I want to know when AI starts recommending my product. What should I use?

Use an AI visibility tracker—also called an AI search visibility or AEO/GEO tool. It checks whether your product appears in answers to buyer questions across platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI search features.

A practical starting point:

• Try a free or low-cost tracker such as HubSpot’s AI Search Sensor, or compare specialist tools like Peec AI, Otterly.AI, and Profound. Check that the tool covers the AI platforms your customers use and lets you track your own prompts and competitors. (hubspot.com)
• Track real buying questions, not just your product name: “best [type of product] for [use case],” “alternatives to [competitor],” and “[your product] vs. [competitor].”
• Measure mentions and citations separately. Record whether your product is named, whether your website or other sources are cited, and which competitors appear.
• Repeat the same prompts regularly. AI answers vary, so one check doesn’t tell you when you’ve “started ranking.” Look for a sustained pattern across prompts and platforms.
• For Google specifically, use Google Search Console for your site’s search performance; an AI visibility tracker can give you a broader view across AI assistants. (hubspot.com)

If you’re just getting started, I’d pick one tracker that supports several AI platforms, add around 20–30 realistic buyer prompts, and review the results weekly. Treat its visibility score as a trend—not a definitive ranking.

Use an AI visibility tracker. These tools run a fixed set of buyer-style prompts through ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and other engines on a schedule, then log whether your brand is mentioned and recommended. An AI visibility tracking tool runs a set of prompts through ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. It records whether your brand is mentioned, how it's described, and which sources get cited. Set up alerts on the prompts where you want to be recommended, and you'll see the first time it happens.

Options by budget (prices change, so confirm on each vendor's site):

• Cheapest start: Otterly.ai. Lite is $29/mo, and it's aimed at small teams. Its core plans cover ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, with Claude, Google AI Mode, and Gemini available as add-ons.
• Mid-range, team dashboards: Peec AI. One source lists its Starter plan at €85 per month, and another calls it mid-market prompt tracking with strong multilingual coverage and transparent per-prompt pricing.
• Already on Semrush: Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit. For teams already subscribing to Semrush, it is the most convenient way to add AI visibility without adopting a separate tool.
• Enterprise: Profound. Growth is $399/mo and Enterprise is custom with all 10+ platforms and API access.
• Free one-time check: HubSpot's AEO Grader gives a snapshot of your current position, but not ongoing tracking.

What to check before buying:

1. Engine coverage. Make sure it covers the AI tools your customers actually use. Coverage varies a lot between tools.
2. Prompt count. Plans are priced by how many prompts you can track. Start with 20–50 buyer-intent prompts, such as "best [category] for [use case]," rather than your brand name.
3. Multi-run sampling. AI answers vary between runs, so one check tells you little. Prefer a tool that repeats prompts and reports how often you appear.
4. Competitor and source data. Recommendations shift over time, so you need to see which competitors are mentioned and which pages the AI cites.

Suggested setup: Pick one tool, track 30 or so high-intent prompts daily or weekly, and record your baseline now. Then watch the mention rate and share of voice against competitors. Most tools offer a free trial, so test two before committing.

To know if AI is recommending your product, you need to move beyond traditional SEO tracking and implement AI Visibility Monitoring (often called Answer Engine Optimization or AEO).

Because AI models are "stochastic" (they can provide different answers to the same question depending on the session), a one-time check is insufficient. You need a systematic, repeatable process.

1. How to Start Immediately (DIY Method)

You do not need a paid tool for a first diagnosis. You can perform a "10-minute audit" manually to establish a baseline:

• Create a "Prompt Panel": Draft 5–10 questions your ideal customers actually ask. Avoid branded questions (e.g., "Is [Brand] good?"); instead, use buyer-intent questions like:
  • "What is the best [product category] for [niche/need]?"
  • "Compare [Competitor A] and [Competitor B]."
  • "Which [product] should I buy if I am on a budget?"
• Use Clean Sessions: Run these prompts in "incognito" or private browser windows for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews to avoid personalization bias.
• Score the Results: Create a simple spreadsheet to track:
  • Mention: Did your brand appear?
  • Position: Were you the primary recommendation, part of a list, or missing?
  • Context: How were you described? (Being described incorrectly is often worse than being absent).
  • Sources: Which third-party websites did the AI cite? (This reveals which sites you need to be featured on to earn the AI's "trust").

2. Tools for Ongoing Monitoring

If you want to automate this and track trends over time, several "AI Visibility" tools have emerged that run these prompts for you on a schedule.

• For Low-Cost/Entry Level: Tools like OtterlyAI or Beamtrace are popular for brands starting their tracking journey. They typically allow you to set up specific prompts that the tool runs automatically across multiple AI engines.
• For SEO-Integrated Workflows: If you already use major SEO platforms, check if they have dedicated modules. Ahrefs Brand Radar and the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit are widely used by teams that want to bridge the gap between traditional search and AI search.
• For Advanced/Enterprise Needs: Platforms like Profound, SearchEye, and Orchly offer deeper analytics, such as sentiment analysis, competitive gap analysis, and recommendations on how to fix missing mentions.

3. Critical "Checklist" for AI Readiness

AI doesn't "see" your brand the way a human does. If you aren't being recommended, it is often because the AI cannot "read" or "trust" your product data. Check these three areas:

1. Robots.txt: Ensure you have not blocked AI crawlers (like GPTBot, ClaudeBot, etc.) in your site’s robots.txt file.
2. Structured Data: Assistants rely on the "data layer" of your pages. Use tools like the Google Rich Results Test to ensure your product name, price, availability, and ratings are explicitly clear in your site's code.
3. Third-Party Authority: AI models prioritize high-authority sources (industry blogs, review sites, Reddit). If an AI isn't recommending you, it is likely because it hasn't "read" enough positive, authoritative mentions of your product on the sites it trusts.

Recommended Routine

Important Note: Treat every isolated answer as "noise" until it becomes a pattern. Focus on the trend of your mentions rather than a single good or bad screenshot.

Use an AI visibility tracker (also called an AEO or GEO tracker). It regularly tests the kinds of questions your customers ask across AI assistants and records whether your product is recommended, which competitors appear, and which sources the assistants cite. Otterly.AI is one example; Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit and HubSpot AEO are other options. Check which assistants each tool covers and whether its plan lets you track your own prompts. ⁷⁸

To make the results useful, start with 20–50 realistic buying questions, such as “best [product type] for [customer/use case]” and “alternatives to [competitor].” Track recommendations, position, citations, and competitors over time—not just a one-off score. Prompt choice matters, and results can vary, so treat the metrics as directional rather than a guarantee of what every user will see. ¹⁰¹⁴

If you’re just getting started, manually test a small set of questions in the AI assistants your customers use, then move to a tracker once you want consistent monitoring.