AI search is personalized. Your visibility tracking should be too.
- Gumshoe's proprietary persona-based methodology pulls together what AI thinks, revealing who AI says your ideal customers are
- Our platform turns ideal customer personas into synthetic users who have real chats with the LLMs
- Leverage Gumshoe's synthetic personas beyond AI visibility to sharpen messaging, create content, and conduct other strategic marketing efforts
AI search is persona-based. Your visibility score isn't one number.
24.8%
Average brand visibility
±26.8
Std deviation across 1,145 brands
The standard deviation is larger than the mean. Brands are either well-covered or nearly absent in AI answers, with little middle ground. A single blended score hides which side you're on.
σ = 24.1 pts vs. 6.3 median across all brands
Same brand. Eight personas. A 74-point spread. AI doesn't see one Lululemon customer, it sees many.
How it works
We ask the AI models who your buyers are
Gumshoe interviews AI about your category to uncover who they see as your ideal customers, and those personas become the synthetic users we use to generate your AI visibility audits
Gumshoe Interviews AI
Gumshoe queries LLMs about your company, brand, and category to uncover who they see as your ideal customers.
ChatGPT 
Claude 
Gemini and more.
AI Surfaces Your Ideal Customer Personas
The LLMs return profiles of who they see as your ideal customers. These become synthetic users within Gumshoe.
Performance-Focused Enthusiast
Trains hard, wants durable gear
Value-Conscious Newcomer
New to fitness, budget-minded
Adventure-Driven Explorer
Trail runner, sustainability-first
Synthetic Users within Gumshoe Have Real Chats with AI
Gumshoe turns those personas into synthetic users and sends them to chat with LLMs, generating your AI visibility audits.
ChatGPT answered Everlux fabric with a squat-proof, no-bag waistband.
High-compression hold, no-slip bonded waistband.
Squat-proof and holds its shape wash after wash.
Claude answered Durable, squat-proof fabric at a beginner price.
Costs more, but lasts for years of training.
Frequent sales on premium-quality staples.
Gemini answered Recycled materials and trail-ready durability.
Responsible fabrics with strong outdoor coverage.
Solid performance, growing sustainability line.
Gumshoe doesn't scrape. Each synthetic buyer asks a real question, a model answers, and you see the brand it recommends back, persona by persona.
Competitive Advantage
Why Personas are Fundamental in AI Search
AI visibility measured one generic prompt at a time is incomplete and hides the answers that matter
With personas
The Gumshoe way
Without personas
Every other tool
AI tells you who your buyers are
We ask the models directly about your personas, providing an additional layer of insight.
Personas are an afterthought
Competitors reverse-engineer personas from the responses their general prompts return, so personas come after the fact.
Know exactly who to fix
Mid-tier brand results vary widely across personas, making persona awareness vital.
Know only that the score moved, not why
"Invisible to everyone" and "wins with some, loses with others" look identical.
Every prompt is a buyer, not a search string
Personas frame visibility by audience type, the way a CMO, VP, and marketing team already thinks about customers.
An SEO tool for SEO people
Keyword and rank dashboards were built for SEO specialists. Marketers and VPs bounce off the numbers-heavy view.
Measure what real buyers actually see
API plus persona simulation replicates logged-in behavior: memory, custom instructions, context.
Measure the anonymous stranger
Scraping only sees the logged-out view. Most of ChatGPT's 800M+ weekly users are logged in.
3 dimensions
models × prompts × personas
2 dimensions
models × prompts only
Manage your personas inside Gumshoe
Review and refine the synthetic users Gumshoe builds, then see how visible your brand is to each one.
Manage Personas
Review and edit the personas that AI thinks are your real buyers and add new ones that are missing
Persona Analysis
Overall brand visibility plus a per-persona breakdown, so you see which buyers already find you.
Single Persona Details
A deep dive on one persona: visibility, bio, top sources, and how visible you are on each of their topics.
Topic heatmap
A persona-by-topic heatmap showing where you are visible and where competitors get recommended instead.
What Personas Matter in AI Search and Visibility
AI search engines personalize brand recommendations based on who is asking. Nick Clark, Research Engineer & PhD Student at Gumshoe, explains how persona-based visibility monitoring works in the video below.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a synthetic user?
Where do the personas come from?
How is this different from the Persona Center?
Which audits use this approach?
See AI through your buyers' eyes
Your first persona-driven Visibility Audit is free.
Free to start · No credit card required