HubSpot is launching its AEO tool publicly, and it matters for one simple reason: it makes AI visibility measurable.
Search used to be relatively straightforward to track. Rankings, clicks, impressions, and traffic gave you a decent picture of performance. That still applies, but it no longer reflects how buyers actually research and compare options.
Buyers are increasingly using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to ask questions and get direct answers. Those answers often include a small set of recommended brands. If you’re not included, you’re not part of that decision.
That’s the gap AEO addresses.
Here’s our lead SEO and AEO expert, Nicole Horne, talking about HubSpot’s new AEO tool.
We’re just as excited as she is!
HubSpot’s AEO tool helps you understand how your brand appears in AI-generated answers.
It tracks relevant prompts, shows whether your brand is mentioned, compares your visibility to competitors, analyses which sources are being cited, and highlights what you can improve.
AEO extends your search strategy into AI-driven discovery, where buyers are forming opinions before they visit your site.
Instead of guessing whether you are visible, the HubSpot AEO tool lets you see it.
A buyer can now ask a question and get a direct answer. For example: “What is the best CRM for a scaling sales team?” or “Which agency can help with HubSpot and RevOps?”
A few brands are mentioned, and the rest are left out. Those results shape early consideration. If your brand isn’t included, you’re not part of the shortlist.
Brands that do appear in AI answers tend to have:
This is what AEO helps you understand and improve.
Most businesses have always had very little visibility into how they appear in AI-generated answers.
You could test prompts manually, but that just doesn’t scale. You could make assumptions, but those are often wrong. There hasn’t been a consistent way to track visibility, compare competitors, or measure progress over time.
Until now!
The HubSpot AEO tool offers the perfect solution. It gives you a baseline and shows you where your brand appears, where it doesn’t, and what is influencing those outcomes.
This is where measuring AI visibility becomes critical alongside metrics like share of voice, brand sentiment, and LLM visibility.
The value of this AEO Grader tool lies in how you use the data.
It helps you:
This shifts AEO from theory to practice. You’re not trying to “optimise for AI” in a vague way. You’re working on specific gaps that you can measure.
AI tools favour content that is clear, specific, and useful. They prioritise sources that consistently demonstrate authority on a topic.
So how do you actually improve your AI visibility?
To improve visibility, focus on:
Technical SEO still matters, though. Your content needs to be accessible, crawlable and easy to interpret.
Visibility also depends on more than your own website. AI pulls from multiple sources, including reviews, industry sites, and external content. If you’re not present there, you’re limiting your chances of being cited.
For marketing teams, this changes how search performance is evaluated.
Rankings and traffic still matter, but they don’t show whether your brand is visible in AI-generated answers.
You also need to understand:
This gives you a clearer view of visibility before the click.
For RevOps teams, AEO creates a link between visibility and pipeline influence. It allows you to connect prompt visibility, content performance, and lead quality more directly. Because HubSpot AEO sits within your CRM, it ties this visibility back to your audience, your data, and your execution.
We treat AEO as an extension of how search and content already work, not a separate initiative.
Our focus is on:
AEO is about improving how your brand is understood across your website, third-party platforms, and industry sources.
As an Elite HubSpot Solutions Partner, we use AEO and the HubSpot AEO tool to measure and guide this work. Our focus is on outcomes such as visibility, share of voice, and lead quality.
We’ve got you covered.
It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed or unsure where to start. This is a significant shift.
The challenge isn’t understanding what AEO is, it’s knowing how to actually apply it.
That’s exactly why we’ve put together a more detailed AEO guide. It walks through how to approach visibility, what to measure, and where to focus first based on what we’re seeing in practice.
It includes:
The aim is to give you a clear understanding of what to do next.
What is AI visibility?
AI visibility refers to how often and how favourably your brand appears in AI-generated answers across tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
Unlike traditional search visibility, this is about being recommended, not just ranked.
How is AI visibility different from SEO?
SEO focuses on rankings, clicks, and traffic.
AI visibility focuses on whether your brand is mentioned in answers, how often you appear compared to competitors and how your brand is described.
Both matter, but AI visibility captures the growing part of search that happens before a click.
How do you measure AI visibility?
AI visibility is measured using:
This is where concepts like LLM visibility and AI share of voice come into play.
How can I improve my AI visibility?
To improve AI visibility, focus on answering real buyer questions clearl, structuring content so it’s easy to interpret, building presence beyond your website (reviews, third-party sites, social) and maintaining consistent messaging across channels.
AI rewards clarity, consistency, and credibility.
Why does AI visibility matter for conversions?
Buyers using AI tools are often further along in their decision-making.
They’ve already researched options, compared vendors and narrowed their shortlist. That’s why traffic influenced by AI tends to convert at a higher rate, it’s more informed and intentional.
How do you appear in AI-generated answers?
Brands appear in AI answers when they are consistently mentioned across trusted sources, publish clear, structured, and relevant content, align closely with the questions buyers are asking
It’s not about one page ranking, it’s about your overall presence across the ecosystem.
AI visibility is now part of how buyers discover and evaluate brands.
The HubSpot AEO tool provides a way to measure that visibility and identify areas of improvement.
However, the tool alone is not enough. Results depend on how you act on the data, how you structure your content, and how consistently your brand appears across relevant sources.
If you want to understand where you show up (and where you don’t), our Complete Guide to AEO breaks down how to improve your AI visibility.
If you’re ready to get going, download the AEO Checklist for a practical starting point.
Or, if you’d like help understanding where you stand, we’re happy to walk you through it.