How is prompt discovery different from keyword research?

Keyword research identifies short search terms people type into Google (for example, "CRM software"). Prompt discovery identifies the full natural-language questions people ask AI engines (for example, "what CRM should a remote B2B team with 15 people use to manage inbound leads and integrate with HubSpot?"). AI prompts carry more context, intent, and specificity than keywords, revealing what buyers want to know rather than just the topic they are exploring. Optimising for prompts calls for different content strategies than optimising for keywords.

Can I see the exact prompts users ask about my brand?

No. AI engines do not share individual prompt logs, so you cannot see the exact prompts users type. You can approximate the prompt landscape from other sources: sales and support conversations, community threads, search query data, and the follow-up questions AI engines suggest. The resulting query bank is an informed model of the prompts that affect your AI visibility, not a record of real usage.

How often does the prompt landscape change?

The prompt landscape evolves as AI engine usage matures and user behaviour shifts. New product categories, industry events, seasonal trends, and competitor launches all introduce new prompt patterns. Review your query bank on a regular schedule, such as quarterly, and add new prompts from fresh sales and support conversations.

Free tool, not actively developed; no accounts. AEO Platform no longer sells subscriptions.

Use case

Prompt Discovery

Find the queries users are asking AI engines about your brand and category.

Quick answer

Keyword research tells you what people search on Google, but it cannot tell you what people ask AI engines. AI prompts are longer, more specific, and carry richer intent signals. Without prompt discovery, brands optimise for the wrong queries and miss the conversational prompts that drive AI engine recommendations.

Expected outcomes

What you can achieve

Query bank

of buyer prompts grouped by intent and stage

Real language

taken from sales, support, and communities

Priority list

of prompts where competitors appear and you do not

Refresh

on a regular schedule as the landscape shifts

How it works

How to approach prompt discovery

Seed your prompt list

Write down your brand, product category, and key competitors. Turn your top search keywords into full buyer questions.

Expand from real language

Add prompts from sales calls, support tickets, community threads, and review sites. Ask AI engines for related and follow-up questions and note the phrasing.

Organise your query bank

Group prompts by intent, buyer stage, and topic cluster. Tag the high-priority prompts that represent the best visibility opportunities.

Check prompt-level visibility

Run each priority prompt in the major engines and note which brands are recommended and how. Identify prompts where you should appear but do not.

Create content for target prompts

Create or adapt content that directly answers your highest-priority prompts, and check that AI crawlers can reach it.

The solution

How to approach it

AI engines do not publish prompt logs, so prompt discovery is a research method rather than a data feed. Combine several sources to build a query bank of prompts that matter for your business.

Start from what you already know. Turn your top keywords from Search Console into full questions. Use sales call notes, support tickets, and chat transcripts, where buyers state their needs in natural language. Read community threads and review sites for the phrasing people use. Ask AI engines themselves for follow-up questions and related questions on your topic, and note the phrasing they suggest.

Organise the list by intent (comparison, recommendation, evaluation, troubleshooting), by buyer stage (awareness, consideration, decision), and by topic cluster. Mark the prompts with the highest business value.

Then run the list by hand in the major engines and note which brands are recommended and how. The prompts where competitors appear and you do not are your priority content targets. Review and refresh the list on a regular schedule, because the prompt landscape shifts. The free AEO Platform AI-readiness check is not a prompt research tool. Use it only for the technical step: confirming that AI crawlers can reach the content you create for these prompts.

Example queries

Queries to monitor

“What questions do people ask AI about [category]?”

“How to find AI search queries for my brand”

“What are people asking ChatGPT about [category]?”

“AI prompt research for marketing”

“How to do keyword research for AI engines”

FAQ