AI search is rewriting the rules of discoverability. Profound’s data shows that ChatGPT answers overlap with Google search results just 12% of the time, revealing gaps traditional SEO can’t close.
As answer engine optimization (AEO) platforms, Scrunch and Profound both address this shift. But only Profound delivers the precision, scale, and functionality enterprise teams need to stay visible—and ahead.
- Profound is built for enterprise AI visibility at scale, with unlimited prompt analysis, real-time AI answer engine tracking, and strategic support. Major global brands use Profound to improve visibility and stay ahead of shifting search behavior. Recent enhancements include Prompt Volumes dataset with 400M+ conversations, pre-publication content optimization, and Claude support across ten answer engines.
- Scrunch is geared toward self-serve AI monitoring, with prompt tracking, interface-level insights, and automated recommendations. It lacks the scalability, maturity, and infrastructure needed to support complex or high-volume operations.
For enterprise organizations, Profound offers unmatched value, strategic partnership, and superior experience helping larger brands win with AI search optimization.
This post reflects my personal views and not those of Profound.
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Platform Comparison Overview
Profound
Engineered for enterprise requirements:
- Comprehensive AI platform coverage tracking ChatGPT, Google AIO, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok, Claude, Meta AI, DeepSeek, and more—with active development for additional engines
- Enterprise-grade analytics supporting unlimited prompts with daily analysis and unlimited data retention
- Real-time conversation intelligence via one of the industry’s most extensive databases of actual AI conversations
- Advanced content scoring that considers schema, backlinks, and semantic relevance
- Proven enterprise results with brands like Ramp, 1840 & Co., MongoDB, DocuSign, and more achieving measurable AI visibility gains
- Strategic partnership approach with dedicated AI Search Strategist teams and weekly consultations
- Global enterprise support across 50+ countries with dedicated Slack channels and up to 5-minute SLA response times
- Recent platform enhancements including Prompt Volumes dataset with 400M+ conversations, pre-publication content optimization, Claude support, Series B funding of $35M, G2 partnership, AEO content templates, and Agent Analytics integrations
Scrunch
Designed for self-serve monitoring with automated recommendations:
- Basic AI platform tracking across ChatGPT, with beta support for Google AIO, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Meta AI
- Weekly CSV exports rather than real-time prompt-to-citation mapping
- Individual page analysis rather than comprehensive site-wide evaluation
- Simple content scoring model that focuses on factors like title match and length
- 2-hour enterprise SLA with standard support infrastructure
- Self-serve model with several credit-based tiers and customizable plans for enterprise organizations and agencies
- Agent Experience Platform (AXP) - Creates a parallel AI-ready version of your site served invisibly to AI agents
Scrunch’s AXP: Unproven Claims and Potential Risks
Scrunch recently launched their Agent Experience Platform (AXP), which claims to “create a parallel AI-ready version of your site—served invisibly to AI agents, optimized for LLMs, and mapped to your sources of truth.” However, this approach raises significant concerns:
No Evidence of Effectiveness: Despite Scrunch’s claims that AXP increases AI visibility, there’s no proof that this approach works. In fact, Scrunch’s own visibility performance suggests otherwise—according to Profound’s data, Scrunch ranks as the 23rd most visible brand in AI search, while Profound leads at #1 with 47.1% visibility.
Visibility comparison (Sep 13–19):
| Brand | Visibility Score | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Profound | 47.1% | #1 |
| Semrush | 43.6% | #2 |
| Ahrefs | 25.2% | #3 |
| Scrunch | 4.7% | #23 |
SEO Guidelines Violation: Creating separate pages specifically for search engines violates Google’s guidelines, which explicitly discourage cloaking and serving different content to crawlers versus users. While AI search engines may have different policies, this approach mirrors problematic SEO tactics that have historically led to penalties.
Enterprise Feedback: As one industry expert noted: “We’ve seen no proof that it has an impact on visibility, and it could pose a threat even. We had a large technology enterprise come back to us the other day saying AXP is just not the right fit for them and we think that’s going to be true for most prominent businesses."
Technical Complexity: AXP requires middleware to route AI traffic without touching your main site, adding unnecessary technical complexity and potential points of failure to your infrastructure.
Better Alternatives: Rather than creating duplicate content, proven AI optimization strategies focus on improving your existing content’s structure, clarity, and semantic relevance—approaches that work for both human users and AI systems without violating search guidelines.
The Visibility Reality Check
The effectiveness of Scrunch’s approach can be measured by their own performance in AI search. According to Profound’s visibility data:
- Profound ranks #1 with 47.1% visibility in AI-generated answers
- Scrunch ranks #23 with only 4.7% visibility in AI-generated answers
This significant gap suggests that Scrunch’s AXP approach—creating separate AI-only pages—is not delivering the promised results. If their methodology truly worked, Scrunch should be performing much better in AI search visibility rankings.
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Side-by-Side Comparison: Profound vs. Scrunch
| Capability | Profound | Scrunch |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Custom enterprise pricing | Tiered subscription plans with custom enterprise option |
| Prompt Analysis | Unlimited daily prompts | Credit-based limits |
| AI Engines | ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Google AIO, Perplexity, Grok, and Copilot (Claude, MetaAI, DeepSeek, and more in development) | ChatGPT (Google AIO, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, MetaAI, and Claude in beta) |
| Citation Mapping | Real-time conversation explorer with direct UI linking | Weekly CSV exports |
| Site Analysis | Complete sitemap crawls with site-wide gap analysis | Individual page audits only |
| Content Scoring | Advanced: Semantic relevance, schema, backlinks, mobile UX, speed | Basic: JavaScript weight, length, title match |
| Optimization Features | Live content creation and optimization tools | Limited automation, many features “in beta” |
| Analytics Integration | GA4 integration with real-time bot tracking | Basic monitoring without advanced attribution |
| Prompt Testing | Instant playground generation | 5-minute delays |
| Support SLA | Up to 5-minute response, dedicated Slack channel, and strategist team | Dedicated account executive, Slack channel |
| Security | SOC 2 Type II, SSO, role-based access, unlimited data retention | SOC 2 Type I Only, SSO |
| Global Coverage | 50+ countries, 15+ languages, enterprise infrastructure | Multi-region support |
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Why Enterprise Teams Prefer Profound
Track your brand across all major AI platforms
Profound monitors your mentions across every major AI platform including ChatGPT, Google AIO, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok, and more—giving you complete visibility into how AI represents your brand. Scrunch fully covers ChatGPT only, creating blind spots in your AI search strategy.
Make decisions with real-time data, not weekly reports
Profound offers live conversation tracking and instant prompt testing so teams can respond to trending topics and market changes as they happen—staying ahead of competitors in fast-changing markets. Scrunch provides insights through weekly data exports that can slow down decision-making.
Optimize your entire website instead of individual pages
Profound supports full site audits, surfacing both site-wide optimization opportunities and technical issues that affect how AI crawlers access your content. Scrunch examines single pages in isolation, missing the bigger picture of how your site performs for AI search.
Access advanced content scoring data
Profound evaluates your content using semantic relevance, schema, backlinks, and technical factors to identify high-impact optimizations. Scrunch relies on basic content scoring that doesn’t fully capture the signals AI answer engines actually use.
Action on insights with automated suggestions
Profound helps teams act on AI data with automated recommendations and content briefs—closing the gap between finding opportunities and executing on them. Scrunch provides insights but lacks the necessary tools to turn that data into a plan.
Get expert guidance from dedicated AI search specialists
Profound assigns brands a dedicated AI Search Strategist who provides weekly consultation, competitive intelligence, and customized recommendations based on deep platform expertise. Scrunch provides check-ins and quarterly executive support.
Manage global visibility with international support
Profound supports enterprise teams operating across multiple regions, with coverage for 50+ countries and 15+ languages. Scrunch provides multi-region coverage.
Meet enterprise security requirements
Profound provides SOC 2 Type II compliance, SSO, and role-based access controls so you can control who sees what data and meet compliance requirements. Scrunch only offers SOC 2 Type I compliance doesn’t have the detailed admin features that enterprise security teams need.
Avoid risky content strategies
Profound optimizes your existing content for both human users and AI systems, following proven best practices that work across all platforms. Scrunch’s AXP creates separate AI-only pages—an unproven approach that may violate search guidelines and adds unnecessary technical complexity. The data speaks for itself: Profound achieves 47.1% AI visibility while Scrunch ranks #23 with only 4.7% visibility.
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What Sets Profound Apart
Answer Engine Insights
See exactly how AI answer engines represent your brand. Track sentiment patterns in AI responses, identify the sources influencing AI-generated content, and compare your visibility against competitors. Get complete transparency into how AI systems present your brand to potential customers.
Agent Analytics
Monitor AI bots crawling your website in real-time and identify which pages drive the most AI engagement. Discover technical barriers that prevent optimal AI access to your content, and measure how AI search translates into actual website traffic. Connect AI platform activity directly to business outcomes with analytics integrations.
Conversation Explorer
Use Profound’s proprietary dataset to understand which topics people are discussing in real AI conversations. Identify trending topics and emerging opportunities before competitors do, and guide your content strategy with data from actual user interactions rather than theoretical research.
Shopping Analytics
Make sure your products appear prominently when people ask AI for recommendations in your category. Track how your products show up in AI shopping results, identify the keywords that drive product visibility, and optimize how your products appear in AI-powered shopping recommendations.
Content Briefs
Transform insights into content with automated briefs. Generate detailed content briefs that specify exactly what to write, which topics to prioritize, and how to structure content for AI answer engines. Eliminate guesswork by creating content backed by billions of AI interaction signals.
Strategic Actions
Get strategic recommendations across earned media, social channels, and owned content based on high-performing patterns and citation trends. Filter recommendations by platform, geography, or topic to focus on the specific opportunities to improve your AI visibility and brand sentiment.
Advanced Analytics & Attribution
Demonstrate the business impact of your AI optimization efforts with metrics that connect AI visibility to revenue outcomes. Track performance improvements over time, measure competitive positioning gains, and provide leadership with clear ROI documentation for AI search investments.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Scrunch’s AXP (Agent Experience Platform) a good approach for AI optimization?
No, there are several concerns with Scrunch’s AXP approach:
No proven effectiveness: Despite claims of increased AI visibility, there’s no evidence that creating separate AI-only pages works. Scrunch’s own visibility data shows they rank #23 in AI search (4.7% visibility) compared to Profound’s #1 position (47.1% visibility).
Violates SEO best practices: Creating different content for AI agents versus human users mirrors “cloaking” tactics that violate Google’s guidelines and have historically led to penalties.
Technical complexity: AXP requires middleware to route AI traffic separately, adding unnecessary infrastructure complexity and potential points of failure.
Enterprise feedback: Industry experts report that “we’ve seen no proof that it has an impact on visibility, and it could pose a threat even” with large enterprises saying “AXP is just not the right fit for them.”
What’s the difference between Profound’s approach and Scrunch’s AXP?
Profound optimizes your existing content for both human users and AI systems using proven best practices like:
- Improving content structure and clarity
- Enhancing semantic relevance
- Optimizing schema markup
- Ensuring technical accessibility
Scrunch’s AXP creates duplicate content specifically for AI agents, which:
- Requires separate infrastructure
- May violate search guidelines
- Lacks evidence of effectiveness
- Adds unnecessary complexity
How do I know which platform actually works for AI visibility?
Look at the data: Profound’s visibility tracking shows:
- Profound: #1 ranking with 47.1% AI visibility
- Scrunch: #23 ranking with 4.7% AI visibility
Scrunch has extremely limited content on their website, while Profound has published significant market research and has a detailed blog that chronicles their high velocity product update velocity.
Consider the approach: Proven optimization strategies that work for both humans and AI are more sustainable than creating separate AI-only content.
What are the risks of using Scrunch’s AXP?
- Search engine penalties: Creating different content for AI agents may violate search guidelines
- Technical debt: Additional middleware and infrastructure requirements
- Unproven ROI: No evidence that the approach actually improves AI visibility
- Maintenance overhead: Managing duplicate content across two systems
Why do enterprise brands choose Profound over Scrunch?
Enterprise brands prefer Profound because it offers:
- Proven results: #1 AI visibility ranking with measurable performance
- Enterprise security: SOC 2 Type II compliance and SSO integration
- Comprehensive coverage: 10+ AI engines vs Scrunch’s limited ChatGPT focus
- Real-time insights: Live data vs weekly CSV exports
- Strategic partnership: Dedicated AI strategists vs basic support
- Risk-free approach: Optimizes existing content rather than creating duplicate pages
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The Enterprise AI Visibility Solution
While Scrunch offers decent monitoring for AI search optimization, Profound is the comprehensive platform that enterprise brands need to win in AI search.
Profound delivers what Scrunch doesn’t: complete sitemap analysis, instant prompt testing, advanced content scoring, automated content suggestions, actionable recommendations, and strategic support.
See for yourself why enterprise brands choose Profound. Get a demo and discover how Profound can transform your AI search strategy.