Blog

News and Updates about Profound

Josh Blyskal and Jasman Singh

6 Nov, 2025/Research

ChatGPT Query Fanout Explained: The First Query Matters Most (2025 Study)

Discover how SERP position and query timing create multiplicative citation effects in AI search. Our comprehensive analysis of 420 prompts and 2,867 ChatGPT queries reveals that ranking #1 on first searches captures 40.2% citations while the same position on later queries drops to 24.3%—a 1.7× difference that fundamentally changes optimization strategy. Learn why traditional SEO "rank higher" approaches miss half the picture, how gradient compression reduces position sensitivity by 55% across query sequences, and why the interaction between search ranking and query timing compounds rather than adds. Essential data-driven framework for understanding the two-dimensional attribution surface reshaping SEO and AEO strategy in 2025.

Multiple authors

5 Nov, 2025/Data

Introducing the Profound Index

Profound Index is the first leaderboard for AI visibility, ranking brands based on how often they appear in answers from leading AI models.

Multiple authors

3 Nov, 2025/Research

ChatGPT’s Entity Update: Fewer Mentions, Tougher Competition

In mid-October, ChatGPT rolled out a major response update that changed how brands appear in its answers. Using Answer Engine Insights, Profound analyzed millions of prompts across ChatGPT and other leading answer engines to understand what changed and how it affected brand visibility across categories.

Dylan Babbs

27 Oct, 2025/Company

A Second Home in San Francisco

When James and I met in the hallways of South Park Commons in New York City, we knew that whatever we decided to build would be built there. New York had become home for both of us, and the city’s pace, ambition, and grit matched the type of company we wanted to create.

Nick Lafferty

27 May, 2025/Blueprints

How to Choose the Best AI Visibility Provider

Our framework for choosing the best AI visibility provider to track brand mentions and optimize content for AI answer engines.

James Cadwallader

1 Nov, 2024/Blueprints

How AI Answer Engines Will Transform the Future

AI Answer Engines are driving a platform shift more monumental than social media in 2009, mobile in 2004, or perhaps even the internet itself.

James Cadwallader

5 Jun, 2024/Blueprints

Goodbye blue links, AI Search has arrived

Google Search was a trillion dollar monopoly for the best part of two decades, until ChatGPT launched in November 2022 and the way people discover information was changed forever.