Gartner published its first Market Guide dedicated to Answer Engine Visibility Tools, and named Profound as a Representative Vendor. Here's why that matters to us, and to anyone building a content or marketing strategy right now.
Why being recognized as a Representative Vendor matters to us
A belief that led to the inception of Profound was that brands would need a dedicated way to understand and shape how they show up inside Answer Engines, not just traditional search results.
As the first mover in this space, it's gratifying to see Gartner create a dedicated category for Answer Engine Visibility Tools, and for Profound to be recognized as a Representative Vendor.
It's a signal that this belief has become an industry category with its own name, requirements, and set of vendors. Profound is excited to continue shaping the future of this category.
Gartner's thoughts on the future: "While today's market centers on informational visibility (answering queries), a seismic shift is underway toward agentic AI (semi) autonomous agents that not only retrieve information but also execute tasks on users' behalf."
In our view, that's the same shift we've been building toward since Profound's earliest product decisions.
What we built for this shift
Profound's earliest product decisions were made to tackle this shift. Marketers will soon have to market to both humans and agents. They need a platform that controls the entire loop end-to-end.
We're building the platform that closes that loop. Use Answer Engine Insights to see if and how your brand is showing up in AI Search, create on-brand content at scale using Aim to build Agents, and measure performance with Agent Analytics.
That's the problem we set out to solve, and it's the same problem Gartner is telling marketing leaders they now need a dedicated tool for.
Download the 2026 Gartner® Market Guide for Answer Engine Visibility Tools.
About the report
Gartner Report, Market Guide for Answer Engine Visibility Tools, Noam Dorros, Isoke Mitchell, Serena Philip, 9 March 2026.
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