How to Win in AI Search: Real-World Use Cases for Yext Scout

AI search is about presence

Search used to be synonymous with Google. But today, customers start their journeys everywhere from ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, to YouTube and TikTok, and countless other platforms. What used to be a clear path from query to click is now a complex, AI-driven conversation.

The challenge for marketers? AI doesn't rank like "traditional" search engines. It recalls andsummarizes, often citing only a few brands in a conversational-style answer.

These AI-generated responses depend on data trust, sentiment, and content structure. The TL;DR: Old SEO playbooks don't apply.

This shift is especially urgent for multi-location marketers, where performance depends not only on overarching brand visibility but on how each individual location shows up, converts, and competes across both AI and traditional search.

This is where Yext Scout comes in. Scout is your AI search and competitive intelligence agent built to help you identify what is needed to optimize brand presence, sentiment, and visibility across traditional andAI-driven search. It shows you:

• Where your brand is showing up (or not)
• Why local competitors are winning in key discovery moments
• What specific actions will help improve your visibility and performance — at the local level

In a world where AI selects instead of ranks, Scout is the solution that reveals what's helping or hurting your brand — and how to fix it. It's your guide through the black box of AI search.

This guide unpacks six key use cases for Scout, with each one is designed to help marketers turn insight into impact.

Let's dive in.

Scout helps you...

1. Understand how you're performing in AI search

Why it matters: Search is no longer a list of links on Google. It's evolving into AI-generated answers, conversational journeys, local recommendations, and curated experiences across endless platforms — from ChatGPT to Google's AI Mode — many of which marketers can't see or measure. And unlike traditional SEO, there's no simple formula to improve your standing.

Scout insight: Scout shows where your brand shows up in AI search — and where it doesn't. It can help you see what customers are seeing, what AI is saying, and how you compare to the competition.

Actions to take:

• Monitor your AI visibility score to see if sure your brand is showing up when people turn to AI search tools
• Track your AI rank to understand your relative AI search performance against competitors
• Review AI sentiment: see how AI platforms talk about your brand and identify the context of AI-generated answers

2. Fix what's hurting visibility

Why it matters: Broken or inconsistent digital signals — like outdated listings, missing schema, or incomplete data — drag down performance across both traditional and AI search. Scout helps you fix these fast.

Scout insight: Scout flags where missing, incorrect, or poorly optimized digital elements are suppressing visibility. These are the behind-the-scenes blockers that often go unnoticed.

Actions to take:

• Complete missing fields and clean up discrepancies across listings.
• Add schema markup and optimize content structure on local landing pages.
• Make sure every Google Business Profile links to a dedicated landing page.
• Upload updated images and clean metadata (e.g., filenames, alt text).

3. Build local trust — and increase conversions

Why it matters: Visibility is one thing; conversion is another. When it comes to AI search, trust signals like review quality, sentiment, and authenticity influence which brand is not only surfaced but chosen.

Scout insight: Scout highlights sentiment dips, thin review profiles, and inconsistent social presence — all of which can weaken trust and reduce conversions.

Actions to take:

• Boost review generation and respond to feedback quickly.
• Highlight recurring trusted themes from positive reviews in key markets.
• Add fresh photos, videos, and user-generated content (UGC) to reinforce authenticity.
• Make sure business descriptions and categories build credibility and relevance.

4. Reallocate spend based on opportunity

Why it matters: Not every location needs the same budget. Some of your locations might be overperforming, while others need reinforcement. Scout identifies where you should lean in — and where you might be able to pull back.

Scout insight: Scout surfaces under- and overperformers by comparing organic visibility against spend and sentiment. This helps marketers align budget with actual growth opportunities.

Actions to take:

• Use Scout's location heatmap to pinpoint where to scale back or invest.
• Shift budget from high-visibility, low-need areas to those with untapped potential.
• Launch focused content, ad, or review campaigns where visibility lags.
• Extend winning tactics — like social posts or schema types — at-scale.

5. Pull traffic from the competition

Why it matters: If you're not showing up when customers are searching, your competitors are winning those discovery moments. Scout reveals which brands are winning the most traffic — and what you can do to reclaim it.

Scout insight: Are your competitors dominating key queries or local markets? Scout uncovers the gaps, letting you see what they're doing, where they're winning, and how you can respond.

Additionally, Scout allows you to be strategic with your competitor keyword bidding strategy — automatically identifying your top local competitors at every single location.

Actions to take:

• Fill keyword gaps in underperforming regions with fresh, localized content.
• Encourage more keyword-rich reviews that help you surface in AI responses.
• Refresh high-traffic pages to align with what's ranking.
• Increase posting cadence and brand engagement across channels.

Ready to boost your visibility in AI search?

Customers' growing use of AI tools is changing what brands need to do in order to get found, chosen, and trusted. For marketers of multi-location brands, every listing, review, and landing page contributes to your visibility and success.

With Scout, Yext delivers the intelligence — and the platform — to lead. It gives you data transparency, explainability, and the power to take real-time action.

Scout doesn't just tell you what's broken. It shows you what's working. And it empowers you to act across every location, every day, from a single platform.

It's time to stop guessing and start showing up.

Click here to learn more about Scout (and get all your questions answered).