Bazaarvoice and Profound have partnered to help brands improve their visibility in AI search. The agreement combines AI search measurement with consumer content such as ratings, reviews, photos and videos.
The aim is to help brands identify where they are underperforming in AI-generated recommendations and improve the content AI systems can access and cite. Profound tracks brand appearances in tools including ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, while Bazaarvoice helps brands collect and distribute user-generated content.
The deal comes as retailers and consumer brands face a shift in how shoppers discover products through generative AI services. Both companies argue that appearing in AI recommendations is becoming more important, but that visibility alone is not enough to turn interest into purchases.
Research released with the announcement points to a gap between discovery and trust. Bazaarvoice found that 77% of surveyed consumers would consider a private-label product recommended by AI alongside national brands. But among those hesitant to choose an unfamiliar option, 34% cited a lack of customer reviews.
The findings also suggest shoppers want variety in AI-generated recommendations. Bazaarvoice said 44% of consumers expect AI tools to show a mix of established brands, challenger brands and private-label products, while 66% actively research or compare store-brand alternatives when shopping with AI.
Profound's analysis suggests the distribution of attention in AI recommendations still varies widely by category. Across athletic apparel, beauty and personal care, consumer electronics, food and beverage, and furniture and home, category leaders accounted for an average share of voice of about 57% in AI product recommendations. The figure ranged from 83% in more technical categories to 30% in home goods. Challenger brands captured between 14% and 49% share of voice in most categories.
How it works
Under the tie-up, joint clients can use Profound's analytics tools to monitor AI prompts, see where competitors are winning citations and assess how AI crawlers access site content. One such tool, Bot View, is designed to show how crawlers inspect and fetch data from websites.
When those systems identify content gaps, Bazaarvoice handles the operational side. Brands can use targeted sampling campaigns, its Content Coach product or its Authentic Discovery API to make ratings, reviews and visual content accessible to AI engines.
The focus on crawlable content reflects a broader debate over what information AI systems use when generating product suggestions. For brands, product pages alone may no longer be enough if reviews, question-and-answer sections and customer images are not structured so AI models can find and process them.
Profound said its research compared about 600,000 highly ranked product recommendations with about 850,000 lower-ranked recommendations in ChatGPT shopping results. It examined differences in attributes including review counts and the presence of product questions and answers.
Bazaarvoice's consumer survey, which covered more than 1,700 adults across the US, APAC and EMEA who actively use AI, also found that 56% trust AI recommendations for private-label and national brands equally. Among respondents, a high star rating and a clear explanation from AI of why a product fits a shopper's needs were each cited by 22% as the top factor in moving from consideration to purchase.
The findings suggest established brands retain an advantage in visibility, particularly in categories where shoppers may favour familiar names. At the same time, challenger and retailer-owned brands appear to have room to gain if they can pair AI exposure with enough customer feedback to reassure buyers.
"AI is rewriting how people discover what to buy, so marketers need to rethink what earns attention," said Trevor Pyle, Head of Marketing at Profound. "Bazaarvoice has spent two decades building the infrastructure behind authentic consumer content. Together, we can show brands where they're missing and give them the tools to do something about it."
Bazaarvoice works with more than 13,000 brands and retailers, focusing on collecting, verifying and distributing ratings, reviews and other shopper content across retail and media networks. Profound said it is used by 16% of the Fortune 500 and analyses more than 2 billion user prompts.
"Winning in the AI era isn't about choosing between traditional brand equity and AI optimization - it's about using verified customer feedback to power both," said Brenda Tuohig, SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Bazaarvoice. "An established reputation gets your brand into the conversation, but crawlable UGC provides the authentic social proof AI engines need to cite you and consumers need to trust the recommendation. Our partnership with Profound bridges the gap between deep prompt analytics and real-world content execution, giving brands and retailers the infrastructure needed to turn AI discovery into revenue."