For agencies · Updated September 2026
Found by AI vs Surfer SEO
A tool your writers use. A white-label programme you resell.
Surfer is a content optimization tool with a long track record: a writer drafts, Surfer scores the draft against what's already performing and shows what's missing - terms, structure, thin sections, a tighter brief. It makes writers better; it does not replace them. Found by AI is a white-label AI-search content programme sold only through agencies: the 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 - with your agency's logo on the portal, the report and the emails.
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.
The core difference
A better brief for writers you already have.
Or the writers, the publishing and the report.
Surfer is bought per seat and used inside an editorial workflow. Its value is a sharper brief and a consistent quality bar - the thing that stops two writers producing wildly different pages for the same topic. Teams that already write keep it for years, and for good reason. But it assumes the writers: the tool improves a draft, it doesn't produce one, and it doesn't publish. Detection and guidance is where it stops, by design.
Found by AI starts where that stops, and it is sold to you rather than to your client. The loop is the product: the monitoring is the brief, not a dashboard - the questions AI assistants answer without your client become the month's articles. A named editor from your team or your client's signs the work - a real person with a job title, a public professional profile and written-by / reviewed-by bylines. 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. It ships to a blog we host on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way, and the Monthly AI-Search Visibility Report shows what changed. Your brand, start to finish. We never solicit your clients.
Where each one sits
What Surfer is best at
- A mature content editor: real-time scoring, term suggestions and structural recommendations that writers and editors use day to day
- A consistent quality bar across a team - the most under-rated reason agencies keep it
- It sits inside your own workflow. Nothing is outsourced, nothing leaves the building, and your writers stay in control of the page
- Best fit: an agency or in-house team that already writes and wants each draft to land better
What Found by AI is doing instead
- Sold only through white-label agency partners. You resell it, we run it, and the client sees your brand - never ours
- The monitoring is the brief. Topics come from what AI assistants actually answer for the client's category, not from what already ranks
- Named editors from your team or your client's, with public professional profiles; written-by and reviewed-by bylines with structured author data on every article
- We publish, then measure: articles go live on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way, and the monthly report documents what moved
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surfer SEO | Scores and briefs drafts - doesn't produce them | No | 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 |
Surfer SEO
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 Surfer's own site. What follows is the difference in shape, which doesn't go out of date.
| Found by AI | Surfer SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A white-label content programme agencies resell | A content optimization tool your writers operate |
| What arrives each month | Published articles and a report on what changed | Whatever your team writes with it |
| Who writes | We do | Your team |
| Who publishes | We do - to a blog we host on the client's subdomain or your white-label domain - one DNS record either way | Your team, in your own CMS |
| Where the topics come from | Monitoring evidence - the buying questions AI assistants answer without the client | Your keyword choice, benchmarked against pages that already perform |
| 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 | Whatever your team puts on the page |
| Whose brand the client sees | Yours - white-label portal, report and emails | Yours, because the client never sees the tool |
| Control over each draft | Delegated to us, with a review step you configure | Total - your writer owns every sentence, and that is the point of the tool |
Key differences
Choose Surfer if...
- You already have writers and the gap is the brief and the quality bar - that's exactly what the tool is for, and it's good at it
- You want every sentence to stay under your team's control, inside your own workflow
- You'd rather buy a seat than delegate production - a tool scales with your people, a programme replaces the need for them
Choose Found by AI if...
- You run an agency without spare editorial capacity and a better brief doesn't help, because there's nobody to hand it to
- You want the work briefed by what assistants actually answer for your client's category, then written and published
- You need a monthly report you can take into the retainer meeting, with a named editor from your team or your client's behind the articles
- The client relationship must stay yours - your brand on every surface, and a supplier who never approaches them
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.
Frequently asked questions
Is Found by AI a replacement for Surfer?
Only if your writers are the thing you don't have. Surfer is a tool that makes drafts better; it assumes someone is writing them. We are a white-label content programme sold only through agencies: the monitoring becomes the brief, we write the articles, publish them and report on what moved, under your brand. If you have a team and want each page to land better, keep Surfer.
Could an agency use both?
Easily, and they don't overlap. Surfer sharpens the work your own writers do for the clients you staff directly; we run the AI-answer loop on the clients where you have no capacity. One is a seat in your workflow, the other is delivery behind your brand.
Do you optimize against what already ranks, like Surfer does?
No - that's a genuine difference in method, not a claim that ours is better. Surfer benchmarks a draft against pages that already perform for a keyword. Our brief comes from the other direction: which buying questions leading AI assistants answer without your client in them. Both are legitimate inputs; they just point at different surfaces.
Why is Found by AI sold only through agencies?
Because the programme needs someone who owns the client relationship, knows the category and can hold the strategic conversation - that's the agency, not us. So we stay behind you: the portal, the monthly report and the emails carry your brand, and we never approach your clients. Brands that find this page are served through a partner agency rather than by us directly.
Bottom line
Surfer makes writers you already have produce better pages, and it's earned its place in a lot of workflows - if that's the gap, buy the seat. Found by AI is a white-label AI-search content programme sold through agencies: the monitoring becomes the brief, we write and publish the articles with a named editor from your team or your client's behind them, and the report documents what changed - with your brand on every surface and a standing promise that we never approach your clients. A tool scales your team. A programme means you don't need one. We promise the process, not an outcome.
More content 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.