For agencies · Updated September 2026
Profound is an enterprise platform you operate.
We are a programme you resell.
Profound is the reference enterprise product in AI-search analytics, and this is the one page on our site where the usual "they detect, we produce" line needs qualifying: Profound has moved into generation too. So the honest difference is not that we write and they don't. It is who the product is sold to and who is accountable for what gets published. Profound is an enterprise platform a sophisticated in-house team operates directly, under Profound's brand. Found by AI is a white-label AI-search content programme sold only through agencies: you resell it, we run the loop, and every surface the client sees carries your 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.
What each one does
A platform your team runs.
Or a programme your agency sells.
Profound gives an enterprise marketing team deep instrumentation on how a brand appears in AI answers - the conversations behind the answers, the sources feeding them, how agents traverse the site - plus the enterprise apparatus that comes with selling to large organisations. It has since added agentic generation that can draft content and stage it into the customer's own CMS. It is a serious product, the depth is real, and for a large in-house team with analysts and editors it is a defensible choice. What it is not is a supplier that sits behind an agency: it is bought directly, operated directly, and branded as itself.
Found by AI is a white-label AI-search content programme sold through agencies. The loop is the product: 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. The monitoring is not a dashboard - it is the brief. Articles can carry a named editor from your team or your client's - a real person, their job title and a public professional profile, with written-by and reviewed-by bylines and structured author data. 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, and the client's own writers can publish alongside the articles the programme produces. We publish to a blog we host on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way, so there is no CMS project to run first. Portal, Monthly AI-Search Visibility Report and emails carry your agency's brand, and we never solicit a partner's clients.
Where each one sits
Where Profound sits
- The enterprise end of the category: bought directly by large in-house teams, with the security and procurement posture that implies
- Analytical depth is their strength - the richest read on the answer surface in this category, and it is what people buy them for
- A platform, operated by the customer, under Profound's own brand. It assumes there is a team on the other side to drive it
Where Found by AI sits
- One programme, sold only through white-label agency partners - you resell it, we run it, your brand is on every surface
- The loop is the product: monitoring becomes the brief, the brief becomes published articles, the report documents the change
- A named editor from your team or your client's on written-by and reviewed-by bylines, review before publish the default for every new client brand 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | Yes - agentic generation | Staged into the client's own CMS | Client's own site |
| 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 |
Profound
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.
Why this isn't 'AI in a coat'.
Every client asks their agency the same question: why can't we just do this with ChatGPT ourselves? The honest answer: you can write one good article that way.
We built the machinery for the fiftieth one. 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. Review before publish is the default for every new client brand; publishing immediately is opt-in, per client. It runs every month, on a schedule, under your agency's brand.
See how the programme works → Judge the output for yourself: we walk real articles, the bylines and the review flow end to end on a walkthrough.
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 Profound's own site. What follows is the difference in shape, which doesn't go out of date.
| Found by AI | Profound | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A delivered AI-search content programme, resold by agencies | An enterprise AI-visibility platform, bought and operated directly |
| What arrives each month | Published articles plus a report on what moved | Analysis, and generated drafts for your team to take forward |
| Who signs off | A named editor from your team or your client's, then whatever review step you've configured | Your team, in your CMS |
| Who publishes | We do - client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way, no CMS project first | Your team, once the draft is staged |
| Analytical depth | Narrower - scoped to what we can act on and publish against | Deeper - the richest read in the category, and the reason to buy them |
| 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 | Whoever your team puts on the byline |
| 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 | Theirs |
Key differences
Choose Profound if…
- Your client is an enterprise with its own analysts and editors, and wants the platform in-house under its own contract. That is who Profound is built for, and we are not a substitute for it
- Analytical depth is the purchase. If the value is in interrogating the answer surface rather than in shipping articles, theirs is the deeper instrument
- Enterprise procurement, security review and direct vendor relationships are part of the requirement, and a white-label supplier behind an agency would not clear them
Choose Found by AI if…
- You run an agency and want to sell this as your own service, not resell someone else's logo into your client base
- Your clients don't have the team to operate an enterprise platform, and a staged draft in a CMS nobody edits is not a published article
- You want a named editor from your team or your client's accountable on the byline, a configurable review gate, and a monthly artifact that defends the retainer
We would rather lose the deal than win it from an agency Profound fits better. Qualifying out is cheaper than a cancelled contract, for both of us.
Frequently asked questions
What does Profound actually do?
Profound is an enterprise AI-visibility platform. It instruments how a brand appears in AI-assistant answers - the conversations behind them, the sources feeding them, how agents traverse the site - and has extended into agentic generation that can draft content and stage it into the customer's own CMS. It is sold directly to large in-house teams and operated by them. For plans, coverage and current capabilities, read their own site - we deliberately don't restate competitor figures here, because ours would go stale and theirs are authoritative.
Profound generates content too. So what's the actual difference?
It's a fair question, and it's why this page reads differently to our other comparisons. Two differences hold. First, the channel: Profound is bought directly and branded as itself, while Found by AI exists only behind agencies - portal, monthly report and emails carry your brand, and we never approach your clients. Second, where the work stops: their generation stages a draft into a CMS your team still has to review and publish. We take it the rest of the way - a named editor from your team or your client's reviews it, it passes whatever approval gate you've configured for that client, and it goes live on a blog we host on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way.
Is Found by AI a replacement for Profound?
Not for an enterprise that wants the platform in-house. If your client has analysts who will live in the data and editors who will finish the drafts, Profound is the deeper instrument and we'd say so. Found by AI is a replacement for the situation where nobody has those hours - where the choice is really between a platform that goes unused and a programme that produces published work every month under your agency's brand.
Does Profound publish content for you?
It stages drafts into your own CMS; the review and the publish decision stay with your team, which is the right design for an enterprise buyer with an editorial process to protect. With us, articles get written against the monitoring evidence, can carry a named editor from your team or your client's with written-by and reviewed-by bylines and structured author data, pass whatever review step you've configured for that client, and go live on a blog we host on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way. The same articles are available today over the Content Delivery API or our WordPress connector; other CMSs on partner demand, and we will not sell you a date.
When is Profound the better buy?
When the client is large enough to run it. Enterprise in-house teams with the people, the procurement process and the appetite to operate a platform directly are squarely their buyer, and we'd tell you so on a call rather than after you'd signed with us. We're the better fit when you're an agency who wants to sell the outcome as your own service and have someone else run the machinery.
Bottom line
Profound is the deepest instrument in this category and for an enterprise with its own team it is a genuinely good answer - we're not going to pretend otherwise on a page about them. Found by AI answers a different question: what an agency sells when the client has no team to operate a platform. We take the monitoring as the brief, produce and publish the content with a named editor from your team or your client's behind it, and document the change each month - under your agency's brand, and we never approach your clients. We promise the process, not a position in anyone's answer.
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.