Your SEO tool now sells AEO. So does a wave of new pure-plays. Does either work yet?
Two camps, one promise. The SEO suites bolted AI-visibility features onto scored products: Semrush, Ahrefs, Surfer SEO, all MIXED on deep pools. But those scores were earned on the core product, and the only read on the new AEO features is a complaint. The pure-plays were built for nothing else and are too new for anyone in public to have reported back. Will they work? We'll see. The reads decide, and so far they're nearly silent.
· the Unbought desk · zero affiliate dollars in this opinion · checked against first-hand reads, not vendor demosthe claim, quoted
“Two camps sell AEO: SEO suites with an overlay and brand-new pure-plays. Neither has a proven AEO result in the reads yet.”
TAAFT sponsor slots and Tool of the Week (Aug 22-23, 2026) · Google preferred-sources button (Aug 20, 2026) · MMA AEO debate slated Sep 9, 2026
real today
Customers ask chatbots what to buy, and the answers move money.
The SEO suites selling AEO overlays carry real scores on their core products: Semrush, Ahrefs, Surfer SEO, all MIXED on deep pools.
What gets you cited is SEO and reputation work with a new reader, mostly free.
not yet
No public proof that paying for pure play AEO tools work.
No way to check a reliable AEO visibility score outside the vendor's own dashboard.
the evidence · what real users say
“I personally don't find a lot of the "topic" opportunities Semrush's AI Visibility suggests, and find them to be very loosely related to the website topic I'm looking at”
data as of aug 17, 2026Semrush, the full ranking →“as a long-time (2+ years) kagi user i find myself using google more and more just for the ai overview/ai mode, bc its just genuinely faster”
data as of aug 17, 2026Kagi, the full ranking →the move
Check both camps free before paying either. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Mode what a customer would ask, screenshot it, fix the pages they cite, then run the AI Search & SEO prompts. If your SEO suite already includes an AEO tab, that's the trial. Pay nothing new until you can answer: how would I catch this not working?