For agencies · Updated September 2026
An enterprise SEO platform with an AI layer.
We do the writing and publishing.
BrightEdge is a mature enterprise SEO platform - site-wide audits, automated execution of SEO recommendations, real-time trend detection - with an AI-answer and generative-search layer built on top of it. If your agency runs enterprise SEO programmes, that combination is a real advantage and nothing here should change your mind about it. Found by AI is a different shape of thing entirely: a white-label AI-search content programme you resell. Monitoring identifies the buying questions leading AI assistants answer without your client in them, those gaps become the month's brief, and we write, publish and measure the content that answers them - under your agency's brand.
Stop at the dashboard.
Show the gap. Don't address it with content production. A client looking at a monitoring dashboard with no content production is not a recurring conversation; it's a quarterly question.
Write briefs from keyword tools.
Briefs come from search-volume guesswork. They produce useful articles, but the priorities don't reflect what AI assistants are actually citing for the client's category.
Turn monitoring evidence into the next brief.
Last month's monitoring evidence, competitor appearances, citation gaps, missing facts, weak topics, is where next month's topics are chosen from. Then the Monthly AI-Search Visibility Report shows what changed.
The wedge is the loop, not any single layer of it.
Different products entirely
BrightEdge is a platform your team operates.
We are the team that does the work.
BrightEdge gives an enterprise SEO team the full workbench: site-wide technical and content auditing, automated execution of recommendations, trend detection across a category, and an AI-answer layer that extends the same discipline to generative search. The AI features benefit from sitting on top of an existing audit and execution layer, which is a genuine architectural advantage if the client already has an enterprise SEO programme. It is a strong product, and it is software: it presumes an operator.
Found by AI presumes the opposite. We are not a platform your team logs into; we are the production step. For the clients you sell us to, the monitoring is the brief, we write the articles against it, we publish them to a blog on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way, and the Monthly AI-Search Visibility Report documents what changed. Portal, report and emails carry your agency's brand. We do no SEO tooling at all, and we won't pretend otherwise.
Where each one sits
Where BrightEdge sits
- A mature enterprise SEO platform - site-wide audits, automated execution, category trend detection - which is the classic search work an agency already bills for
- An AI-answer and generative-search layer built on top of that data layer, so AI visibility sits next to the existing SEO workflows rather than in a separate tab
- The right pick when the client already runs an enterprise SEO programme and wants the AI work inside the platform their team uses today
Where Found by AI sits
- One programme, sold only through agency partners - you resell it, we run it, your brand is on it
- The monitoring is not a deliverable, it is the brief: the buying questions leading AI assistants answer without your client become the month's articles
- Written, reviewed and published for you - a named editor from your team or your client's on written-by and reviewed-by bylines, review before publish the default and publishing immediately opt-in per client
The operating difference
Detection is where most tools stop. The production is what we own.
Found by AI runs one loop for agency partners. Every week we put your client's buying questions to AI assistants, for example ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, and record who gets named. The questions your client is missing from are where the month's topics are chosen; then we write, publish and measure the content that answers them, and the Monthly AI-Search Visibility Report documents what changed. The monitoring is not a dashboard: it is the brief. All of it ships under your agency's brand.
| Generates content? | Publishes for you? | Publishing surface | |
|---|---|---|---|
| BrightEdge | No | No | None |
| Found by AI | Yes | Yes | A blog we host on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain, one DNS record, agency-branded; the same articles over the Content Delivery API or our WordPress connector |
BrightEdge
Found by AI
AI does the research and the first draft; a named person from your team or your client's reviews, edits and signs it before it goes out. Articles the programme produces can carry the name of the person who reviewed them; posts your client's team write name their writer. Three publish modes, chosen per client: review before publish is the default for every new client brand, with a 7-day review window; publishing immediately after our quality gate is opt-in per client; dark until reviewed is available on request. Translations follow the same mode as the original. The client's own writers can publish alongside the articles the programme produces. We never solicit a partner's clients.
Structural comparison
Deliberately no plan or price table. Their packaging changes, and a stale figure on our page would be worse for you than no figure at all - check anything commercial on BrightEdge's own site. What follows is the difference in shape, which doesn't go out of date.
| Found by AI | BrightEdge | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A delivered AI-search content programme, resold by agencies | An enterprise SEO platform with an AI-answer layer on top |
| What arrives each month | Published articles briefed from the monitoring, plus a report on what moved | Audits, recommendations and dashboards for the client's team to act on |
| Who writes the articles | We do - briefed from the monitoring, signed off by a named editor from your team or your client's | Your team, or the client’s |
| Who publishes | We do - to a blog on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way | Your team, wherever the client’s site lives |
| Author accountability | A named reviewer from your team or your client's - real job title, public profile linked - with role-accurate written-by / reviewed-by credits and structured author data | Not applicable - BrightEdge is not the publisher |
| Review before publish | Three modes per client: review window (the default, 7 days), publish immediately (opt-in), dark until reviewed (on request); the client's own writers can publish alongside the articles the programme produces | Your team's own editorial process |
| Whose brand the client sees | Yours - portal, monthly report and emails are white-labelled | BrightEdge's, unless you rebuild the reporting yourself |
| Classic SEO tooling | None - we do no SEO tooling and do not try to | Comprehensive, at enterprise scale. This is what BrightEdge is for |
Key differences
Choose BrightEdge if…
- You need enterprise SEO tooling - site-wide audits, automated execution, rank and trend data - which is not something we do at all
- You have editorial capacity and the bottleneck is direction rather than production. A better platform genuinely helps you; a delivery partner would duplicate your own team
- The client wants AI visibility and classic search visibility in one interface their team already lives in
Choose Found by AI if…
- You run an agency without spare editorial capacity, and the gap between seeing the problem and shipping something about it is where client retainers stall
- You want a monthly artifact that makes the retainer defensible: what AI assistants said, what we published about it, what changed
- You want it under your own brand, sold on your paper, with no risk of us going around you to your client
Agencies that partner with us generally keep their SEO platform. These are different jobs, and we would rather say so than pretend to replace one.
Frequently asked questions
Is Found by AI a replacement for BrightEdge?
No. BrightEdge is an enterprise SEO platform - audits, automated execution, trend detection - with an AI-answer layer on top. We do none of that platform work. We run one programme for agency partners: monitoring identifies the buying questions leading AI assistants answer without your client in them, those gaps become the month's brief, and we write, publish and measure the content. If you run enterprise SEO, keep the platform.
BrightEdge already covers AI answers. Why would an agency add us?
Because tracking and fixing are different line items. A layer inside an SEO platform can tell you a client is absent from the answers that matter; someone still has to write the pages that change that, get them reviewed, publish them, and show the effect next month. In an agency without spare editorial capacity, that someone is often nobody. We are that production step, delivered under your brand.
How is this different from a platform's content recommendations?
Recommendations are instructions for your team. We are not a tool your team operates - we produce and publish the work. Articles are briefed from the client's own monitoring rather than keyword guesswork, can carry a named editor from your team or your client's with written-by and reviewed-by bylines, pass a review step you configure per client, and go live on a blog we host on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way.
Can an agency run both?
Yes, and most would. BrightEdge stays the SEO workbench; we handle the AI-answer content loop for the clients where you have sold it. They barely overlap: one is software your team operates, the other is work delivered on your behalf.
Bottom line
BrightEdge is a strong enterprise SEO platform and its AI layer is a credible way to see the problem inside a workflow your team already uses. If your agency has the editorial hours to act on what it shows, that may be all you need. Found by AI exists for the other case: the monitoring becomes the brief, we write and publish the content, and the monthly report documents what changed - under your agency's brand, with a standing promise that we never approach your clients. We promise the process, not an outcome. Different jobs; keep the platform.
More comparisons
Next step
Run the loop on one client. Judge us on three reports.
Bring one retained client. We show you the monitoring, the articles it produced, the review flow and a real report. Three monthly reports later, you decide.
Founder terms, for agencies signing up through 31 December 2026: the founder rate is locked when you claim it and runs on a 12-month agreement per client brand, with one brand swap inside the term. Your first client brand is the trial: one retained client, three monthly report cycles, then decide at the third report. Roll out on the founder term, or stop there and take a full export. No minimum on standard monthly terms. No per-brand setup fee; a one-time partner onboarding fee applies, waived for founding partners.
Not an agency? Then we're not the right people to buy from, but your agency might be. Get in touch and we'll tell you plainly whether there's a partner for you.