A CMO's Guide to AISO Reporting: A Head-to-Head Platform Comparison

Introduction: AISO Reporting Demands a New CMO Playbook

For years, marketing leaders have relied on a standard set of dashboards to communicate performance. Metrics like organic traffic, keyword rankings, and conversion rates formed the bedrock of C-suite presentations. But in the age of generative AI, these traditional reports are becoming dangerously incomplete. Your brand's visibility is no longer confined to a list of blue links; it is now being actively shaped and synthesized within the answers of models like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity.

The core problem is that while Chief Marketing Officers are now responsible for brand perception in these new environments, most lack the reporting tools to measure performance, diagnose issues, and communicate progress to the board. A recent survey highlighted this disconnect, revealing that while 63% of marketers use generative AI, nearly half do not measure its ROI, creating a significant blind spot in strategic planning [1]. Traditional SEO dashboards were not built to answer questions like, "How often is our brand recommended by AI?" or "Is our key messaging being represented accurately?"

This guide provides a CMO-focused comparison of the top AI Search Optimization (AISO) platforms, evaluating them specifically on their executive-level reporting and dashboard capabilities. We will analyze how each platform visualizes performance, connects data to action, and helps you build a compelling business case for AISO investment. The goal is to equip you with a framework for choosing a partner that provides not just data, but strategic clarity.

The AISO KPIs Every CMO Must Track

Before comparing platforms, it's essential to establish what to measure. An effective AISO strategy requires a new set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that go beyond rank tracking. Based on the Searchify AISO Measurement Framework, these are the metrics every CMO must have on their dashboard to truly understand AI performance.

• AI Share of Voice (AI SoV): This metric quantifies your brand’s visibility within AI-generated answers. It measures how often your brand is mentioned for key topics and questions compared to your competitors. A high AI SoV indicates that AI models perceive your brand as an authoritative and relevant entity in your market [2].
• Citation Frequency & Quality: Visibility is one thing; attribution is another. This KPI tracks not just if you are mentioned, but if your website is explicitly cited as a source. High-quality citations from AI engines are a powerful signal of trust and authority, directly impacting how users and other systems perceive your content's credibility. You can learn more about tracking these in our guide to measuring AI citations.
• Message Resonance: This qualitative metric assesses whether AI responses accurately reflect your brand’s core messaging, value propositions, and positioning. Misrepresentation can be just as damaging as a lack of visibility. Effective AISO reporting should analyze the content and context of mentions to ensure the AI is an ally, not an adversary, in shaping your brand narrative.
• Competitive Citation Gaps: This KPI identifies topics where your competitors are being cited as authoritative sources, but your brand is absent. These gaps represent critical opportunities for content creation and optimization. A strategic AISO platform should automatically surface these gaps, providing a clear roadmap for closing them and capturing lost visibility.
• Sentiment & Favorability: Beyond accuracy, what is the tone of your brand's mentions? This metric analyzes the sentiment—positive, neutral, or negative—within AI-generated text. Tracking favorability helps you understand the overall perception of your brand and can serve as an early warning system for reputational issues.

For a deeper look at these metrics, explore our complete guide to AI visibility KPIs for CMOs.

The Scorecard: How to Grade AISO Reporting for the C-Suite

Not all dashboards are created equal. A report that is useful for a technical SEO manager may be indecipherable to a CEO. For a CMO, the ideal AISO reporting solution must be evaluated against criteria that prioritize strategic insight and executive communication [3].

• Criterion 1: C-Suite Readability: How quickly can an executive grasp the key takeaways? A strong platform provides clean, visual dashboards that summarize performance against goals without requiring a deep technical explanation. It should tell a clear story about AI market share, competitive standing, and strategic progress.
• Criterion 2: Actionability of Insights: Data is useless without a clear path to action. The platform must connect the 'what' (e.g., a drop in AI SoV) with the 'why' (e.g., a competitor was cited in a new topic cluster) and the 'what to do next' (e.g., create a new content brief on that topic). It should translate complex analytics into a prioritized task list for your team.
• Criterion 3: ROI Projection: Securing budget for AISO requires a solid business case. A top-tier platform should provide tools or frameworks to help you connect AISO performance to potential revenue impact. This involves modeling the value of traffic retained or captured from AI answers, as detailed in our guide to building a business case for AISO.
• Criterion 4: Data Realism & LLM Coverage: The insights are only as good as the data behind them. The platform must simulate realistic, nuanced user questions—not just basic keywords—across a wide range of relevant large language models (LLMs). A narrow focus on one or two models can provide a skewed and unreliable view of your true AI visibility.

Platform Comparison: Reporting Dashboards Analyzed

Using our C-suite scorecard, let's analyze how leading platforms stack up in their AISO reporting capabilities.

Searchify

As a dedicated AISO platform, Searchify was built from the ground up for this purpose. Its reporting excels in C-Suite Readability, with clean dashboards that visualize AI Share of Voice, sentiment, and competitive gaps in a way that is immediately understandable for executives. Its greatest strength lies in Actionability of Insights. The platform's Action Center directly translates every insight into a prioritized task—from content creation to technical fixes—creating a seamless workflow from analysis to execution. For ROI Projection, Searchify provides a framework to model the financial impact of AISO, helping CMOs justify investment and report on value.

BrightEdge & Conductor

These established enterprise SEO platforms have integrated Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) features into their broader suites. Their strength is the vast amount of traditional SEO data they provide. However, when viewed through the AISO reporting lens, their dashboards can feel retrofitted rather than purpose-built. The AISO metrics may be buried within complex interfaces designed for SEO practitioners, potentially failing the C-Suite Readability test. While they offer data, the connection to a prioritized, AISO-specific action plan is often less direct than in a specialized tool, impacting their score on Actionability of Insights. More information on how these platforms compare can be found in our review of top GEO platforms.

Semrush

Semrush is a powerful all-in-one marketing toolkit, and it has recently unveiled features to address AI's impact on search [4]. For many marketers, its versatility is a key advantage. However, for a CMO focused on mastering AI visibility, the AISO metrics are one component of a much larger offering. This can result in a lack of dedicated focus and depth in the reporting. The dashboards may not provide the nuanced, executive-level summary needed to communicate AISO strategy, and the recommendations may be more generalized compared to a platform solely dedicated to solving the AISO challenge.

PromptMonitor

As a competitor in the space, PromptMonitor likely focuses on the critical task of tracking brand mentions across AI platforms. This is a foundational element of AISO. However, the key question for a CMO is what happens after the mention is tracked. Does the platform place it within a strategic framework of KPIs like Message Resonance and Competitive Citation Gaps? Does it provide a clear, actionable roadmap for improvement? A platform that only monitors mentions without connecting them to a broader optimization and reporting framework may provide data points but falls short of delivering a comprehensive, C-suite-ready solution.

Key Questions a CMO Should Ask During a Vendor Demo

To cut through the sales pitches and assess a platform's true reporting value, arm yourself with these questions during your next vendor demo:

1. 'How does your platform translate raw data into a prioritized action plan for my team?' (This directly evaluates Actionability of Insights and highlights the value of features like the Searchify Action Center).
2. 'Can you show me an example of a dashboard I could present to my CEO tomorrow?' (This tests C-Suite Readability and forces the vendor to show you an executive-level view, not a technical one).
3. 'How do you help me quantify the ROI of our AISO investment?' (This assesses the platform's capabilities around ROI Projection and its ability to support your business case).
4. 'Is your platform a dedicated AISO solution, or is it an add-on to a traditional SEO suite? What are the trade-offs?' (This question highlights the specialist advantage of a dedicated platform).
5. 'Which large language models do you cover, and how do you ensure your data reflects realistic user queries?' (This probes the quality and realism of the underlying data).

Conclusion: Your Partner for Executive-Level AI Visibility

For CMOs, navigating the new terrain of AI search requires more than just data; it demands a reporting solution designed for strategic clarity, executive communication, and decisive action. While all-in-one SEO platforms offer a starting point by adding AI-related features, their retrofitted dashboards often lack the focus and readability required for the C-suite.

Leading in the AI era means choosing a partner that was purpose-built for the challenge. A dedicated AISO platform like Searchify provides the specialized reporting, strategic KPI framework, and actionable insights necessary to not only measure your AI visibility but to actively shape it. It transforms a complex, emerging channel into a manageable and measurable component of your marketing strategy.

See the executive-level clarity for yourself. Book a personalized demo to review your brand's AI Visibility Report.