As artificial intelligence transforms how people search for information online, Scrunch AI is positioning itself as a crucial tool for businesses looking to understand and optimize their presence in AI-powered search results. The startup’s platform helps companies adapt to a fundamental shift: more consumers are now getting information from AI chatbots rather than visiting websites directly.
When AI Becomes the Primary Information Gateway
Scrunch AI’s platform helps businesses audit and optimize how they appear across various AI search platforms, giving them visibility into how AI web crawlers interact with their online information. The system updates every three days and provides insights into how company information appears in AI search results from different user demographics.
“I realized I was visiting fewer websites,” explained Chris Andrew, Scrunch AI co-founder and CEO. “I was expecting an answer from ChatGPT instead of 20 links from Google. And so I thought the first thing that’s being outsourced at scale to AI agents and crawlers is browsing. Browsing is inefficient by the very definition of the word, and if that’s true, the entire customer journey is going to change.”
Finding and Fixing Information Gaps
One of the platform’s key functions is helping companies identify and correct inaccuracies in how AI systems present their information. For instance, Scrunch AI might help a company discover that an AI search engine is pulling outdated pricing information from a legacy section of their website, allowing them to update or remove that content to improve accuracy in search results.
This capability addresses a growing problem for businesses: they no longer fully control how their brand and information are presented to potential customers. As Andrew notes, “Your program is no longer what you say it is. It’s what you say it is, plus third parties, plus competitive sites. You’re going to want to have monitoring and visibility against that, at scale.”
The California-based startup, founded by Andrew and CTO Robert MacCloy, has already attracted 25 customers since launching their product in November 2024. These include major enterprises like Lenovo and BairesDev, as well as Penn State University.
Beyond Traditional SEO for a New Search Era
Unlike traditional search engine optimization tools that focus on ranking in Google search results, Scrunch AI specifically addresses how AI systems interpret and present company information. This represents a significant shift in digital strategy, as AI search engines don’t simply rank links but synthesize information from multiple sources into direct answers.
What distinguishes Scrunch AI’s approach is their focus on the entire customer journey rather than just initial search results. The company also emphasizes optimization for autonomous AI agent searches, not just human-initiated queries through AI interfaces.
“I think people were like, ‘How do we use AI to make our website better?’ And my mindset was like, ‘Your website’s going to need to be for an agent or crawler in the future,'” Andrew explained. “That theory has kind of really played out with our customer base at the enterprise level saying our brand is no longer what we say it is. It’s what ChatGPT, Gemini, Siri, Google AI Overviews say it is.”
For businesses navigating this evolving landscape, tools like Scrunch AI signal that optimization for AI search engines is rapidly becoming as critical as traditional SEO has been for decades—perhaps even more so as consumer search habits continue to evolve toward AI-mediated information gathering.
