Why I built AnswerScout

AnswerScout is live today.

It shows you how AI assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini recommend your brand, and what to fix to be recommended more. If your buyers are asking AI "what's the best tool for..." before they ever hit Google, this tells you if your name comes up, who comes up instead, and what to do about it.

I built it at 1am

Most of this was built late at night. We have a newborn at home, and the quiet stretches long after the sun went down were the only time I really had. So that's where it went. A little progress most nights, for quite a while.

It also helped keep me sane. The added challenge kept my mind busy. And for a new parent, it's important to stay sane.

Three reasons it exists

First, I wanted to actually understand the tools everyone's talking about. Development, AI, the marketing stack, all of it. Reading about them only gets you so far. The fastest way I learn is by doing and using in a real environment. So I did.

Second, I saw a gap. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO, getting recommended inside AI answers the way SEO gets you ranked in search results) already has a large crowd of tools. Almost all of them are expensive and complicated. They're priced for agencies and enterprises. There wasn't a straightforward, affordable option covering the engines people actually use. So I built that one. It's not for agencies. It's for small teams and solo marketers.

Third, I needed it myself. I run marketing for a company that can't justify the enterprise AEO tools. They were never an option, not even close. I was tired of checking by hand and eyeballing the results. I wanted something repeatable that ran on its own, and I couldn't find it at a price that made sense.

What it does

Give it your brand, your website, and your category. It takes less than 5 minutes. There's no code and nothing to install. It's built for marketers.

Every day it asks real buying questions across the major AI assistants: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, and Perplexity. It turns the answers into a single visibility score from 0 to 100, shows you which competitors AI is recommending instead of you (including ones you didn't know to watch), tracks the sources each engine cites, and hands you a basic ranked list of what to fix.

I built it to give people a number they can move, and the short list of things most likely to move it.

Who it's for

Founders, small teams, and in-house marketers who need a clear read on their AI visibility without an enterprise budget or an enterprise setup. If you've ever asked ChatGPT about your own brand and felt a little uneasy about the answer, this is for you.

It's brand new. I'd genuinely love for you to try it and tell me what's missing.

You can start with a free trial, no credit card. Take a look.