones who already do.
At Continum, we help businesses identify their AI visibility gaps and build a strategy to improve how they are discovered, understood, mentioned and cited across AI search.
Here's what we can do for your brand.
1. Find out where you stand.
We analyse your brand across relevant AI engines and buyer-intent searches.
2. Understand why competitors are appearing.
We investigate their positioning, content, citations and external visibility.
3. Identify the opportunities you're missing.
We map the prompts, topics, sources and categories where your brand has room to grow.
4. Build and execute the strategy.
We work on technical foundations, content, brand positioning and external authority.
5. Measure the progress.
We continuously track visibility, citations, competitor presence and commercial outcomes.
Want to know whether AI recommends your brand?
We're currently helping businesses build their presence across AI search experiences.
Get a detailed AI Visibility Audit from Continum.
We'll show you:
- How often AI engines mention your company.
- Whether they cite your website.
- Which competitors appear instead of you.
- What your potential customers are asking.
- Which sources are shaping recommendations.
- Where your biggest visibility opportunities exist.
- What we'd prioritise to improve your AI search presence.
Don't just optimise for the searches people used to make. Build visibility for the questions they're asking AI today.
Is AI recommending your brand?
When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini which company to choose, does your brand show up?
Or are your competitors getting recommended while you're nowhere in the conversation?
At Continum, we help ambitious brands improve their visibility across AI search through AEO and GEO.
We identify:
- Where your brand appears in AI-generated answers.
- Which competitors are being recommended instead.
- What sources AI engines trust in your category.
- Which content and authority gaps are holding your brand back.
- What needs to change to earn more relevant AI mentions and citations.
Want to know where your brand stands?
Book a free AEO call with Continum