What is Profound?

The search industry is growing and evolving. We’ve spent two decades perfecting SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to please Google’s algorithms. But today, a new question is keeping CMOs and brand managers awake at night: “What is Profound?”

If you’ve visited tryprofound.com, you know that "Profound" isn't just a word—it’s the leading platform for the next era of marketing: AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).

Here is a look at how Profound is helping brands navigate the transition from a world of "blue links" to a world of AI-generated answers.

The New Reality: From Searching to Asking

Think about how you find information today. Instead of typing "best running shoes" into a search bar and scrolling through pages of ads, you’re likely asking ChatGPT, "What are the best running shoes for someone with high arches?" or asking Perplexity to "Compare the top fintech apps for small businesses."

These are Answer Engines. They don't give you a list of websites; they give you a synthesized, conversational response.

The Problem: If your brand isn’t mentioned in that response, you don't exist to that consumer. The Solution: That is where Profound comes in.

What Exactly Does Profound Do?

Profound is the first comprehensive platform designed to give brands visibility, data, and control within AI models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. Here are the three pillars of what they offer:

1. Answer Engine Insights (The "Where")

Profound acts as a radar for your brand across the AI landscape. It tracks how often your brand is mentioned, what the sentiment is, and—crucially—which sources the AI is citing to form its answers. If a competitor is being recommended instead of you, Profound shows you why.

2. Prompt Volumes (The "What")

For years, marketers have relied on Keyword Research. Profound has introduced Prompt Volumes, the first tool of its kind that reveals what people are actually asking AI. This allows brands to stop guessing and start creating content that targets the specific conversations happening inside AI interfaces.

3. Agent Analytics (The "How")

Ever wonder how an AI "sees" your website? Profound’s Agent Analytics allows you to see how AI crawlers (like GPTBot) interact with your content. It ensures your site is technically optimized so that when an AI looks for information, it finds exactly what you want it to see.

Why AEO is the New SEO

The goal of SEO was to get a click. The goal of AEO is to be the answer.

Profound helps brands move from being passive victims of AI hallucinations to being active participants in the AI dialogue. By using Profound’s "Workflows," teams can create AI-optimized content in minutes, ensuring that their brand's value proposition is clear, citable, and authoritative enough for an AI to recommend.

The Bottom Line

In the near future, the brands that win won't necessarily be the ones with the biggest ad budgets; they will be the ones that the AI trusts the most.

"Profound" is more than a company name—it represents a profound shift in how information is indexed and consumed. If you aren't optimizing for the answer, you're becoming invisible.