I built an AI visibility scanner, here's what I learned before quitting
A solo developer built a tool to measure how often AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude mention a specific brand when answering questions. After running it, they shared their findings and shut the project down. Their experience highlights that 'AI visibility' is becoming a real marketing metric worth tracking.
As more people ask AI assistants instead of searching Google, showing up in AI-generated answers is turning into a meaningful form of exposure for businesses. This developer built a small subscription tool that automatically tracked how often various AI models mentioned a given brand or product — essentially an SEO checker, but for AI responses.
Key takeaways from their run: different AI models mention the same brand at very different rates, and the best way to appear in AI answers is to have content that made it into the AI's training data — things like press coverage, official documentation, and active community discussion. The project didn't succeed commercially, but the core insight stands: AI visibility is an emerging channel that solo operators should start paying attention to alongside traditional SEO.
Key points
- How often AI chatbots mention your brand is becoming a new kind of marketing metric, similar to search rankings
- Different AI models (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc.) mention the same brand at very different rates — you need to check across several
- Getting into AI training data through press, documentation, and community mentions helps your brand appear in AI answers
- The tool failed to monetize, but confirmed real demand for AI visibility tracking
- Solo operators should add AI visibility checks to their marketing checklist alongside traditional SEO now, before it becomes mainstream
Quick term guide
- AI chatbots
- Software you can talk to that uses AI to answer or help with tasks.
- AI chatbot
- A computer program that replies in a chat like a person.
- AI visibility
- How often and prominently an AI chatbot mentions your brand or product when answering user questions
- AI assistant
- A software tool that uses artificial intelligence to answer questions or help with tasks.
- subscription
- A pricing model where you pay a fixed amount of money every month for access.
- AI models
- The core brain or underlying program that powers an artificial intelligence tool.
- responses
- An OpenAI API feature for creating and handling model answers.
- training data
- The collection of information used to teach an AI how to recognize patterns and answer questions.