Ascend AI — AI Search Optimisation
Your customers are increasingly turning to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini before they ever reach Google. They're asking questions and acting on the answers — but most brands have no idea whether they're appearing in those answers, how they compare to competitors, or why AI engines recommend some brands over others.
Ascend AI is Ascendancy Media's proprietary AI search audit and optimisation service. We use live data from across the major AI engines to map exactly where your brand stands, who is outranking you and why — then build a content roadmap to close the gap.
What We Provide
Ascend AI combines AI visibility monitoring, competitive source analysis and a two-track content roadmap into a single audit. We go beyond standard ranking tools by analysing the raw source data AI engines actually use — identifying not just whether your brand appears, but why competitors are being cited in your place and precisely what content and technical changes will move you up.
The Challenge
AI search optimisation is fundamentally different from Google SEO. AI engines don't just rank pages — they retrieve sources, read content and make recommendations based on what they find. A brand can have excellent content and still be invisible in AI search simply because that content lacks the technical structure AI engines need to interpret it. Our audit diagnoses both problems and delivers a clear, prioritised roadmap to fix them.
Frequently Asked Question
AI search optimisation (AIO) is the practice of improving how your brand appears in responses generated by AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Unlike traditional SEO which focuses on Google rankings, AIO focuses on whether AI engines mention your brand, cite your website as a source and recommend you over competitors when users ask relevant questions.
The Ascend AI Audit is a comprehensive analysis of your brand's current AI search visibility. We track your brand across hundreds of relevant prompts, analyse every source AI engines are retrieving to answer those questions, benchmark you against competitors and identify exactly why certain brands are outranking you. The output is a prioritised content and technical roadmap to improve your visibility.
Traditional SEO optimises for Google's ranking algorithm. AI search works differently — engines retrieve web pages as sources, read the content and generate recommendations based on what they find. A page can rank well on Google but still be invisible in AI search, and vice versa. Ascend AI specifically analyses AI engine behaviour, not Google rankings.
We currently monitor ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini — the three most widely used AI search engines in the UK market. For enterprise clients we can extend monitoring to additional engines and international markets.
You receive a full report covering your AI visibility score, prompt-by-prompt analysis, competitor benchmarking, citation and source analysis, and a two-track content roadmap covering both content gaps and technical schema markup recommendations. Enterprise clients also receive a developer briefing pack and ongoing monthly monitoring.
Schema markup is structured code added to web pages that helps AI engines and search crawlers understand what the content means — not just what it says. Our analysis consistently shows that brands dominating AI search have extensive schema markup on their pages, while brands that are invisible often have strong content but zero structured markup. Adding schema is frequently the single highest-impact technical change a brand can make.
A standard Ascend AI Audit takes two to three weeks from briefing to delivery. This includes setting up prompt monitoring, running the competitive source analysis, schema testing and producing the roadmap. Enterprise audits covering multiple markets and brand portfolios are scoped individually.
Audits start from £2,500 for SMEs and scale based on the number of prompts tracked, competitor set size and number of markets. Monthly monitoring retainers are available from £500 per month. Enterprise pricing is available on request.
We track citation rates, visibility scores, brand mention frequency and average position across all monitored prompts over time. As new content and schema changes go live, Ascend AI monitors the impact and updates the roadmap accordingly. Most clients see measurable improvement in visibility within 60 to 90 days of implementing roadmap recommendations.
If your customers are using AI engines to research products, services or suppliers — and increasingly they are across every sector — then AI search visibility is relevant to your business. We have experience across contract interiors, professional services, healthcare, hospitality and retail, and can scope an audit for any B2B or B2C brand.
