Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 16.04.2026 
We’re proud to share that OtterlyAI has been named a finalist in the Best AI Search Software Solution category at the 2026 European Search Awards. For our fully remote team, this recognition is a meaningful milestone. It validates the work we’ve been putting into a category that didn’t exist two years ago: AI search monitoring.
The European Search Awards have long been the benchmark for excellence in search marketing across the continent. Being nominated alongside strong contenders in a category focused on AI search tells us two things: the industry recognizes that AI search is a serious discipline, and OtterlyAI is part of that conversation.
What OtterlyAI does
OtterlyAI is an AI Search Monitoring and Optimization Platform. We help marketing teams, SEO professionals, and agencies track how their brands appear in AI-powered search experiences, including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.
Think about how search is changing. When someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini a question about your industry, does your brand show up in the answer? Which websites get cited as sources? What are your competitors doing differently? These are the questions OtterlyAI answers.
The platform runs tracked search prompts across supported AI search engines, then analyzes those responses for brand mentions, competitor mentions, and citation links. Results are organized into Brand Reports with KPIs like Share of Voice, Brand Coverage, and the Brand Visibility Index. Teams also use our GEO Audit to evaluate whether their websites are technically ready for AI crawlers and structured for AI citation.
OtterlyAI was co-foundedby Klaus-M. Schremser, Josef Trauner, and me. We started building after interviewing 50+ marketing leaders who told us the same thing: they had no reliable way to measure how their brands performed in AI search. Today, more than 20,000 marketing professionals use OtterlyAI (as of early 2026). We’ve been recognized as a Cool Vendor in the 2025 Gartner Cool Vendors in AI in Marketing report, rated 5.0/5 on OMR Reviews and Product Hunt.
What this nomination means to us
Entering the European Search Awards was a deliberate decision. We wanted to put our work in front of an independent panel of search experts and see how it holds up. The nomination confirms that AI search monitoring is being taken seriously as a discipline, not treated as a nice-to-have add-on.
“Being named a finalist at the European Search Awards? Otterly awesome. Two years ago, nobody was measuring AI search visibility. Today, we’re on a shortlist of the best search software in Europe. Not a bad glow-up for our team. .”
– Thomas Peham, CEO & Co-Founder, OtterlyAI
Introducing Recommendations: from data to action
Alongside the nomination, we’re excited to share that we recently launched what we consider our most significant feature yet: Recommendations.
The problem it solves is simple. OtterlyAI already shows teams where their brand stands in AI search, which competitors are cited, and which sources are influencing AI answers. But the most common question we heard from customers was: “I see the data. Now what do I do about it?”
Recommendations bridges that gap. It analyzes Brand Report data, including cited websites, competitor visibility, and mentioned brands, then generates specific, actionable suggestions. These aren’t vague tips. Each recommendation comes with clear reasoning, shows the underlying data, and explains why it matters.
Teams can filter recommendations by country, AI search engine, type (content, crawlability, off-page signals), and impact level. The built-in workflow moves items from Suggestions to a shared To-Do list, through to an Archive of completed actions. Over time, the Archive becomes a record of everything a team has done to improve AI search visibility, useful for reporting and proving ROI.
Early customers have responded well. Nikos Taskos, Head of SEO at DOPE Studios, shared: “A game-changer for AI Search visibility. It tells you exactly what to do next, no guesswork.”
Recommendations is available on all OtterlyAI plans, from Lite to Enterprise. It moves OtterlyAI from a monitoring platform to an optimization engine.
Looking ahead
AI search is growing fast, and the tools teams use to measure and act on their visibility need to keep pace. Our focus is clear: help brands understand where they stand in AI search, and give them a concrete path to improve. The European Search Awards nomination and the launch of Recommendations both reflect that mission.
We’re looking forward to the ceremony in Porto and to connecting with others who are shaping the future of search.
About OtterlyAI
OtterlyAI is an AI Search Monitoring and Optimization Platform used by 20,000+ marketing professionals (as of early 2026). Named a Cool Vendor in the 2025 Gartner Cool Vendors in AI in Marketing report. Based in Vienna, Austria.
Website: https://otterly.ai
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/otterlyai
X/Twitter: https://x.com/otterlyAI
Blog: https://otterly.ai/blog
Help Center: https://help.otterly.ai
Author
Thomas Peham, CEO & Co-Founder of OtterlyAI
Thomas Peham is the CEO and Co-Founder of OtterlyAI, the AI Search Monitoring and Optimization Platform. With a background in SaaS marketing and growth, Thomas co-founded OtterlyAI in 2024 to give marketing teams the data they need to stay visible in AI-powered search. He’s based in Vienna, Austria.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaspeham
