cd /news/generative-engine-optimization/i-asked-ai-about-my-brand-168-times-… · home › topics › generative-engine-optimization › article
[ARTICLE · art-147420] src=dev.to ↗ pub= topic=generative-engine-optimization verified=true sentiment=· neutral

I Asked AI About My Brand 168 Times. It Mentioned Me Zero Times.

An indie developer ran 168 queries about his own X account across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity and found zero mentions of his brand, then built Quotalis, a tool that tracks brand mentions, citations, and share of voice across those four AI engines plus competitor tracking. He also released a free AI-readiness audit that checks llms.txt, robots.txt, sitemap, and AI crawler accessibility, reporting that most tested sites fail at least one check.

by read1 min views2 publishedOct 8, 2026

Your customers don't Google anymore. They ask ChatGPT what to buy.

A few weeks ago I ran an experiment on myself. Fourteen questions about my own X account — who I am, what I build, whether I'm worth following — asked across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. Three independent runs per question per engine. 168 queries total.

Strict mentions of my account: zero. Not a single one.

Think about what that means at scale. Every day, buyers ask AI which CRM to pick, which agency to hire, which tool solves their problem. If your brand never appears in those answers, you don't exist for that entire channel of demand. And your competitors might.

SEO taught us to measure Google. Nobody is measuring AI answers — the fastest-growing discovery channel in history. So I built the radar I wished existed.

Quotalis tracks your brand's mentions, citations, and share of voice across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity — plus competitor tracking, so you can see who's eating your lunch.

The methodology, stated honestly:

I made a free AI-readiness audit — no signup. It checks your llms.txt, robots.txt, sitemap, and whether AI crawlers can actually reach your site. Most sites I tested fail at least one check.

I'm an indie developer building in public. If you run the audit or try the tracking, tell me what's missing for this to be genuinely useful to you. The harshest feedback so far has been the most valuable.

Also launching on Product Hunt today — would appreciate your eyes there too.

── more in #generative-engine-optimization 4 stories · sorted by recency
── more on @quotalis 3 stories trending now
sponsored brought to you by zahid.host 4,200+ EU-deployed projects
reading about agents? ship yours in a single git push.

Run your AI side-project on zahid.host

EU-based hosting, git-push deploys, automatic HTTPS, no cold starts. Free tier with a custom domain — perfect for shipping the agent you just read about.

$git push zahid main
→ Live at https://your-agent.zahid.host ✓
Get free account → Pricing
from €0/mo · no card required
LIVE [news/i-asked-ai-about-my-…] indexed:0 read:1min 2026-10-08 · —