Profound raises $180M at $1.8B valuation as brands spend on AI search visibility
Profound raised $180 million at a $1.8 billion valuation, accelerating the race to help brands rank in AI-generated search results as enterprise demand grows.
AI Search
Latest News and Analysis in AI Search
AI Search
Nvidia Reportedly Negotiates Investment in Perplexity, but Terms Remain Unclear
Reports say Nvidia is discussing an investment in Perplexity, a deal that could deepen links between AI infrastructure and answer-focused startups.
Google turns its 25-year-old search box into an AI entry point, folding multimodal and conversational search into the main interface
Google is redesigning Search’s core input around AI Mode and multimodal queries, a shift that could reshape web discovery, ads, and enterprise workflows.
Vikk AI Raises $4.2 Million to Expand Legal AI and Test Lawyer Advertising in AI Search
Vikk AI has raised $4.2 million to grow its legal AI platform and build lawyer ads into AI search, highlighting a new battleground for legal lead generation.
Germany targets Google AI Overviews and Perplexity under media law, opening a new front in AI search regulation
German regulators ruled Google AI Overviews and Perplexity are content providers under media law, raising new compliance risks for AI search.
DiscoBench finds AI search agents break down on ambiguous queries because they don’t ask users to clarify
A new benchmark from Tencent Hunyuan and Tsinghua University suggests AI search agents fail on ambiguity, not search itself, limiting real-world reliability.
UK Publishers Gain Opt-Out Rights For Google AI Search Features
UK regulators say publishers can opt out of Google AI search features while keeping regular search visibility.
Backlash Against Google AI Search Boosts DuckDuckGo Attention
The Verge reports rising user backlash to Google AI Search changes, including gains for DuckDuckGo's no-AI search option.
Peec AI Doubles Annualized Revenue To 10M As AI Search Visibility Market Grows
Berlin startup Peec AI crossed $10M in annualized revenue as brands track and optimize visibility in AI search results.
Exa Funding Signals Investor Rush Into AI-Agent Search Startups
AI search startup Exa drew major attention as investors continued backing search engines built for AI agents.
Snap And Perplexity End Their 400 Million Dollar AI Search Deal
Snap said its planned $400 million integration deal with Perplexity's AI search engine ended amicably.
Google Quietly Removes AI Search Feature That Crowdsourced Amateur Medical Advice
Google has scrapped its 'What People Suggest' AI-powered search feature, which surfaced unverified, crowdsourced health advice in response to medical queries, following widespread criticism over patient safety risks.
OpenAI Upgrades Deep Research to GPT-5.2 with Website-Specific Search Capabilities
OpenAI enhances its Deep Research feature in ChatGPT by powering it with the new GPT-5.2 model, introducing targeted website search functionality, real-time progress tracking, and the ability to integrate connected apps for more comprehensive research capabilities.
DeepSeek Building AI Search Engine to Challenge Google's Dominance
DeepSeek job postings reveal plans for multimodal AI search engine supporting text, images, and audio, directly targeting Google's search market share.
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