AI Competitive Intelligence: How to Track What's Citing Your Competitors

Send us Fan Mail📬 You like this podcast? You’ll love the newsletter.Join the weekly 3-2-1 on AI search + marketing: subscribeVlad Pivnev has been doing digital marketing for 16 years. Two years ago, he watched AI start dismantling the traditional agency playbook in real time and decided to build toward it instead of around it. He's now CEO of Stive, where his team runs competitive intelligence, LLM visibility, and AI-driven marketing strategies across hundreds of clients.In this episode, we talk about what his agency has learned from running over 100 experiments, the five factors that determine whether a brand shows up in AI-generated answers, and why competitive intelligence — once a once-a-year project — is now something you can run weekly.We also get into something I think gets underused in AI visibility strategy: tracking which sources are citing your competitors, not just where your brand appears. In this episode:Why 90% of Vlad's experiments produce nothing (and why he runs them anyway)The five-factor framework his team uses to diagnose AI visibilityWhy LLMs prefer unlinked brand mentions over links to your websiteWhat brand clarity actually means when an LLM is reading about youHow to use competitive citation data to find your next distribution moveIf you're listening to this and thinking I need someone to lead this for me, that's what I do.I'm an AI search visibility consultant and a fractional content strategist for startups and enterprise brands. If that sounds like the kind of help you're looking for, email me at [email protected]. Or request your 7-Day AI Search Visibility Audit: https://cassieclarkmarketing.com/ai-search-visibility-audit/Let’s connect:LinkedIn → Cassie Clark | AI Search Visibility ConsultantWebsite → https://cassieclarkmarketing.com