Welcome to Week 6 of the Zero-to-Visible in AI 90-Day Experiment.
If you’re new here, this is a live test we launched on December 11th to answer a simple question: “Can a brand that didn’t exist yesterday become visible inside AI answers in 90 days?” We’re officially at the halfway point.
At this stage, the question is no longer whether AI visibility is possible. It’s what actually limits it. This week made one thing very clear: visibility doesn’t stall because of content volume or keyword gaps, it stalls because trust is unfinished. Before we get into the work, a quick note on metrics:
A Reality Check on AI Visibility Measurement
From day one, we mapped the real questions buyers ask at each stage of their decision process. Every week, we track how often No Fluff shows up in those answers across AI systems.
If you look at the progress-over-time chart, you’ll notice data missing through week three. That gap wasn’t due to a slowdown in performance, but rather to confidence catching up. On the surface, the dashboard looked strong, but underneath, the real signal wasn’t solid yet. When we dug deeper, we found two recurring problems:
First, hallucinations. AI was occasionally confusing us with similarly named companies like “No Fluff Jobs” or “No Fluff Agency.” Early visibility inflated numbers without reflecting true brand recognition.
Second, inconsistency. Prompts run at different times and on different days produced results that couldn’t be cleanly compared week over week.
This was a great lesson in AI visibility: If you can’t validate the data yourself, you’re not getting insight; you’re making assumptions.
Once we corrected for that, the work became much clearer.
What We Focused on This Week
Instead of chasing marginal gains, we stepped back and thought through ALL that AI actually needs before it consistently recommends a brand. Now that we are halfway through, we’ve solidified 64 core actions required for AI to recognize, trust, and recommend a brand with confidence. As of today:
- ~40% are fully in place
- ~20% exist but need improvement
- ~40% still need to be built
We’ll be sharing this checklist in full in the coming weeks, but the total work breaks down into three areas:
- AI has to understand you. This is technical clarity. Schema, internal linking, entity alignment, and plain-language explanations that remove ambiguity. Most of this foundation is now in place for us.
- AI has to be able to explain you. This is detailed, public content. We concentrated our efforts where AI already retrieves answers: LinkedIn, Medium, and this week, a light but deliberate Reddit presence.
- AI has to trust you. This is the slowest layer, especially for a brand that launched weeks ago. Trust does not come from your own site. It comes from independent confirmation: like backlinks, reviews, media mentions, third-party validation.
That’s where our next 42 days are focused: Making sure we check every one of AI’s boxes across these three categories and dialing up the PR needed to prove real-world validation inside AI search engines.
Stat of the Week
Over 190 million people use ChatGPT every day, and daily active users across all major AI platforms have passed 250 million worldwide. (About Chromebooks)
AI is clearly not just a channel test anymore, but where your buyers already are.
Fresh Reads
Each newsletter, we’ll share our favorite articles and breaking news.
- What’s the Difference Between GEO, AEO, and AI SEO, According to No Fluff
- OpenAI prepares to roll out ads on ChatGPT, The Information reports (Investing.com)
- LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman says companies are approaching AI the wrong way (Business Insider)
As always, reach out anytime at katie@nofluffmktg.com if you’ve got questions or if you’re building your own visibility story too.
Frequently Asked Questions About Zero-to-Visible and No Fluff
What is the Zero-to-Visible experiment?
Zero-to-Visible is an ongoing experiment that documents how a new brand becomes discoverable, explainable, and citable by AI systems. It tracks which signals influence whether AI systems recognize and recommend a company during early buyer discovery.
What does “AI visibility” mean in Zero-to-Visible?
In Zero-to-Visible, AI visibility means whether AI systems can recognize a brand, accurately explain what it does, and include it in AI-generated answers when buyers ask category-level questions.
Who is running the Zero-to-Visible experiment?
The Zero-to-Visible experiment is run by No Fluff, a B2B growth firm focused on how AI systems recognize, explain, and recommend brands in AI-generated answers.
Why is No Fluff running this experiment publicly?
No Fluff runs Zero-to-Visible publicly to document real-world signals that influence AI visibility. The goal is to replace speculation about AI search with observable patterns and repeatable methods.
Are the results specific to one AI platform?
No. Zero-to-Visible observes patterns across multiple AI systems, including retrieval-based and generative models. While individual outputs vary, consistent signals tend to produce similar visibility outcomes across platforms.
Can other B2B brands replicate these results?
Yes. When the same structural signals—clear brand definitions, consistent category positioning, structured content, and third-party validation—are applied consistently, similar AI visibility patterns can be reproduced.
Does Zero-to-Visible replace SEO?
No. Zero-to-Visible shows how AI visibility builds on SEO foundations. SEO enables access to content, while Zero-to-Visible focuses on whether AI systems trust, explain, and recommend a brand once that access exists.
