Zumi resources

Intelligence for the answer economy.

Practical research and field guides for teams building visibility across AI search.

Featured guide

AI knowledge cutoffs and live search, read from vendors

A brand's recent launch can be missing from an AI answer for two different reasons. What the vendors document, and how to tell which. Read the guide.

Zumi Research7 min read
Read the guide
Latest

Ideas you can put to work.

37 articles
01
Guide

Products in ChatGPT answers: read the cited pages

Product answers in ChatGPT cite pages most brands do not own. How to list them, sort them by owner, and see which can be moved. Read the guide.

02
Guide

AEO checker results: what one check is worth

An AEO checker reports one run. In Zumi data, a brand mentioned in an AI answer was mentioned again the next day 58% of the time. Read the guide.

03
Guide

AI search attribution: two layers, one report

AI search leaves two kinds of evidence: what the answers say and what visitors do. How to report both to leadership, side by side. Read the guide.

04
Guide

How to rank in Google AI Mode: link, mention, repeat

Ranking in Google AI Mode splits into three outcomes: a link, a mention, and a return days later. What Zumi measured on each. Read the guide.

05
Guide

Does ChatGPT use Bing? What OpenAI documents

Most advice on ChatGPT and Bing states a rule OpenAI never wrote. What OpenAI's own pages say about how ChatGPT search finds sources. Read the guide.

06
Guide

AEO optimization checklist: what engines document

Most AEO checklists open with letting AI crawlers in, then list the wrong ones. A checklist built from the engines' own documentation. Read the guide.

07
Guide

How to choose the prompts to track in AI search

A prompt list for AI visibility should record the search demand behind each prompt and match what the brand sells. How to build one. Read the guide.

08
Guide

How to rank in AI Overviews: what a site controls

Google lists what a page needs to appear in AI Overviews and what is not guaranteed. A control ledger, plus how much citations move anyway.

09
Guide

How to track AI citations with a source log

A citation log records each source an AI engine cites, by engine and answer, with the count behind every figure. How to build one. Read the guide.

10
Guide

AEO tracking: what to measure and what is noise

Which AEO numbers to track, how much they move with nothing changed, and why mentions and citations need separate baselines. Read the guide.

11
Guide

Citation analysis tools for AI search: what to check

Citation analysis tools for AI search should list sources by engine, answer, and owner. What to check, and what citations can't prove. Read the guide.

12
Guide

How to compare AI search tracking tools

A two-day trial for comparing AI search tracking tools on the same questions, with the day-to-day change that counts as normal. Read the guide.

13
Playbook

How to track a brand in AI Overviews and AI Mode

AI Overviews and AI Mode cite different sources and change daily. How to set up tracking that holds up, based on 77 tracked Google answers.

14
Guide

Product visibility in AI answers: why counts break

Product visibility in AI answers breaks in five ways, from one product split across names to retailer pages. How to fix the count. Read the guide.

15
Guide

AEO vs GEO: which term engines and buyers use

AEO and GEO name the same work. Zumi data shows which term buyers search for worldwide and in four markets, and which AI engines use.

16
Research

For One India Beauty Buyer, AI Engines Agree on the Source Before the Brand

Across 54 India beauty search queries, 7 of 8 buyer segments show AI engines agreeing more on brands than sources. One segment inverts it.

17
Research

The dark funnel in AI search, measured

Across 77 tracked answers, Google AI Overviews used the term dark funnel in 8 of its 25. Gemini used it twice, AI Mode once. Read the research.

18
Research

Gemini, AI Overviews, and AI Mode cite differently

Zumi asked one question across Gemini, AI Overviews, and AI Mode for 19 days. The three engines cited 362 domains and shared 9. Read the study.

19
Guide

How to evaluate AI visibility tools as answers shift

AI answers change daily. Zumi data shows how much, and what that means when choosing AI visibility, AEO, or GEO tools. Read the guide.

20
Guide

AI Search Intelligence metrics that matter

Four AI visibility signals answer four different questions. Learn how to read each one without hiding the result in a composite. Read the guide.

21
Playbook

How to write content that AI engines cite

AI citations concentrate on a few dozen domains. Zumi data shows how few, and what that means for writing content AI engines cite. Read the guide.

22
Strategy

Branded search in the AI era: the brand narrative

Branded search was the safest territory in digital marketing. AI answers have changed that, and most brands have not noticed. Read the guide.

23
Playbook

How to audit competitor AI visibility

How to run an AI visibility audit on competitors and map which questions each rival owns across AI engines. Read the guide.

24
Playbook

GEO for SaaS: The category ownership playbook

How SaaS companies establish and defend category ownership in AI answers, and why challengers can win it faster than expected. Read the guide.

25
Research

How B2B Buyers Use AI When Researching Vendors

The verified research on B2B AI adoption in purchasing, and what it means for how and when brands need to appear in AI answers. Read the research.

26
Playbook

Entity Optimization: The AI Visibility Foundation

AI engines are entity-first systems. Before recommending a brand, an engine needs to recognize it as a coherent, well-attested entity. Read the guide.

27
Guide

GEO vs. SEO: Differences and How to Allocate

GEO and SEO reward different signals, not different degrees of the same one. What diverges, what carries over, and how to allocate budget.

28
Research

How Perplexity decides which sources to cite

Perplexity runs the strictest quality gate of any major AI engine. Here is what determines whether a brand's content makes the cut. Read the guide.

29
Playbook

How to get a brand mentioned in ChatGPT answers

SEO for ChatGPT works differently from Google SEO. The four signals that decide which brands get mentioned, and how to track the result.

30
Playbook

How to baseline AI visibility before buying a tool

A manual AI visibility audit starts with fixed questions, declared scope, raw answers, and separate signals. Build a defensible first read.

31
Research

State of AI search, October 2026: the verified data

Verified, sourced numbers on AI search as of October 2026: adoption is settled, B2B buyers lead, and clicks fall when AI answers appear.

32
Strategy

AI visibility is not the product

Measurement-only GEO tools stall the moment the number arrives. The durable value is the loop: diagnose, act, then see it improve.

33
Guide

What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

A complete introduction to Generative Engine Optimization: what GEO is, why it matters, and how it differs from traditional SEO. Read the guide.

34
Research

How AI engines decide what brands to mention

What published research says about the signals behind brand mentions in ChatGPT, Google's AI features, Perplexity, and Claude. Read the research.

35
Strategy

The CMO guide to AI Search Intelligence

A 90-day operating model helps CMOs measure AI discovery, assign action, and report clear limits without inventing causal ROI. Read the guide.

36
Research

AI engine comparison: market share, conversion, and answer stability

Market-share trackers rank AI engines by users. Zumi's 8,740 answers show how often each engine repeats a brand mention. Read the comparison.

37
Guide

AI visibility platform for agencies managing multiple client brands

What agencies should look for in an AI visibility platform for tracking, reporting on, and pricing AI visibility work across a full client roster.

Newsletter

Stay in the loop

The GEO Brief: one short weekly email on winning AI search.

  • One AI-visibility shift
  • One tactic to act on
  • Under 3 minutes